Dallas based Texas Nameplate Co. receives state's top quality award.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1996--Texas Nameplate Co. Inc. (TNC), a Dallas based business, received the 1996 Texas Quality Award from Quality Texas, a non-profit partnership between the private, public and education sectors of the state today.

The award is presented each year to Texas organizations that excel in quality management and quality achievements.

"This is what happens when you give employees control over the quality of the product that they produce," Dale Crownover, TNC president, said. "All of our employees have the power to flip the switch and stop production at any time, if they feel that there is a problem with the quality of our product."

TNC, which celebrates its 50th year of business this June, provides the identification plates seen on all types of products from refrigerators to computer equipment. These labels provide identification and information including serial numbers, model numbers, pressure limits, vendor names, installation procedures and safety warnings.

TNC started researching customer satisfaction in the 1970s and realized that product quality was not the only determining factor in satisfaction. Although TNC continues to improve product quality and manufacturing techniques, they have learned that they must also be responsive and flexible to their customers' needs.

Therefore, the company began consulting customers to provide products that met their needs as well as their desires.

TNC continues to analyze and improve customer relations through personal contact and customer feedback. Customers are encouraged to provide input to the company through trade shows, letters and during follow-up calls made by sales persons.

Additionally, Crownover makes himself accessible at all times to the customers. And in 1992 TNC began employing a third party to conduct a customer satisfaction survey each year.

As a Texas Quality Award recipient, TNC will share information about their successful quality strategies with other companies, educational institutions, government agencies and non-profit organizations, in order to contribute to improving the quality of goods, services and education throughout the state.

In addition to ranking highly in customer satisfaction, TNC's state-of-the-art equipment allows them to be a role model for the Dallas Water Utilities and the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission by operating at standards that are 900 percent higher than required by government regulations on water clarification.

Texas Nameplates Co. Inc. is a privately owned company that began in 1946 with the demand for military defense equipment such as tanks, trucks, airplanes and boats. All of these items required identification and information plates that would withstand adverse conditions on land, sea and in the air; thus creating the need for manufacturers of etched metal processes.

TNC has grown from three employees in the beginning to over 50 currently, with Crownover, the son of one of the original founders, now heading up the operation.

CONTACT: Hadeler White PR, Dallas

Amy Fischer or Greg Sherrell, 214/776-8020