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    Department Spotlight – Quality Control

    Department Spotlight – Quality Control

    What is IATF - Fastco Quality Policy: Striving to meet customer expectations through continuous innovation

    By Nick DePompolo

     

    1: What are you most looking forward to in the coming year for your department at Fastco?

    Coming into the New Year, Fastco’s QC team is excited to focus our efforts on the production of in spec parts. Our plan of attack is relatively simple, have a larger presence on the floor. To achieve this we have increased our layer process audits to 4 per week per QC employee. Three of these audits will be parts audits and at least one has to be a process audit. Audits above and beyond the mandatory four audits a weeks will be incentivized through a mini game. The details of this mini game are still under construction. Another exciting development is the redirection of our SPC coordinator- Julie Colvin’s- efforts. In the last couple years the SPC coordinator position has taken on the four hour checks on the floor. The 4 hour checks will be put back under cold headings responsibility. This will allow Julie to free roam and complete inspection audits increasing the overall amount inspections happening on the floor.

     

    2. What are the biggest challenges that your department is facing? How can other areas support you in these challenges?

    One of the biggest challenges our department has faced is the recent turnover. A new quality supervisor (me) was added. In addition, we will losing a key employee- Amber Letter- to Sales after the IATF audit. The knowledge lost in the shuffle is a challenge but is something that will make us stronger as a team. Everyone has stepped up and done their part to make the transition easier. As the New Year progresses and we all settle in our new positions or newly defined roles things should settle back down. With the shuffle also comes opportunity. Our team is always looking for ways to improve. If anyone has any ideas for new quality controls, how to improve old ones, or anything you think will aid in the production of quality parts please share them.

    Another big challenge is the reduction of COPQ. Recently we have had an increase in issues that should have been prevented by standard inspections. The QC team will be doing more audits in the coming year to hopefully decrease these occurrences. Matt Warner will also increase the frequency of the COPQ training based off recent quality issue. The goal would be to provide education and awareness around issues that could be prevented. Another tool at our disposal is the use of corrective actions. Accountability is important along with finding and correcting broken processes. Everyone at Fastco can help by following their procedures and checking parts per the control plan and the PLEX time schedule. The more eyes we have on parts the less quality issues we will have.

     

    3. What improvements are you hoping to see in 2025?

    The two biggest improvements the QC team would like to see is the reduction of COPQ and the increase in communication. COPQ is completely preventable and a drag on profit. We need to focus on catching the issue in the containment pan before the tub gets contaminated. Once a defect makes it into the tub the cost skyrockets. Our hope is with the increased inspections and the overall presence on the floor we can start impacting that number. We would like to create a culture of quality and pride in the parts we produce. As we move to an employee owned company this will become more important than ever.

    Communication is something else we can improve on. From the QC perspective our goal is to decrease our response time to RRT’s. The aim here would be to close the feedback loop as quickly and accurately as possible. The faster we can determine a solution, the faster the machine can start running parts again. More machine time will result in more productivity and ultimately more profit.