As Quality standards at OEMs continue to stiffen, it has become more and more common for parts manufacturers to face "near-death" experiences due to quality spills.
Fines for bad parts and late deliveries can be as high as $20,000 per minute if the supplier's missing parts cause an OEM Assembly Plant line to shut down. In some cases, manufacturers have been forced to close their doors after a major quality spill.
Of course, most OEMs do not let it get that far. Instead, they will force the supplier into containment and mandate expensive sorting teams who are instructed to inspect every single part if the supplier's shipment contains even one non-conforming part!
"I am very proud to say that when our customer needed us we were there. We brought in extra people and our Quality expertise to get on top of the spill very quickly. We feel the real benefit of our service was what never happened - and that's a good thing. "
-Dick Isom,
Quality Manager
Savvy automotive parts manufacturers jump in before the OEM mandates a Third-Party Inspection Company and hire their own inspection and sorting team. As one manufacturer put it, "It's like hiring your own accountant verses the IRS sending in an auditor. In the first situation, you are the customer and can negotiate on price and service. In the second situation, you are the prey and somehow you just know you are going to be dinner!"
Recently Continental Quality Engineering helped a new customer out of a major jam. Here is the story as told by Continental's Quality Manger, Dick Isom.
"The desperate call came in late on a Friday afternoon, begging us for help in the plant. Although we had no information on why the parts were being rejected, we quickly responded with a team of very experienced Inspectors and Quality Engineers.
"Phase One was determining the standard for conforming parts and then identifying the deviations
that were occurring. Non-conforming part samples, also known as boundary samples, were quickly rounded up and labeled clearly to illustrate each instance of the standard being violated. This initial assessment took our team about an hour, working alongside the manufacturer's own Quality crew.
"We identified over 10 different specs that needed to be checked on each part. The good news was that we didn't need to get any special fixtures or gauges fabricated to do the inspection. If that had been the case, it could have taken a few days or more to get the fixtures or gauges built. Meanwhile we would have had to figure out a work-around that could be implemented immediately. Just recently, for example, we had a rush job to check a part for air leaks and did not have the proper testing system available. We had to immerse the part into a bucket of water to see if it leaked while we were waiting for an air pressure testing system to be built. It worked, but that water sure got cold after a while!
"Once the manufacturer had approved the boundary samples, specs and operator instructions for the inspection, we deployed the first two teams. We placed the teams right at the end of the plant near the waiting trucks and started inspecting 24/7 with two 12-hour shifts. The initial idea was to do a short-term sort for a few days in the plant, then start shipping parts to our Continental Quality Engineering facility in Anderson. Unfortunately, the plant was unable to get enough ahead to build a bank of parts to ship, so our 3-day in-house sort turned into 3 weeks. Because our crew was beginning to burn out on the 7/12 schedule we added an additional shift to even out the workload.
"Eventually the plant starting building up a bank and the sort was moved to our Anderson facility. Things have since smoothed out for the plant, but now and then they get behind and we have to send a crew up there for a short term fix. At this point they have fixed most of their quality problems and we're on the homestretch, just validating their new quality levels. The manufacturer should be out of containment very soon.
"I am very proud to say that when our customer needed us we were there. We brought in extra people and our Quality expertise to get on top of the spill very quickly. We feel the real benefit of our service was what never happened - and that's a good thing. The OEM assembly plant never had to come in and take over and the final assembly line never stopped running. This customer was dangerously close to that penalty; a real near death experience. But with our help, it never happened, and that's what we feel our job really is — to get our customer out of a jam and turn a stressful situation around. When we can do that, everyone wins!"
Home » The Continental Quality Newsletter (Subscribe)
|
