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ISU Seed Lab: Certified in quality assurance Efficiency, meeting customer needs and developing a worldwide reputation are all results of the Iowa State University Seed Lab becoming the first Association of Official Seed Analysts lab in the nation to achieve ISO 9000 certification. “ISO 9000 is an international standard for quality assurance that has been recognized by 170 countries world-wide,” said Verl Anders, from ISU Extension’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS). “We are a service lab,” said Dan Curry, seed lab manager at the ISU Seed Science Center. “ISO 9000 helps us stay focused on customer service.” The certification assures seed companies and Iowa farmers that the lab maintains a high standard of performance when testing their seed. “Seed has a lot of value that isn't identifiable just by looking at it. Our customers demand accurate results because it will affect the market value of the seed. We have to be correct in our analysis so they can market their seed accurately. ISO will keep us on track with that,” Curry said. One of the major customers with international business requested that the seed lab become certified. “Most companies who are doing business internationally adopt ISO 9000 because the global community recognizes this as a standard they want their suppliers to adopt,” Anders said. “This is especially important in the European markets.” Thurston Inc., a Minnesota-based firm that buys, sells and trades hybrid seed corn in the United States and internationally, uses the lab’s services for certified, objective analysis. Company president Dennis Bradley said, “By adopting the ISO program, it tells me that ISU is living up to consistent protocol for how they do their business. That’s a must in this industry. The ISU Seed Lab is used as a ‘referee’ laboratory. If a buyer has results from its internal lab and the seller has different results, we need a third party. That’s where the ISU Seed Lab comes into play. Their results are final.” Anders conducted 16 months of training to prepare the lab for an outside audit to complete the certification. “The training took the seed lab staff through an in-depth analysis of the processes they use in doing their seed testing,” Anders said. Each task was examined to determine ways to best serve the clientele, providing high quality performance. “Anders also trained us how to do internal audits. We try to fix any problems in a way that we get to the root cause to prevent it from happening in the future,” Curry said. CIRAS has been conducting ISO 9000 training with manufacturers throughout Iowa since 1992. Anders said, “The seed lab is the only department-centered group on campus that is certified and the only public body in the state of Iowa to have this certification.” |
The Extension Connection is a quarterly publication of Iowa State University Extension. Laura Sternweis, editor, lsternwe@iastate.edu Nondiscrimination statement and information disclosures Last update: July 2004
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ISO
9000 certification assures seed companies and Iowa farmers that the
Iowa State University Seed Lab maintains a high standard of performance
when testing seed.