The Challenge
Ready-Made wanted to become ISO 9001 certified within a few months, while keeping the demands on its own team low. It also wanted the QMS closely aligned with its efficient existing shop-floor practices rather than having generic processes imposed.
Partway through the project, the challenge changed significantly when Ready-Made acquired another company, Ironwood Packaging, with an existing ISO 9001 QMS and certification already in place.
Building the QMS
Ready-Made chose the 9001Simplified Full-Service approach after finding useful guidance on our website and discussing its requirements with us during the discovery call. Implementation began in August 2025, led by Andrew, who worked directly with owner Dan Bryan and operations manager Jake Keading.
Consistent with our emphasis on fitting ISO 9001 to the business, Andrew examined how customer requirements became production work, how trays were manufactured and checked, how records were maintained and how customer issues were handled. Effective controls were preserved, while new controls were designed around Ready-Made's existing workflows, terminology and software. Records were limited to those serving a genuine operational or certification purpose.
9001Simplified developed the QMS, guided its implementation, trained the team and prepared it for certification, while Dan, Jake and their colleagues provided the operational knowledge, kept decisions moving and addressed issues promptly. By October, the QMS was operating and ready for its internal audit, which gave the team a list of practical corrections before PRI, the certification body, assessed the company for certification.
The project was led by Andrew O'Reilly, a senior consultant and lead auditor with more than 25 years of experience in quality management, process improvement, project management and change management.
His combination of quality, process-improvement and change-management experience became especially valuable when Ready-Made's acquisition changed the scope of the project.
Achieving Initial Certification
PRI began with the Stage 1 audit, which primarily reviewed the QMS documentation remotely and checked whether Ready-Made was prepared for the full assessment. The Stage 2 audit then tested the system in practice on-site: the auditor observed activities, spoke with employees and sampled records to verify that the documented processes were actually being followed.
Stage 2 concluded on December 4 with one minor nonconformity – a limited issue that required correction rather than a failure of the system. Ready-Made corrected it and received its ISO 9001:2015 certificate on December 15, approximately four months after the project began.
"Andrew was fantastic. He got us well prepared and didn't complicate our processes to add extra, unneeded work for us to be bound to. He was also always very responsive which was really nice."
Dan Bryan, Owner, Ready-Made Plastic Trays
Integrating a Newly Acquired Company
With Ready-Made's ISO 9001 certification secured, attention turned to the newly acquired company, Ironwood Packaging. This was not simply a matter of adding another company name to a procedure or certificate. Ironwood already had a functioning QMS, its own ISO 9001 certification and employees accustomed to its processes. It also performed product design, an activity outside Ready-Made's original QMS scope.
The challenge was to protect what already worked at Ironwood while avoiding two overlapping systems after the businesses were combined.
Andrew first helped management determine how the two businesses would actually operate. All employees were based in Meridian, and Ready-Made intended to combine the operations rather than manage Ironwood as an independent company. Maintaining two QMSs would therefore have meant duplicating procedures, records, internal audits and management reviews without providing better operational control.
Based on that operating model, Andrew recommended one integrated QMS and helped Ready-Made decide which practices to retain, which overlaps to remove and how responsibilities should work across the combined organization.
The single integrated QMS did not automatically determine the number of certificates: one QMS can be covered by one or more certificates. While helping Ready-Made streamline the integrated QMS, 9001Simplified also coordinated with PRI. PRI ultimately documented the combined operation through one expanded certificate.
Bringing Design Into the QMS
Ready-Made's original QMS covered manufacturing, not product design. Ironwood, however, designed packaging trays as well as manufacturing them. Keeping that capability in the combined business meant more than adding the word "design" to the certificate: the integrated QMS needed to control how design requirements were defined, reviewed, verified and changed, and who was responsible for each step.
Andrew did not rebuild Ironwood's design process from scratch. He retained the controls that remained useful, aligned them with Ready-Made's streamlined QMS and filled the gaps required for the expanded ISO 9001 scope. This preserved Ironwood's design capability without preserving an entire second QMS around it.
Confirming That the Integration Worked
PRI audited the expanded system on March 27, 2026 – less than two months after 9001Simplified began integrating the two management systems. This scope-expansion audit examined the changes made since Ready-Made's original certification: the addition of Ironwood Packaging, the shared processes and responsibilities, and the newly incorporated design controls. The audit recorded zero nonconformities.
The Results
Ready-Made achieved its initial ISO 9001 certification in approximately four months without placing another major project on its already busy team. More importantly, the QMS remained practical when the business changed almost immediately.
The combined organization now operates through one QMS rather than two overlapping systems, eliminating unnecessary duplication. Its expanded certification reflects how the business actually operates.
For Ready-Made, ISO 9001 became more than a customer-facing credential. The QMS provided a practical framework for bringing an acquired company into the organization without multiplying bureaucracy.
Lessons for Other Acquiring Companies
Ready-Made's experience offers a practical sequence for any ISO 9001-certified company planning an acquisition:
Start With the Business, Not the Certificates: Decide to which degree the companies will remain separate or operate as one before determining the QMS and certification arrangements.
Separate the QMS Decision From the Certificate Decision: One integrated QMS does not automatically require one certificate. The certification body should document an arrangement that accurately reflects the organization.
Preserve What Already Works: Integration should retain effective controls from both companies while eliminating duplicate procedures, records and oversight.
Review the Scope Early: An acquisition may introduce activities, locations or responsibilities that require new QMS controls and certification-body evaluation.
Ready to Replicate This Success?
Whether you need certification from scratch or must adapt an existing QMS during an acquisition, our Full-Service approach addresses the business problem behind certification. We manage the ISO 9001 implementation while building a streamlined system around the way your organization needs to operate.
Ready-Made Plastic Trays, LLC
960 E Franklin Road, Meridian, ID 83642, USA
https://www.ready-made.com
