QUALITY TRAINING LEADS TO CERTIFICATION
As recently published in Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center
“This past year has been a time of tremendous growth and change for National Manufacturing Group-Owosso. Building a QMS from the ground up is something we are extremely proud of and would not have been possible without the consistent guidance of MMTC.”
CARA PETOSKEY, HR Manager
COMPANY PROFILE: National Manufacturing Group-Owosso (www.nationalmanufacturing.group), formerly known as Great Lakes Composites, specializes in both open and closed fiberglass processing and painting of components for the transportation, EV, marine, among other industries. Based in Owosso, Mich., National Manufacturing Group-Owosso employs 52.
SITUATION: National Manufacturing Group-Owosso is deeply committed to maintaining the highest standards of quality, ensuring that each product meets rigorous performance criteria. Wanting to grow their business and retain and develop employees, they knew training was a critical component to accomplishing these goals. Additionally, a key client was requiring ISO 9001 certification of their suppliers, which National Manufacturing Group-Owosso didn’t have.
SOLUTION: Without an ISO 9001 certification, National Manufacturing Group-Owosso knew business growth would stall. To support their growth strategy of breaking into the EV powertrain vehicle market, they reached out to Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) to assist with building an ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS). Through months of onsite ISO 9001 consulting, implementation and auditing, National Manufacturing Group-Owosso was able to attain certification within eight months, which was quite an achievement! To supplement the new QMS, multiple members of the quality team engaged in ISO 9001:2015 Internal Auditor Training, which resulted in three certifications.
To increase operational efficiencies, National Manufacturing Group-Owosso also invested in Lean Manufacturing training to streamline one of their product lines which had a six-hour production time. Through 5S training, MMTC and National Manufacturing Group-Owosso were able to reconfigure their process and reduce the time to one hour. In total, 25 people went through Lean and quality training.
RESULTS:
- Retained Employees: 50
- Retained Sales: $1,600,000
- New Investment: $70,000
- Passed their ISO 9001:2015 certification
- Time Saved: 83%; Through a Lean process flow change, the total time spent creating one part went from six hours to one hour