Quality Training Case Study | Integrated QMS & Continuous Improvement

Carey Manufacturing has been supplying catches, latches, and handles for military, aerospace, computer, electronics, telecom, automotive, and consumer applications since 1981. The business is fully dedicated to manufacturing American made products, having reshored manufacturing from China to their Cromwell, Connecticut facility.

The company produces high quality products, at competitive prices, with reasonable lead-times, and dependable service. Contract manufacturing for CNC machined parts and assemblies is available for modified and custom parts. All products are offered in metric and American standard dimensions.

Challenge
The management of Carey Manufacturing recognized the need and importance of having a dedicated quality resource at the company. It was determined that key quality concepts inherent to manufacturing and service processes should be more broadly understood and applied to facilitate improvements that will assist the company in meeting its operational and financial performance objectives.

The recently appointed Director of Quality and External Relations at the organization, Alison Carey-Lynch, was designated to lead the resurgence of the quality management system at Carey. She sought a learning experience that would provide her with quality principles and processes to give her the foundation and knowledge she would need to excel at her job while confirming what she already knew about quality concepts.
Solution
Connecticut MEP Center CONNSTEP recommended to Carey Manufacturing its Quality Essential Program (QEP), a five-week highly interactive training course which covers:

Workplace Skills – communicating effectively, working with others
Print Reading for Manufacturing – understanding prints, dimensions, drawings
QMS & Basic Audit Skills – defining a QMS, audit terms, audit plan
Problem Solving – using Plan-Do-Check-Act, A3, Root Cause Analysis
Quality Tools & Techniques – definition and application of terms, principles

Carey-Lynch leveraged her QEP coursework to determine how to set-up a Quality Management System, breaking down clauses in their quality manual most relevant to their business, and implementing her news skills of blueprint reading and corrective action. She also found it useful that the instructors were familiar with the auditing process, knew the Certification Body process, and understood the certification process.
Result
With a solid foundation of quality knowledge resulting from the QEP training, Carey-Lynch immediately put her new skills to work. She updated their management review process which made a big difference with the auditors, and updated their continuous improvement (CI) log, changing how things are input.

The Plan-Do-Check-Act form was tied into their CI log. She did an overhaul of the management format from PowerPoint to Excel which helped with organization of procedures at Carey Manufacturing, categorizing how procedures work and making it easier to reference.