Owning and operating a top-quality manufacturing business comes with a multitude of challenges. To help outline points of improvement and give your business a roadmap to success, CMTC offers these quality strategies to help you achieve premium status as a manufacturing supplier.
Benefits of Achieving Premium Manufacturing Supplier Status
Reaching premium status means the customer allows the supplier to bypass their receiving inspection, which allows the supplier to ship directly to stock, so a customer/supplier partnership is developed and operations are streamlined. This industry recognition of your company’s advanced standing will further fortify your business as employees take pride in their contribution to the success. Additionally, fewer suppliers have this status, saba sport login so achieving recognition as a premium manufacturing supplier will help your business stand out from the competition.
The Top 10 Priorities to Address
The first fifteen points are customer-facing, which means the customer has an immediate sense of failure if any of these points are not properly addressed. In the ultra-competitive manufacturing environment, your business needs to get it right 99%+ of the time, and have systems in place to ensure success. These points will help you get there:
1. Control of Defects
Your manufacturing business needs to be in full control of identifying, handling, and managing defective items. This includes counting and categorizing flawed products, tracking the issue back to its root cause, and promptly correcting the nonconformance. Your customers should not be expected to be your quality control department – nonconforming products should be distinguished from perfect ones before they reach the customer. And, customer feedback also should be taken into consideration when designing the characteristics of your products.
2. Control of Delivery
On-time delivery, known as OTD, is one of the most important expectations to meet with customers. Your manufacturing business should consistently demonstrate that 95% of your planned customer deliveries arrive within the agreed-upon time frame.
3. Delivery Precision
Beyond establishing a pattern of on-time deliveries, your manufacturing business should work to maintain a positive trend of OTD and be able to trace problems back to singular events. It’s important to also periodically audit documentation from the loading and receiving docks to ensure continuity and appropriate verification.
4. TQM Orientation
To achieve premium status, your business must demonstrate how your operations embody total quality management (TQM) and are wholly customer-focused. Keep a positive rapport with your customers to track long-term results and maintain a dialogue with them and their experience with your company. You must hear and react to the voice of the customer.
5. Quality Management System
Your manufacturing company should have a QMS certified by a third-party registrar to evaluate your performance, provide the results from recent supplier audits, and demonstrate that you work at continuous improvement.
6. Quality Plan
This tip is inherent to running any business, but your manufacturing company should have an established and proven process to handle job quotes and orders, formalized training for new employees or pieces of equipment, as well as metrics and criteria to determine overall quality and efficiency. Further, your company should have measures in place to mitigate production risk and manage customer feedback.
7. Inventory Management
Some best practices include:
- Inventory goals and objectives getting reviewed quarterly
- Inventory is tracked monthly
- First In, First Out (FIFO) procedure used in the warehouse and production
- Inventory controls are evident throughout the facility
- Cycle counting implemented instead of physical inventories
- Excess, obsolete, and nonconforming inventory are appropriately segregated
- Housekeeping and safety initiatives are visible and obvious
8. Inventory Planning
In order to manage your manufacturing supply and demand, your company needs to use a demand plan based on your customer’s order history to forecast future demand. Share these requirements with your key suppliers to plan for success. This is another best practice.
9. Capacity Management
To further add to inventory management success, your company should utilize tools used for identifying bottlenecks in production and forecasting capacity. You should look outward over the next 12-month horizon, and have a clear understanding of your overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), which considers availability, utilization, production, and quality. Each of these tactics has the potential to be a point of improvement for your business.
10. Preventive Maintenance
It’s always a good idea to be prepared for speed bumps along the road to success. Your manufacturing business should have a preventative maintenance plan with breakdown records. Instructions for maintenance should be standardized and include pictures, spare parts should be kept in a safe location and checked for their quality over time, and daily operations should have records proving that all is working as planned.
