Background

In the early 8Os, AC was in financial trouble. Consequently, company leadership set out to increase productivity and reduce costs. They focused initially on the Payment Department and its excessive number of employees more than 500 at the time. The first move was the installation of a computer system in the Payment Department. This change permitted a one-fifth reduction in employees: from 500 to 400. Benchmarking against a similar Japanese competitor, however, was startling to the leadership. That company had only five employees in their Payment Department only one percent of the staff it took AC to accomplish the same work.

Introduction

The high degree of competitiveness in national and international markets is driving more and more companies towards ISO 9000 and GxP certification. The comply with these standards, calibrated test equipment coupled with documented records are not only required, but from the foundation for traceable, reproducible measurements. This paper will xplain how Promega Corporation, a biotechnology company, developed a Metrology department, instead of the calibration laboratory, while exceding all requirement as outlined in the applicable standards. It will also describe scheduling practices, traceability requirements, documentation controls and procedures, and some important lessons learned in the developing a world class metrology program.