Automotive Refinish Technologies Inc. (ART), whose headquarters is in Southfield, Michigan, has numerous
facilities throughout the United States and Canada. With the addition of each new site, managers noticed that key operations were undertaken very differently from location to location; moreover,
each site had its own local business practices. With ART's high growth rate, managers could envision only segregation and weakness in a centrally managed business process. ART acknowledged that
it needed a system to not only standardize but also improve its business processes. To attain such a system, ART executives began the ISO 9002 registration process. Thousands
of companies, especially those in the Detroit area (home of the Big Three automakers), have sought ISO 9002 registration; why should we care about one more? Because ART isn't an original
equipment manufacturer (OEM)--it's an aftermarket distributor, an international paint, body and equipment retail distribution network. ART sells refinish coatings and associated products to
collision repair facilities (body shops), vehicular fleets, industrial accounts and other users of after-market coatings. ART elected to pursue registration not to meet a customer requirement,
but to develop a documented, standardized, highly organized quality system. Most companies have policy and procedure (P&P) manuals based on management theory or technique
that have little to do with the actual day-to-day field processes. ART's P&P manuals were either voluminous, not properly updated, outdated or not relevant to local practices. More often than
not, the P&P manual was left on the shelf and ignored by the employees in the field. ART wanted to create a work instruction manual that would be an effective tool for all of its employees
and would help them improve quality and customer satisfaction. ISO 9002 seemed like the ideal management tool with which to create a living quality system to replace the outdated P&P manual. "ART is committed to being a long-term, highly effective participant in the auto-body repair industry," explains John Montes, ART's CEO and president. "To achieve
this in an ever-consolidating marketplace, we're willing to look at entirely new concepts that will give our company an edge in the extremely competitive and consolidating market. ISO 9002 will
not only allow us to expand our presence and strengthen our long-term viability, but will provide us with a documented system that will allow us to be a better managed organization. By
undertaking ISO 9002 certification, we are not only stressing quality and customer satisfaction, but are also documenting our key processes and creating a vehicle for consistent improvement of
those key processes. "The key to customer loyalty and support is how the product is sold, serviced and delivered. If any one of those three elements is lacking, it
jeopardizes that business's growth. Undertaking the ISO 9002 certification only seemed a natural step to ensure that ART is selling and delivering products and servicing customers to the best of
their ability." Many businesses in different marketplaces say that they train their employees, and that they pride themselves on customer service. ART undertook ISO 9002
certification and will be rolling it out to its numerous locations so that they have a mechanism in place to standardize key operations and conduct root cause analysis of problems while stressing
quality and customer satisfaction. Developing a model Having an expansive organization and being
unfamiliar with ISO 9002's requirements, management's first step was to hire a consultant to help interpret the standard and the registration process. ART also developed a pilot to validate
against one of their locations. ART selected Eagle Group USA Inc., an ISO consulting and training firm, to support its quality management system (QMS) definition and rollout efforts. In March
1998, ART's management nominated a management representative and a deputy management representative and selected the manager from one of their best-run and most profitable stores to draft this
pilot and implement ART's QMS. A project schedule was agreed upon by the team to allow time for development of the QMS model, employee training, and ultimate certification for its headquarters
and one field site. Managers held numerous meetings and telephone conferences during the drafting of ART's QMS to ensure that the policies and procedures required by ISO 9002 coordinated with the
practices of the store that they would be validating against. However, ART always had to consider that it would be implementing that QMS at numerous other locations and would still need to meet
ISO 9002's requirements. Key employees had on-site meetings at which they conducted ISO 9002 awareness training. During these meetings, they educated employees on the ISO 9002
standard and ART's new QMS, coordinated it to the employees' day-to-day practices, and stressed every employee's involvement in the continuous improvement of the QMS. They ensured that each
employee who was primarily responsible for a specific process understood every element of the standard that applied to that process. Frequently, the employees at the lower end
of the organizational chart have the least understanding and receive the least input regarding their functional capabilities. ART's QMS changes this by initiating the Continuous Improvement Form
(CIF) system to gain total employee participation. The CIF is ART's vehicle for corrective and preventive action and allows every employee to make suggestions to continuously improve any of the
QMS' processes. By initiating the CIF during the early stages of their pilot's development, managers reinforced every employee's participation in the system. After site meetings, it was each
branch manager's responsibility to conduct supplemental training with his or her employees right up until the certification audit by the registrar. In the interim, internal audits, as well as
external audits by Eagle Group, were conducted at both locations to ensure that the QMS was active and that all employees understood it. As a result of the audits, nonconformances were found that
required root-cause analysis, supplemental training and document changes. Additionally, employees completed the CIF for required document changes or supplemental training and ultimately created a
living, viable QMS that was now ready to undergo a certification audit in November 1998. ART successfully passed its pilot QMS certification audit, and its headquarters and one store received
certification. ART was ready to begin rolling out its QMS to other sites. Rolling out the QMS In December
1998, during the quality planning portion of their management review meeting, ART's directors decided upon the number of stores to involve and the required time frame to successfully roll out the
QMS during the upcoming year. The management team decided it would be cost prohibitive for each store to obtain its own certificate. They agreed that any additional stores would be added to their
