SEKISUI S-Lec: ISO 9001 Certification Achieved with Zero Non-Conformances

SEKISUI S-Lec’s Geleen branch became responsible for its own ISO 9001 certification, but lacked the capacity, knowledge, and internal awareness to manage this independently.

Symbol guided the process: from GAP analysis to management training and dashboard development. Result: TÜV audit passed with zero non-conformances and only one area for improvement.

Challenge

Achieving ISO 9001 without in-house capacity and knowledge

Approach

GAP analysis, awareness, and departmental dashboards

Result

TÜV audit passed with zero non-conformances

About SEKISUI | S-Lec

SEKISUI S-Lec B.V. is a global company specialising in glass film technology for the automotive and construction industries. The S-LEC PVB film is used in laminated glass for buildings and vehicles and, after sixty years of continuous product development, is known as the leading brand in the automotive glass industry. The company has two Dutch branches: film production in Roermond and resin production in Geleen.

The Challenge

ISO 9001 certification was previously managed centrally from the Roermond branch. When Geleen became responsible, this task fell to Technology Manager Ruud Verheijen. He lacked both the capacity and knowledge for it. At the same time, internal awareness regarding ISO was low: employees did not know what the standard required of them, and document management in ManualMaster was incompletely maintained because people were insufficiently familiar with the system.
The problem existed on three fronts simultaneously: no ISO knowledge available in Geleen, a document management system that remained underutilised due to a lack of system knowledge, and a culture where ISO was seen as the responsibility of one person rather than a shared responsibility.

Our approach

Junior consultant Youp Lotgerink took on the role of moderator, not executor. The approach focused on increasing knowledge, capacity, and awareness throughout the organisation.

What was specifically done:

GAP analysis performed as a baseline measurement: recorded per department
ISO 9001 training provided to all managers by Symbol
ManualMaster training organised for document owners
Department-specific communication established
Dashboard built with all ISO 9001 parameters

“Too little capacity, knowledge, and awareness. Thanks to Symbol, we were able to improve these three things in a short time.”

Results

Measure	Before	After	Improvement
ISO 9001 certification	Not present	TÜV audit passed	Achieved
Non-conformances during audit	Unknown	Zero	0 non-conformances
ManualMaster document management	Underutilised, insufficient knowledge	Correctly and fully populated	Secured
ISO awareness organisation	Low, task of one person	Widely supported per department	Structural

Zero non-conformances in the TÜV audit
ISO 9001 at SEKISUI S-Lec is no longer a one-off project but an ongoing process, secured via a dashboard that the organisation maintains independently.

Lessons learned

Achieving ISO 9001 is almost always possible if you implement the standard correctly from a technical perspective. But securing it only works if the entire organisation understands why it is important. SEKISUI S-Lec shows that awareness is just as important as documentation. Youp’s approach as a moderator, not an executor, ensured that employees took responsibility themselves.
The second insight: a certificate is the beginning, not the end. The dashboard Youp built ensures that SEKISUI S-Lec will not face the same challenge next year. ISO is thus something the organisation continuously works on.

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Do you recognise this in your organisation?

A certification query where internal knowledge or capacity is lacking. An upcoming audit and an organisation that is not yet ready.

Symbol guides the process from baseline measurement to a successful audit. Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.

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