In quality control vernacular, “perfect quality” describes a state where a business’s products or services consistently meet or exceed all defined specifications and customer expectations, with no defects or inconsistencies. It is less a destination than a compass point to guide continuous pursuit of excellence via methods such as Six Sigma that minimize variation, improve processes, and shape an organization’s quality culture.
In Q3 of last year, BizLink Robotics USA’s quality management team in Lake Orion, Michigan, reviewed the processes, policies, and procedures that comprise its quality management system (QMS) and decided to refine its perspective of “perfect quality” by incorporating more current methodologies
The team, led by Matthew Fakult, BizLink’s operational expenditures and quality manager, formulated its next steps around a key question: How do we rapidly amend our nonconformance challenges, launch awareness, and change the overall perspective and mindset of our associates to ensure a positive, growth-oriented culture of success?
Several successful initiatives followed, beginning with immediate containment and correction of nonconforming products and processes that aimed to stop defects and inefficient methods from spreading.
Fakult also developed structured key performance indicators (KPIs) that, unlike traditional KPIs focusing on individual production, identified overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) as well as occurrences of production downtime. “For the OEE dashboard, we are capturing the OEE of associates as opposed to machines,” Fakult said.
The quality team also engaged employees in transparent and collaborative root cause analysis (RCA) exercises to identify and address the underlying sources of problems or issues rather than the symptoms. Additionally, BizLink Robotics USA continued to implement Six Sigma principles to further reduce defects and improve quality by minimizing variability in its processes.
Much of this work leveraged data collection points that were not in place when the initiatives kicked off last year. “We’ve had great success reducing our overall nonconformance while increasing our awareness and willingness to better collaborate with customers, suppliers, and internally amongst ourselves,” said Fakult. “We are currently on target to achieve our goal of reducing nonconforming reports by 75% in 2025.”
Moreover, the review and improvements of BizLink’s QMS have created a more quality-focused culture across the organization, leading to enhanced performance and a stronger competitive advantage, Fakult added.
“Our efforts have not gone unnoticed by BizLink’s OEM and Tier 1 customers in the U.S.,” Fakult said. “They have noted increased morale among our associates, clearer direction through process streamlining, and improved satisfaction with our deliverables. The consensus is that BizLink Robotics USA’s continuous improvement and quality standards need to become the benchmark for all of our suppliers upstream.”
And so, BizLink Robotics USA’s journey toward perfect quality continues.
