Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK)’s quality management system has been successfully certified for compliance with the STO Gazprom 9001:2006 standards recently.

This was the second stage of the certification procedure; MMK underwent the preliminary audit procedure at the end of 2009; its quality management system was then tested for compliance with Gazprom’s standards through document checks and interviews with the employees. Now the STO Gazprom 9001:2006 committee kept inspecting MMK’s production shops and departments throughout last week.

According to MMK PR Department, the audit procedure involved the oxygen converter and electric furnace melting shops (the internal suppliers) and sheet-rolling shops 4 and 10 (the end suppliers of hot-rolled strip material for Gazprom’s partner pipe plants). Also, the committee looked at all the departments and services that come in contact with these shops (from the purchases division to technicians to sales).

Head of STO Gazprom 9001 Group and Chief Auditor Igor Struchkov says the committee was able to complete all the procedures on time; it looked into all the necessary papers and made sure MMK’s production departments met the standard’s requirements.

‘We can’t help noticing the great amount of work done by MMK over a rather short period of time. In fact, this is the best quality management system we have seen among all the tested enterprises so far, and we’ve tested quite a few under our Gazrpom development and Gazprom furnishing programs,’ he noted.

Struchkov reported no cases of non-compliance had been detected in the course of the audit, so the committee could confirm that MMK’s quality management system met Gazprom’s standards. In two or three weeks’ time, the committee is to come up with an audit report, so MMK is to receive the certificate within a month. After this, the enterprise intends to have its Mill 5000 and CC machine 6 certified as well.

MMK Managing Director Yuri Bodyaev explains the company needs to have its quality management system certified by Gazprom’s committee in order to make its produce more appealing to Russia’s two major natural monopolies, Gazprom and Transneft.

Now President of MMK Management Company Viktor Rashnikov introduced a multi-faceted program for the year 2010 that is targeted at meeting Gazprom’s corporate standards. The program is meant to improve the enterprise’s current quality management system and to raise the sales of metal goods to companies that work on Gazprom’s orders. These are mainly MMK’s key customers such as Russia’s leading pipe manufacturers ChTPZ Group, OMK, and Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK).