ISO9001:2000 and PPAP Approvals for SNEMB In July, 2008, SNEMB was approved by National Quality Assurance Limited (NQA) for ISO9001:2000, the same approval attained by NEMB. Additionally, SNEMB has met all the requirements for Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), a standardization used in the automotive supply chain to ensure quality and consistency when manufacturing parts for automotive use.

SNEMB: A U.S. Plant on Chinese Soil

Although NEMB’s headquarters is located in the U.S., our customers are located around the globe. To meet the increasing demand from global customers, many of which have manufacturing facilities in the Far East, NEMB opened a wholly-owned subsidiary in Shanghai, China.

Appropriately named SNEMB, the Shanghai facility is a 24/7/365 operation. 80 employees and 22,000 square feet of manufacturing space allow both NEMB and SNEMB to meet JIT inventory requirements, no matter where a customer’s facility is located – in the United States, Europe, Asia or beyond. SNEMB is able to provide better pricing for customers in Asia, allowing them to be more competitive in the global marketplace. Plus, all manufacturing at the Shanghai facility is done to U.S. standards. This means that U.S. customers have the option of using foreign wire with most of the manufacturing at the SNEMB plant and the finishing at NEMB. Such an arrangement, when appropriate, offers customers attractive pricing options.

The two facilities are able to offer many of the same product, but their capabilities are also complementary. SNEMB is able to manufacture balls as small as .057” dia. and their open pocket process is geared to do high-volume product manufacturing while maintaining a grade 10 product by AFBMA standards. By design, SNEMB’s equipment is able to manufacture sizes up to .250”, larger than those of the U.S. facility. Furthermore, the single-level layout of the SNEMB facility allows for a smooth workflow and efficient product management, and the processes, abrasives and solutions adhere to US environmental standards.

The U.S. and Chinese staff and production schedules are well coordinated – SNEMB has a full management team that frequently reports to their U.S. counterparts. The day-to-day operations are overseen by U.S. managers and NEMB’s president spends four months a year in Shanghai. All policies at this facility meet China labor laws, plus additional benefits that NEMB feels they should offer its employees (based on many standard U.S.
labor practices).

High-tech communications allow the two staffs to remain in constant contact and for the U.S. to monitor production and workplace activity. Shanghai’s U.S. counterparts are well informed on the day-to-day operations at the SNEMB facility. Weekly staff meetings via phone and internet conferencing ensure that the two staffs are well coordinated and that everything is going as expected.