Sergiu Vrabie, VP of Manufacturing Operations has been working on aligning the operations at all five KPS Global manufacturing plants to function as one. Below he details out three key initiatives implemented over the last quarter toward this goal.
Quality Management System (QMS) Development and Implementation
Sergiu, alongside the plant managers and Quality Assurance, started the process of developing and implementing the company’s QMS in order to create a centralized SharePoint location where standardized documents can be stored and retrieved by each plant.
Not only does this give us a centralized location for all documents, each follows the rigorous approach of Revision Control, being Released, Reviewed and Revised through a Document Change Management System driven by Document Change Notice (DCN) process based on approvals obtained from the following, but not limited, departments: Quality Assurance, Engineering, Finance, Operations.
The company QMS will create the foundation for a very strong Process and Document Control System in order to increase product quality, reduce cycle times and reduce manufacturing cost what ultimately will increase customer satisfaction.
Operations Benchmarking
In addition to document control, another initiative undertaken was Cross Plant Benchmarking. This is a three-day benchmarking experience hosted by one of the plants every fourth month. The purpose of the event is to identify the best practices used by one of the plants and standardize them cross all three facilities.
The main benefit of this initiative is the swift identification, development, implementation and standardization of a best practice between all five plants.
Cross Plants Operating Experience Program
After holding the first benchmarking event, it was suggested a cross plant training program be implemented. The purpose of this program is to increase the collaboration between all five plants by bringing one (or more) Supervisors and a Manager from one plant to another as another way to standardize best practices between plants.
The benefits of the program are related to the speed, volume and effectiveness of the knowledge transfer based on hands-on experience.
Tom Marcy notes “We have seen an immediate impact in employee productivity and quality output from these initiatives and look forward to seeing what our team member contributions will be in the coming months.”
