OREANDA-NEWS. December 20, 2013. POSCO introduced the POSCO Supplier Quality Certification, POSQC, for the first time this year, and will award quality certification certificates to material providers and external partner companies that receive excellent results.

POSQC establishes a self-administered quality certification system for core material providers and external partners who directly influence product quality, to prevent inflow of poor quality materials, to achieve zero quality accidents, and to secure the highest level of quality competitiveness globally.

Global companies, both domestic and overseas, have carried out continuous improvement activities through provider quality evaluation and certification systems since long ago. The importance of quality management was especially emphasized after the Toyota recall incident, and quality certification systems have become a mandatory item.

Accordingly, POSCO, to strengthen quality management capabilities of the entire supply chain and to elevate quality mindsets of selected core material companies and external partner companies, carried out quality certification evaluations from August 26th to September 13th.

POSQC is divided into 5 levels from Q1 to Q5 based on objective and strict evaluations of specialists, and companies which receive a level of Q3 or higher are presented with quality certification certificates.

In this year`s evaluation, 18 companies received Q3 or higher and thus will receive the POSCO Quality Certification Certificates. NOROO Paint & Coatings, Samhwa Paints Industrial, Chosun Refractories, and KCC received the highest evaluation.

Suppliers which completed evaluations commented, ``Unlike previous quality inspections which were document-oriented, POSQC evaluates actual execution status and effectiveness. The evaluation result report helped greatly in recognizing the necessity of quality management systems and identifying quality-related issues.``

POSCO expects the POSQC quality certification system to lead quality management innovation of suppliers and external partner companies, and to not only improve quality, but to also contribute greatly to shared growth. Further, the company will provide support so that evaluations will be gradually expanded where suppliers and external partner companies must mandatorily acquire levels of Q3 or above.