STEVEN HICKS-CEO of APEX CONSULTING QMS/ISO SOLUTIONS

I started out in manufacturing over 20 years ago working in shipping/receiving and stock room. Moved into CNC milling and turning while attending college at night for Mechanical Engineering. Shortly after I began working as a Manufacturing Engineer in an areospace company in CT. I began as a manufacturing engineer working on the PW6000 engine. When that project was complete I moved into the Strut Cell working as a Team Leader. There we manufactured and assembled struts for the rear turban exaust case on V2500, PW2000 and Trent 500 engines. My father was given an oportunity with Blackstone Medical to start a  company in their building to support them on Customs and repairs of medical intruments. So, in 2002 I partnered with my father and we began Thorn Industries. While supporting Blackstone we had an oportunity like no other to learn the intracacys of products Blackstone designed. We were able to work hand in hand with their quality and engineering team to understand what Blackstone expected in their manufactured products. We decided to become ISO certified and in 2006 Thorn became ISO13485/9001 certified.

Thorn acquired a grant for ISO training and that is where I acquired my years of experience with ISO. I have managed the ISO certification for Thorn since 2006. I have been through numberous customer audits and certification audits. Thorn then acquired a second grant in: Internal Auditing, Risk Management, Lean Manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping and Set-up reduction. This training helped Thorn further lean out their organization and we began to work on a paperless QMS system. This helped products run smoother throughout the manufacturing processes. Each area went though a Kizan this further leaned us out to be able to set-up each manufacturing operation with the tools required at your fingertips. 

 

Today I am the General Manager at Thorn Industries aka Tii-Medical and I am spreading my wings again starting Apex Consulting where my team offers ISO/QMS Solutions. 

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The services we offer are designed to remove the bourden of managing/creating your ISO/QMS system and allow you to focus on running your business and achieving a higher return on investment. Call for a free consultation today.