The charge at Arlington is "continuous improvement" Arlington eliminates problems as they occur thus permanently preventing their recurrence. This is the first of Deming's 14 points, which the management at Arlington has adopted to become a "World Class Quality Supplier". W. Edwards Deming is the world renowned consultant who's philosophy is credited for the transformation of Japan into the manufacturing power it is today.

Arlington was initially driven by their need to satisfy customer demands and so had to tighten their organization to become an accredited vendor. This requires 95% or better on delivery time and 98% or better quality. Quite a task when there were approximately 50 shipments lots of different complex parts each month and 0.0001 out of tolerance on a .0005 diameter would take the rating down below 98%.

Arlington invested in a number of programs in order to assure success. A formal methods engineering department which includes tool designers and CNC programmers, a "Real Time" SPC program (Statistical Process Control), the purchase of 3 Sheffield full CNC CMMs, and the purchase of the Profitkey Scheduling System and five 11 pallet Matsuura Horizontal Machining Centers for Just-in-Time manufacturing with 37 interchangeable pallets.