TROY, MI – NAI, a manufacturer of global connectivity solutions for high performance systems used in the industrial technology, telecom, data and medical industries, launches its “Quality Month,” a special event held every year at their plant in Suzhou, China.
The purpose of this event is to promote quality awareness and provide continuing education on quality systems and processes at NAI.
The Quality Month includes a series of events and educational activities, beginning with an opening speech by the General Manager. The more significant of the activities include the following:
1. Zero-Defect Contest
Eight production areas and teams in the plant have been assigned a zero-defect goal. Such areas include the clean room, patch cords assembly and high mix/ low volume production lines, among others. The PPM defect metric must equal zero at the conclusion of the Quality Month event. If the goal is met by this deadline, the participating workers receive a monetary bonus.
2. Quality Knowledge Contest
Production line operators must become proficient with NAI’s quality systems and processes. As one of the Quality Month activities, a question/answer session is conducted among operators to test their knowledge. Questions are developed by the Quality Management Team and drawn from a hat. As each operator answers a question correctly, a gift is earned.
3. Supplier Education
Suppliers hold educational sessions in NAI’s Training Room, to share their specialized knowledge about their product area with NAI office and factory employees. Everyone is invited to attend these sessions. This year the sessions will focus on PCBs and cable.
4. Quality Knowledge on WeChat
An app has been developed for mobile devices containing access to NAI Quality Information that is pertinent to:
· High Mix / Low Volume orders
· High Volume / Low Mix orders
· The IPC 620 standard
The quality process is different for the high mix / low volume orders as compared to high volume / low mix orders, therefore having this reference is very helpful. In addition, NAI must meet IPC/WHMA-A-620 standard requirements for Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies, so this reference is also included in the app. Information is assembled in WeChat.
5. Office Staff Works on the Production Line
To promote a greater understanding of how interconnect solutions are manufactured, members of the NAI office staff will each work on the production line for a period of two weeks. The office employees are treated as “new employees,” which includes training and careful supervision. In addition to the obvious educational benefits, this exercise is expected to generate new suggestions from the office staff about improving production and quality processes. All suggestions will be evaluated for follow-up with AP, SGA, Kaizen and CI.
“We expect the Zero-Defect activity and our office staff working on the production line to demonstrate the greatest benefits during this special event,” stated Zack Zhang, quality manager at NAI.
Frank Liu, director of operations China, said “Our Quality team has been very creative and has pushed the envelope to produce this very unique event, which will add significant benefits to our quality processes over a long-term.”
For more information, visit www.nai-group.com.
