PROBLEM STATEMENT

The global company had grown steadily for a number of years (>30 sites and > 10 K Employees). The company was opening 1 or 2 new greenfield production facilties annually and also aquiring and integrating new businesses. The number of global customers was growing too (> 40 Automotive OEM’s).

The coordination and alignment between the plants the customers was missing. Customer OEM specific requirements and understanding was also missing and the communication and methodology competence of dealing with the Customer OEM’s especially during new product development programs was lacking.

There was also little sharing of information, little transparency, unclear Roles and Responsibilities across the different Customer groups.

TASKS and ACTIONS

The first task was to identify the main areas to be tackled in terms of customer daily management, escalations and shortfalls in meeting OEM requirements, for example: Quality Planning alignment and effective problem solving and communication.

The organisation, people and tools to address the above issues were defined.

Competencies had to be defined for each Customer Group globally. Training modules were internally developed to support each Customer Group.

People were identified with management potential to take on the new Customer Group leadership roles. Some external recruitment was started to fill leadership and knowledge gaps.

The result indicators, reporting and review process was defined, interfacing with other functions in the Product development process.

RESULTS

Within a year, 11 Key Customer Quality Managers represented the biggest OEMs were confirmed in their positions with a dotted line relationship to the Production Plant Quality organisation and direct responsibility for ~50 Program quality engineers for > 150 Programs running simaltaneously.

The program quality (APQP) process was redefined with Program management and engineering.

A new process of CTQ (Critical to Quality) was developed within program management and supported by the new Customer quality organisation.

The Voice of Customer (VOC) was now present in each major program. The status was reported monthly with early warning KPI‘s in place based on readiness of key deliverables.

A more effective resolution of „RED Issues“ was achieved.

A specific escalation management process was understood and applied including the concept of Taskforce management in the launch phase and after SOP.