Titletown Manufacturing earns ISO certification

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

December 1, 2025

GREEN BAY – Titletown Manufacturing, an OEM assembly and contract machining services provider, recently obtained a new certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The achievement, Principal Partner Chris Fuss said, is “huge” for the Green Bay-based company.

“It’s going to put a big shift in our culture and our work that we do,” he said.

Prior to the recent certification, Fuss said Titletown Manufacturing was primarily a “job shop doing smaller quantity runs and some repair and service work.”

Now, following its ISO certification, he said the company will have the opportunity to expand its client base to those with higher volume orders.

“We are going to get into more of a production-based environment,” he said. “We will be setting up our machines so they have more spindle time – they’ll be running more often with less downtime.”

This, Fuss and Business Development Director Cassie Diedrick said, will yield multifaceted benefits for the OEM company – strengthening its global competitive edge and workforce pipeline.

Cyclical audits, frequently followed processes

In OEM manufacturing, and more specifically at Titletown Manufacturing, Fuss said machinists are employed to “build extremely tight tolerance parts” and manufacture products “out of… any type of metal.”

“We turn those into high-tolerance parts that all get put together and create a machine,” he said.

Fuss said Titletown Manufacturing produces both fully operable machines and individual OEM parts.

“We make parts that go into a machine, and we also build machines,” he said. “We’ll make parts, put them together and produce a complete, built, operating machine. We’ll also do test runs right on our floor, plug it in, do all the checkouts with the customer and make sure everything’s running correctly before it gets delivered.”

Fuss said though Titletown Manufacturing does “everything we can in house,” some outsourcing is still necessary despite the company’s extensive on-site capabilities.

“Seventy-five percent of our orders [involve] some type of outsourcing done to them,” he said. “We also order raw materials in bar stock lengths [and] cut-to-length pieces. We have stuff that gets water-jet and laser-cut that comes off of somebody else’s machines, [too].”

Fuss said earning ISO certification required nearly a year of evaluations across both the office and manufacturing floor to ensure consistent standards throughout all internal operations.

“This isn’t something you just do in a couple weeks’ time,” he said. “We started preparing for it a year ago. We actually started working with a consultant in January and executed it through October.”

Following a third-party inspection, Fuss said Titletown Manufacturing obtained its ISO certification – which, he added, has to be regularly audited.

“Every six months we’ll have a partial internal audit, and we’ll have somebody come in and go through half of the paperwork for the ISO process,” he said. “Then, six months later, we’ll have the same people come in and do the other half.”

Though certifications can be audited on a yearly basis, Fuss said Titletown Manufacturing elected to complete the six-month partial audits.

“We’re electing to do it half and half,” he said. “We prefer to catch something before it gets out of control, if we need to. Then, every three years, we have to have an external auditor come in and go through everything.”

Diedrick said the cyclical audits help ensure certified manufacturers consistently deliver uniform, high-quality products.

“When you’re working with higher quantity [orders], you have to really get things buttoned up – you have to have a process in place,” she said. 

The ISO designation, Diedrick said, confirms that Titletown Manufacturing follows consistent, repeatable processes and can quickly address any issues, strengthening customer confidence in the company’s operations.

“[Things are] done the same way exactly every time, [and] if something goes wrong, we’re able to figure that out right away, get it corrected,” she said. “It just gives our customers a higher confidence in us that [we’re] legitimized.”

Diedrick said the certification also signifies Titletown Manufacturing’s ability to produce high-volume orders while guaranteeing uniform quality – giving the company a new competitive edge in global markets.

“When a company completes [the certification], it shows they have taken the initiative, want to grow and become better and focus on their quality,” she said. “That’s taken into serious [consideration] by, especially, larger companies. A lot of times, they won’t give you a contract or [even] speak to you until you are ISO-certified.”

Fuss said that standard represents the credibility and notoriety of the ISO and its certification process.

“It’s well respected, I can tell you that very much,” he said. “It’s not just a piece of paper that says ‘you’re certified.’ It tells people you have processes in place, and you follow them religiously.”

Workforce challenges, youth apprenticeships

Fuss said expanding into high-volume OEM production will also strengthen Titletown Manufacturing’s talent pipeline, particularly its apprenticeship program.

The increased production volume, he said, will also help the company develop younger employees by giving them consistent, repeatable work, while more complex job-shop orders will remain with seasoned machinists.

Though Titletown Manufacturing has welcomed a handful of youth apprentices, Fuss said participation in machine tool programs at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and Fox Valley Technical College – as well as other technical schools across Wisconsin – remains low.

“I don’t understand why it’s happening, because it’s really a good job,” he said. “There’s an abundance of people [in the industry] between the age range of 40-60… [So], we’re going to keep pushing on social media to, hopefully, keep at the top of the list when people look for a job.”

Following its ISO certification, Fuss said Titletown Manufacturing plans to expand its apprenticeship program to help address workforce challenges.

“We’re currently working on a program that’s going to help our youth become more successful as well as us become more successful,” he said.

Though currently a work in progress, Fuss said Titletown Manufacturing is developing a new youth apprenticeship program that will define the company’s process for “developing these youngsters.”

The program, he said, is coming at an important time as Titletown Manufacturing’s workforce will need to grow concurrently with its production capabilities following the certification.

“We will definitely be growing,” he said. “I don’t think we have our finger on the pulse as to how fast or how big yet, but we definitely have room for an additional eight to 10 people as of today – and machinists are extremely hard to come by. So, developing this program is pretty important for our future.”

To learn more about Titletown Manufacturing’s services and its recent ISO certification, visit titletownmfg.com.