Guaranteed Quality

Like many aerospace and defense manufacturers, IBM demands the highest quality parts and products from its suppliers. Several years ago, they required all their vendors to adopt a Statistical Process Control (SPC) quality system.

As part of our quality plan, we developed an SPC pre-control form to travel with the job through each process. It required the operators to monitor the dimensions they were responsible for maintaining.

It worked for us - and IBM - in several ways:

• Because each piece was inspected at each step of the operation, errors were caught quickly before they moved to the next step of manufacture.
• Because each employee had a role in quality control, we assured they took ownership of the process.
• We knew exactly the condition of each piece as it left the shop and at every step along the way.

Our internal error rate dropped by 90 percent and IBM was so impressed with our SPC Pre-Control form, they asked if they could copy it and use as a training tool.