The company's continuous improvement efforts are evident in its Motor Vehicle Business division, which achieved QS-9000 certification in January 1996. This quality requirement, designed specifically for the automotive industry, has many common elements to ISO 9000, in addition to more in-depth requirements such as advanced product quality planning, production part approval process, continuous improvement and manufacturing capabilities.

AMP began focusing on the automotive electrical connector market during the late 1980s as the Automotive/Consumer Business Group. In January 1996, AMP established the Motor Vehicle Business division to operate as a separate unit within the company and concentrate solely on the automotive market. Since then, AMP has formed the Global Automotive division, the Motor Vehicle Business' umbrella organization.

The Motor Vehicle Business unit designs and manufactures electrical connector products for almost any operation that requires electrical connections on a car, such as engine control units, radio, windshield wipers and antilock braking systems. The company produces the connectors in the United States for millions of vehicles around the world each year.

Taking step two in the process, the Motor Vehicle Business unit formed a multidisciplined team in the spring of 1993 to work on ISO 9001's 20 certification requirements for the company's eight locations in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. This team consisted of "champions" not only from the quality department but other operational departments within the division, including development and product engineering, manufacturing engineering and administration.

Each champion assumed responsibility for a specific clause of the ISO 9001 standard and was held accountable for necessary planning actions. In turn, they created smaller teams to compare AMP specifications with ISO 9001 requirements. The teams then made appropriate edits to the AMP specifications or rewrote them, if necessary.

To complete step three, AMP hired BSI Inc. of Reston, Virginia, a registrar of quality management systems, to conduct the assessment. In 1993, BSI performed the initial pre-assessment, and in July 1994, the Motor Vehicle Business division received ISO 9001 certification at all eight locations. The preparation for certification took about one year. The division took its time, in a conscious effort to ensure that all associates were educated about ISO 9001 and were comfortable with the system. Once the division achieved ISO 9001 certification, it began to plan and prepare for QS-9000 certification.

Furthermore, as the company went through the ISO 9001 process for its quality management system, it realized the benefits of having this thorough analysis of its everyday procedures, which further drove the division to pursue QS-9000 certification. This would help achieve its continuous improvement imperative.

AMP was not a newcomer to quality management systems. Even before ISO 9001 and QS-9000, it had its own QMS in place, which greatly helped during the certification process. Achieving ISO 9001 certification before the QS-9000 process also gave the multidisciplined teams a better understanding of QS-9000's QMS requirements.

In addition, the Motor Vehicle Business division already had received Ford's Q-1 award, which eased the transition even more. In order to achieve Q-1, AMP demonstrated a sustained level of excellence in customer satisfaction while meeting systems and results requirements in quality, delivery/materials management and engineering. Thus, as a Q-1 supplier to Ford, the division already had some familiarity with the automotive-specific customer requirements of the QS-9000 process.

Using its existing framework, the division kept the same multidisciplined teams as it had for the ISO 9001 certification process and simply created two new teams for the QS-9000 requirements. These teams concentrated on sector-specific and customer-specific requirements, respectively. The teams also used the same three-part approach as they did for ISO 9001. The natural transition from one certification to the other proceeded smoothly, with ISO 9001 acting as a stepping stone to QS-9000.

The primary differences between ISO 9001 and QS-9000 are the APQP, PPAP and continuous improvement requirements. ISO 9001 is a standard of conformities that an organization must meet, whereas QS-9000 provides the expectation of continuous improvement with semiannual third-party assessments. QS-9000 requires more quality records, longer document retention periods and more in-depth training about how to document activities.

The QS-9000 certification process went very smoothly, with few problems relating to QS-9000 issues. Often, when organizations go through this type of change, people react with fear and confusion. However, AMP received little or no negative feedback from its associates. QS-9000 mandated new documents, better procedures and additional training; however, by involving employees from multiple disciplines throughout the business, the company minimized any resistance to the changes.

AMP's Motor Vehicle Business unit understood that change required the understanding and acceptance of all associates in order to be successful in its certification goal. Change must first be sponsored by top management, and AMP demonstrated its commitment by allocating resources and time to identify, document and implement the requirements throughout the business.

The multidisciplined teams served as change agents. Training was provided for all associates to thoroughly explain both QS-9000's requirements and why the Motor Vehicle Business was adopting this quality standard. Instead of merely directing everyone to follow the new requirements, the company took time to explain, educate and gain employee commitment to QS-9000. By using this implementation plan, AMP minimized confusion and, consequently, resistance.

Several of the Motor Vehicle Business division's plants now hold quarterly meetings with all associates, during which QS-9000 issues, requirements and assessments are discussed. This allows employees to be personally involved in the decision-making process and help drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.

As the process evolved, AMP realized additional benefits to being a QS-9000-certified organization. Certification allowed the Motor Vehicle Business division to verify its strengths and areas in which it is best in its class, and increase its credibility with customers. The company's auditors pointed out that the division's preventive maintenance area was a best-in-class for the industry. This department performs computerized tracking of preventive vs. reactive maintenance, backlog maintenance orders and predictive maintenance.

As part of its commitment to continuous improvement, AMP has used the automotive industry's Quality Operating System program for more than 10 years. This process was designed to help organizations simplify business management and forms the basis of a continuously improving organization through focus on the customer. QOS requires companies to use trend charts, establish goals and analyze their own operations. Tracking what is important to run a successful business has helped the Motor Vehicle Business unit improve the quality of its organization, processes and results.

In addition to its business with the Big Three, the division often competes to sell a particular product to tier one suppliers. These companies integrate various products from tier two suppliers to develop items such as instrument boards and brake systems, which are then sold to the automotive manufacturers. Therefore, AMP's customers include not only the Big Three but tier one organizations that sell to them.

Often, to ensure they are purchasing products from a high-quality organization, tier one suppliers request AMP to complete detailed surveys regarding its processes and procedures. Now AMP can simply provide the requesting organization with a copy of its QS-9000 certificate, and that says it all.

Typically, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors select an electrical connector system through a design contest and instruct tier one suppliers to use the specified connectors. However, as the tier one companies are given more responsibility to select their own components, the Motor Vehicle Business division's capabilities, performance and QS-9000 certification will significantly enhance its relationship with these customers.

AMP began assessing its own suppliers to QS-9000 requirements in 1995. In 1997, the Motor Vehicle Business unit initiated a fully documented supply base development program, part of AMP's overall continuous improvement process. Currently, the company does not require third-party QS-9000 certification of its suppliers.

The Motor Vehicle Business division has realized that QS-9000's requirement for continuous improvement was one of the biggest benefits of the process. With a mature QS-9000 system in place, the company can continuously review and strengthen its practices. The division constantly raises the bar internally rather than waiting on the customer to do so. A strong, management-supported internal assessment program drives this process.

With the newly formed AMP Global Automotive division, the company can better serve its customers around the world. The goals of this new organization include:

  Following its customers' globalization trends.

  Providing customers with access to the full range of AMP's technologies, products and engineering capabilities.

  Generating synergies throughout the global operations to further improve AMP's competitiveness.

  Providing customers with a consistently high level of service and support regardless of where AMP products are designed, sourced, manufactured or required.

Creating AMP Global Automotive has led to QS-9000 certifications for AMP locations around the world, including Brazil, Canada, Germany, Singapore and Mexico. Plants in Great Britain, Japan and Korea will be certified before the end of the year. These certifications truly will allow AMP to participate in the global automotive marketplace.