Ted Carr is the Director of Quality at the Will-Burt Company and has a 40-year history with the firm. His leadership was key in implementing Unifize, revolutionizing the company's quality management by consolidating multiple systems into one efficient platform.
Introduction
The Will-Burt Company, known for its extensive work in commercial construction and the aerospace sector, has taken a bold step forward in quality management with the adoption of Unifize. Ted Carr, the seasoned Director of Quality, narrates their transition to this innovative platform, highlighting its profound impact on their operations.
Challenge
Navigating a labyrinth of diverse customer requirements and complex quality demands, Will-Burt's pre-Unifize era was marked by inefficiency. Disparate systems for managing quality control and assurance resulted in a fragmented and sluggish process that struggled to keep pace with the dynamic needs of their clientele.
The Unifize Solution
The integration of Unifize was a game-changer, unifying the fragmented quality management under one robust, agile system. This move not only streamlined processes but also paved the way for a more cohesive approach to meeting customer expectations.
Real-Time Collaboration
Unifize redefined team interactions, fostering a culture of real-time collaboration. With immediate access to shared files and communication logs, the platform dissolved barriers, bringing clarity and cohesion to the forefront of quality management.
Documentation as a Record
Transitioning to Unifize, Will-Burt replaced their scattered documentation approach with a centralized, living record of all quality-related activities. This shift not only boosted accessibility but also ensured a continuous and up-to-date flow of information.
Accelerated Turnaround
The once cumbersome and time-consuming change order process underwent a radical acceleration. With Unifize, what took weeks to finalize could now be executed in a matter of days, a testament to the platform's efficiency.
Results
The consolidation from five disparate systems to one unified platform via Unifize led to measurable improvements. Issues were resolved faster, accountability became clearer, and the quality management cycle was significantly shortened.
Efficient Utilization of Time
By harnessing Unifize, the quality team could now invest their time more judiciously, focusing on core quality tasks instead of juggling between systems. This optimization of time translated into heightened productivity and focus.
Conclusion
The Will-Burt Company's embrace of Unifize signifies more than a technological upgrade—it marks a strategic evolution in their approach to quality management. As Ted Carr reflects on the journey, it's clear that Unifize has not only simplified their processes but also empowered the team to operate with greater precision and speed, aligning perfectly with the complex and varied demands of their industry.
Our customer base is really spread out. We do a lot of commercial construction, military, a lot of aerospace work, and with all these different customers, they all have their own set of requirements and expectations. There's just a lot of diversity and there are a lot of mixed requirements. It really makes it challenging from a quality standpoint to try to address all those variables in the quality world.
[00:32 - 01:06]
Yeah, Hello. My name is Ted Carr. I'm director of Quality here at the Will-Burt Company. I've been here for 40 years now. We're a company of about 350 people, and my responsibilities are for quality in both quality assurance and quality control. And one thing I've learned is the boundaries of quality, they go well beyond the quality department. They involve all the functional groups such as Human Resources, Sales, Engineering, Purchasing, Receiving, Manufacturing, Maintenance, Shipping and Customer Service.
[01:06 - 01:38]
So again, our quality system has been in place since 1994. We haven't really kept pace with the technology offerings that are out there. What that's resulted in is not the most efficient system and certainly not a closed loop system. We became masters at using spreadsheets. Microsoft Access, Visual Basic and different programs to help support our quality activities. So having separate systems like this, it doesn't automatically tie in related issues together in an efficient manner.
[01:38 - 02:03]
You know, an example of getting a customer complaint or a VoC, as we like to call them, only to realize that we had an internal issue that was very similar. And then as you dig deeper, you ultimately find out that you also had supplier issues that contributed to the issue. So when trying to tie in these different systems together, it became very time consuming and not the most efficient.
[02:03 - 02:22]
It was also challenging to see the correlation between these issues as we would prepare for our management reviews, we put the data together and we would start to see trends that were there, but having the different quality systems in place for everything together. So you couldn't see those trends.
[02:22 - 02:42]
Another drawback to these multiple systems is not having a solid way of establishing ownership and accountability. Most of the software I looked at out there, I really felt like it was boilerplate, and aside from maybe moving a few fields around or changing color schemes, you get what you get.
[02:42 - 02:56]
If it's not easy to use, if the implementation takes a long time, there was a tremendous amount of training. If the learning curve is large, people aren't going to take an interest or they're going to turn it off and they're just not going to embrace it.
[02:56 - 03:15]
It just happened to be the very last software that I looked at was Unifize. And Ben Merton, he found me on LinkedIn. He sent me an email on it and it piqued my interest. A short conversation later, we set up a WebEx and we explored a little bit deeper into what Unifize could do for us.
[03:15 - 03:37]
And I found it very interesting. And on a 180 degree approach to how we could address quality issues. We've now reduced our number of quality support systems from what was five different systems. It's now consolidated into one platform, which is Unifize.
[03:37 - 03:55]
And regardless of that activity or that task, they all have very clear assigned ability and accountability. That's something we were really missing in our old systems. And again, that just drives a really solid behavior on getting issues closed.
[03:55 - 04:15]
Our tasks that have taken weeks or months are now completed in days. And we just know that as we mature, we'll continue to see improvements in the efficiency of the effectivity of what the software can do for us. We've already had conversations that have launched and then closed all in the same day. And for us that's just unheard of.`
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