ISO 9001 certificate successfully renewed for AP2E

Aix-en-Provence, 22 May 2025 – The ISO 9001 certificate for AP2E was recently extended to August 2028. This achievement highlights the company’s extensive and continuous efforts in quality management. The member of the DURAG GROUP based in Aix-en-Provence, France, specializes in gas analysis using highly sensitive laser measurement methods and enhanced sampling systems. In this interview, AP2E‘s Managing Director Sébastien Héré, tells us more about this important achievement.

Sébastien Héré, why is the renewal of the ISO 9001 certificate so important for AP2E our partners and customers?

ISO 9001, defined as the internationally recognized standard for Quality Management Systems (QMS), is the most widely used QMS standard in the world. The certificate is the recognition of our ability to manage and improve our processes for each pillar of the company. Regarding our partners and customers, this is of course a must-have certificate, a proof of AP2E’s commitment to improve our customers satisfaction. And for ourselves it is essential to continue our business and grow through additional markets and opportunities. For our teams, this certification renewal means that we maintain and even improve our compliance to ISO 9001. 

Which AP2E experts and departments were involved in the audit and which roles or functions did they have?

All departments have been involved, including for example Quality Management, Production, Supply Chain, Sales, R&D, Industrialization, HR, Finance and Direction. Indeed, each leader of a process went through a three-day audit, which was performed by a third-part laboratory, the renowned Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais (LNE) in Paris.

What internal efforts have contributed to this successful renewal of ISO 9001?

Internal audits at AP2E are preformed almost every month, and we ensure that we cover each department at least once a year. This is how we check the compliance of our processes with the ISO guidelines. Continuous improvement initiatives are also deployed at each level to guarantee that each department is working with best-in-class practices.

Which areas have improved or changed since the last certification and were there any strengths highlighted in the audit?

We improved our ability to monitor projects through a dedicated tool called Asana, for each department of the company. There have also been improvements in our customer satisfaction survey and we enriched the job description of each employee. Indeed, some major strengths have been highlighted during the audit, such as tracking of the alignment station (mirror assembly) as a project in Asana, technical expertise of interviewed employees and involvement of process pilots in the AP2E QMS.

Looking to the future, how does the company intend to ensure quality?

We will pursue our efforts to guarantee its compliance to all quality standards in force with our valuable customers and partners, such as ISO 9001, QAL1 or ATEX. This strategy is of course promoted by the direction of DURAG GROUP and AP2E, and it is driven by Audrey Vanderstichelen, our Quality Manager at AP2E.

What is your conclusion about the project, how important is the certification to you?

This renewal of ISO 9001 certification will help AP2E to meet meets the needs of our customers and other stakeholders more effectively, by building a framework to ensure consistent quality in providing our gas analyzers and related services to the market.