Three of Berk-Tek's (www.berk-tek.com) manufacturing facilities have successfully completed audits to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2000 standard by Underwriters Laboratories, the cable manufacturer recently announced. Berk-Tek says the recognition is "a testament to the company's commitment to quality, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement."

The LAN UTP manufacturing facility in New Holland, PA, and the site of the company's corporate headquarters, received formal notification in early November of its registration compliance. The company's fiber-optic facility in Fuquay-Varina, NC received formal notification in December. And the company's electrics division in Elm City, NC-which manufactures specialty cables for aerospace and central office telecom applications-received formal notice in October.

"While the deadline for registration to the ISO 9001:2000 standard is not until December 2003, each site's compliance mirrors Berk-Tek's ongoing philosophy and established reputation as an industry leader," the company said when announcing the recognition.

Some new requirements in the ISO 9001:2000 standard include management responsibility, customer-satisfaction measurement, and continuous improvement.

"We were confident we were doing a lot of things in our quality-management system that met the intent of the new requirements," said Chuck Clauser, New Holland quality manager. "It was a matter of identifying and documenting the processes in our system that met the new requirements, and doing this in a way that made it easy to demonstrate compliance during the audit process."

Berk-Tek says it had distributed and collected data from surveys sent to distributors and end-users, with plans underway for obtaining more feedback.