Cold Spring Granite Company’s certification to the ISO 9001 standard in March of 1996 started Cold Spring Granite down the road to becoming the best in the world in its industry. At that time, the Company committed itself to becoming the supplier of choice and the leader in its industry by providing products and services that set industry standards.

That was the easy step – committing. While the third-party audits to retain ISO certification are a constant reminder that the Company must improve each time, Cold Spring’s management was not satisfied. With the assistance of Quality Director Greg Flint, Continuous Improvement Teams (CIT's) of employees were implemented in 1998, with the ideal that someday customers and suppliers would actively participate with employees on these teams. One year later, Don Calhoun of Murphy Granite, a division of Little Falls Granite in Minnesota, is making customer participation a reality.

"Don Calhoun is a wonderful selection to be our first customer CIT member," noted Mel Lommel, Royal Melrose Granites General Manager. "Not only has he, with Little Falls Granite, been a good customer of ours over a long period; Don has also been a spokesperson for the retail monument industry for years. He knows the needs of our customers. His participation speaks volumes and is meaningful to our employees, customers and the industry. Our desire to have customers participate on our continuous improvement teams also sends a clear message of our commitment to the industry and customers."

Cold Spring understands becoming a world class organization requires focusing on customers, quality that means defect-free and waste-free, and flexibility and agility to adapt. While employee involvement is the key to the continuous improvement process, Quality Director Flint believes expanding the teams to include customers and suppliers is critical to ensuring Cold Spring Granite is addressing the needs and wants of the customer. "The CIT spends roughly 15 hours over several weeks identifying the situation, a project for improvement, and a solution to be implemented. What better way to improve our processes to meet the customers’ needs than to have them on our improvement teams."

Don Calhoun’s CIT is focusing on Royal Melrose customer delivery. All team members participated in a formal training program prior to its first meeting on January 19. Jim Hemmesch, Royal Melrose Sales Manager, was elected Team Leader by the CIT’s members who represent various areas of the Company from the quarries to shipping.

"Congratulations to Don Calhoun as an individual and the Retail Industry as a whole," said Mel Lommel. "Don is giving freely of his time knowing that his benefit for participating on the CIT comes when we as a Company improve our delivery to the customer."

Royal Melrose Granite is a division of Cold Spring Granite, which celebrated its 100^th Anniversary in 1998. Royal Melrose operates in three major locations throughout the United States: Cold Spring, MN, Marble Falls, TX and Raymond, CA. The majority of the monument products are fabricated in Cold Spring at the new, state-of-the-art 135,000 square foot MonuWest facility that opened in 1996. In 1998, Royal Melrose supplied monumental products in more than 100 colors to over 2,000 retailers throughout North America.