Hickory Springs’ acquisition of Triad Fabco has resulted in increased research and development of rebond, polyurethane foam used in school bus seats to enhance student comfort as well as safety. The foam consists of recycled material, which also helps the environment.
school bus industry.” Triad Operations Manager David
Murphy said the companies also shared the philosophy of making the welfare of employees a top priority. “They wanted to make sure their
employees were taken care of because their employees had taken care of them for so many years,” Murphy said. “It was a seamless transition.” Murphy’s words could describe Tri-
ad’s product advantage. Unlike other bus seat-back cushions that consist of many parts held together by 12 or more glued seams, Triad’s seat back has one molded rear panel with only two glued seams reinforced by a heavy nonwoven fabric. It is a product design that Triad said can withstand the extreme use by students and temperature changes that school bus seats weather daily. Among Triad’s corporate character-
istics that Hickory Springs admired was a seemingly unquenchable thirst for re- search and development — a constant drive to improve the product. It was a quality the Hickory Springs manage- ment was quick to recognize. “That is one of the things that re-
ally attracted us to Triad Fabco. They really focused on continual research and development projects and the im- provement of the products that they made," Simpson said. "And since that time we’re able to bring additional re- sources to Triad and its staff. We have our own foam technical center and our own innovation center. We have other resources (Triad) can take advantage of to continually work on the next genera- tion of products.” Murphy agreed, and said the infu-
sion of resources from Hickory Springs will enable Triad to go where it has not gone before. “The amount of research and devel-
opment Hickory Springs has brought to the table for us looks like it will really expand our market reach into areas we could not get to before,” Murphy said. “We provide both OEM and aftermar- ket products.”
perpetual
THE ROI OF R&D The meshing of Triad’s penchant for research and development
with Hickory Spring’s resources made for
the perfect symbiotic relationship
“The amount of research and development Hickory Springs has brought to the table for us looks like it will really expand our
market reach into areas we could not get to before.” — David Murphy, Triad Fabco
www.stnonline.com 41
ISO Means Excellence
A
major outcome of Triad Fabco becom- ing a member of the
Hickory Springs family of companies was its implemen- tation in 2009 of the quality program developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO is an international body that develops standards for manu- facturing and business. In manufacturing, Triad Fabco's ISO 9001:2008 designation indicates that a company’s ser- vices and products maintain a good standard of quality. Hickory Springs’ first ex- perience with ISO-9000 was in December of 2000 at its Conover, N.C., foam-pouring operation. Since then, the quality management program has been implemented at a number of Hickory Springs’ subsidiaries around the U.S. and in China. The ISO program consists of eight quality management principles. Equal atten- tion and documentation of process must be given to customer needs, leadership, involvement of individuals, process approach, system- atic management, continual improvement, factual ap- proach to decision-making and the inclusion of suppliers as partners. Specifically, ISO 9001:2008 companies must demonstrate the ability to consistently provide product that meets customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements — in Triad Fabco's case — meeting FMVSS 222 and FMVSS 302.
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