PENNENGINEERING

The Challenge:

STANDARDIZATION AND VISIBILITY AS THE ORGANIZATION GROWS

Over the years, PennEngineering grew both organically and through acquisitions resulting in limited quality standards and a patchwork of processes for the global teams to communicate, especially when one plant was acting as a supplier to another plant. They lacked visibility into what a supplying plant was doing about a specific problem, non-conformance or corrective action. Often internal suppliers were not pressured enough to fix problems and this lack of visibility exacerbated the problem. In addition, when audited, the company had minor audit findings that had the potential to turn into major audit findings. The company needed a system to address these problems.

“As these plants across the globe come in with different or even paper-based quality platforms, we need a standardized quality environment for all plants to be able to share information,” commented Quality Control Program Manager Mike Payionk.

The Solution:

ENTERPRISE-WIDE QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

PennEngineering knew they needed an Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS) that would provide a centralized point to enable standardization and give them the visibility they needed to increase their efficiency and quality and share lessons learned. In order to improve their overall value stream, the company launched QAD EQMS at 11 manufacturing plants.

“Having one system allows us to share corrective/ preventative actions, documentation, and product launches seamlessly across the globe. This ensures that all plants within our organization are sharing best practices,” commented Payionk.

PennEngineering implemented the following EQMS features:

Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and Product Part Approval Process (PPAP) - This allowed the company to reduce the time it takes to put together PPAP documents as they progressed through the New Product Introduction (NPI) with the use of templates. The foundational and family Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEAs) that tie to Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) enables institutionalized knowledge of possible failures, and also a closed loop so the learning from CAPA can be added to those libraries.

Document Control - Implementing this module allowed PennEngineering to have a single source of truth which dramatically reduced the effort to effectively review and approve documents, including email notifications and escalations to keep the workflow moving. In addition, change management is now more comprehensive so that a single change request includes all documentation, drawings, processes and APQP documentation.

“I know our handling of quality issues has improved because I can see it. Documenting quality issues in one single system has given us the ability to identify issues and correct them on a bigger scale. We have definitely seen a decline in customer issues over the last 3 years, because we’re putting them in the system. They’re visible. They’re not buried somewhere,” commented Payionk.

NCR/CAPA - This enabled the organization to respond to non-conformances faster, immediately issue alerts and print hold tags to the shop floor to reduce the size of the problem. It provided clear actions and assignments for containment tasks and streamlined the disposition process. The use of embedded root cause tools has allowed their teams to improve the accuracy of root cause and establish corrective actions that address the causes—not just a system—allowing them to reduce repeat issues.

“It’s brought clarity to all of our documentation. We’ve shared guidelines, work instructions and best practices across all locations globally – it’s really opened up our ability to see what’s happening on a plant level and a customer level. I don’t have to call the plant in China from here in Michigan, I can just look at the system and see what’s being applied and go from there. It’s definitely connected all of the plants together,” said Payionk.

The Benefits:

QUALITY BEST PRACTICES GLOBALLY

By implementing QAD EQMS, PennEngineering has now standardized the quality system across its global operations and facilities, which has led to:

• Shared visibility to corrective/preventative actions that allows for each facility to be a customer and supplier to others, streamlining the process of contacting facilities to report issues within the value stream. “QAD EQMS has built-in logic to help identify the responsible site and who the quality contact is at that location,” added Payionk.

• Shared best practices among all plants, especially using the APQP project templates and foundational and family FMEAs.

• More efficient and easier-to-use internal and supplier PPAP management.

• Significantly improved and industry compliant visibility and collaboration of corporate or site documentation and change management.

• Visibility into product launches seamlessly across the globe, which helps standardize and streamline new product introduction.

PennEngineering now has the flexibility to reasonably tailor the product to its needs as it grows, without impacting its ability to upgrade. It now also has centralized knowledge with controls for accuracy at the site and department levels.