first certificate, thereby expanding their original scope. The management representative, deputy management representative, consultant and the branch manager from ART's field
site were influential in rolling the QMS model out to the additional stores. During the rollout process, it was decided to expand the project team to include all of ART's regional operations
managers. The regional operations managers not only had an overview of the operations at the prospective rollout sites, but also possessed knowledge of operations for all of ART's stores. The
entire project team, including the branch managers of the prospective sites, met for the initial rollout meeting. Each element of the ISO 9002 standard and ART's new QMS was explained, as were
the schedule (see Table 1) and procedure for implementing the QMS at each of the prospective locations. The branch manager from the initial pilot site also detailed the benefits, including the
continuity of operations and increased customer satisfaction at the prospective locations. During this rollout meeting, uncontrolled copies of the ISO 9002 standard, ART's quality manual and
ART's standard operating procedure manual were provided to all attendees to review with their employees. The branch managers were then asked to go back to their respective sites, review the
manuals and note areas where ART's pilot model did not fit operations at their respective site locations. Each individual member of the project team was asked to conduct this gap analysis
element-by-element and determine differences or discrepancies where the standard operating procedure had to be reworked or where ART had to develop a site-specific work instruction. Each week, a
different element was reviewed and the comments forwarded to the deputy management representative for analysis. At the end of each week, the entire project team had a telephone conference to
discuss the differences. During this telephone conference, they decided as a group how to best modify the standard operating procedure so that it accurately reflected the best practices for all
rollout locations instead of the one pilot location. It was sometimes necessary for some of the stores to modify a few of their business practices for the good of the team. Table 1: ISO 9002 Roll-Out Schedule
After the conclusion of the gap analysis, modifications to the QMS documentation were made. Controlled manuals were distributed to the entire
project team and the individual branch manager or branch operations manager set out to train their employees on the QMS. The training was conducted
element-by-element on a schedule to least interfere with normal business operation. During the training period, ART selected a group of employees to attend a
two-day internal auditor training program conducted at ART's headquarters. ART selected employees from different levels of the company for auditor
training to disseminate knowledge about the new QMS corporationwide. Shortly after the auditor training, internal audits were scheduled at all of the
locations (headquarters, pilot site and the additional sites). This provided hands-on training for the auditors and gave the company different perspectives
on its QMS documentation and processes. The regional operations managers, who usually functioned only within their geographic regions, traveled to sites
outside of their regions and witnessed how other stores were accepting these processes. The audit paperwork was submitted back to headquarters, where
the management representative and deputy management representative reviewed and quantified the nonconformances by location and element (see Table 2). By quantifying the nonconformances in this manner, they were able
to see not only which locations required more training, but also the elements in which they were receiving nonconformances. The nonconformances were
reported to the members of the management team so that they could identify potential problems and direct the appropriate resources to that location. Once
again, after each audit, a telephone conference was held with the entire project team to discuss the outcome of the audit, address problem areas, determine
corrective actions and revise the documentation. A second round of audits followed a month and a half later to ensure that
appropriate corrective and preventive actions were installed, supplemental training was conducted, the system was still functioning as planned, and all
employees within the system were participating. Again the internal audit paper-work was forwarded to the management representative and deputy
management representative to ensure that satisfactory audits were performed and to analyze the nonconformances by element and location. Another
telephone conference with the entire project team was held to discuss the second round of audits and the final stages of implementation of the QMS
prior to the certification audit. Management anticipates that they will pass their certification audit and that the additional stores will be added to their certificate by November 1999.
Planning for the future Besides additional store rollouts, ART will have to address the changes
associated with the ISO 9001:2000 revision and reflect those changes within its QMS documentation. Management is confident that this process will go
smoothly, given their template for disseminating the information and training their employees. ART's process of developing a model, validating that model against
headquarters and one store, then applying that model to a larger group of stores that performed a gap analysis allowed it to develop a broader, more
acceptable QMS that will fit a more expansive group of stores each time. ART is currently distributing its work instruction manual and forms manual to all of
its stores, which will then be able to start implementing those work instructions and standardized forms immediately. Then, as ART rolls out the QMS to each
new site, each of ART's stores will only have to familiarize itself with the ISO 9002 standard, the quality manual and the standard operating procedure
manual. ART is hopeful that it can implement its ISO 9002 QMS at a larger number of stores each year under a more condensed time frame until all stores obtain their ISO 9002 certification. The ISO 9002 registration process was a great approach to standardizing the processes of ART's multi-regional retail distribution network. It created a
documented communication system among ART's regions where potential problems are reported to management and addressed to prevent
reoccurrence. ART's QMS is a valuable asset that provides continuity, monitors key processes, increases customer satisfaction and allows all
employees to participate in the continuous improvement process. "Part of our core ideologies is that service to our customers, employees, and
preferred partners can be second to none," explains Montes. " 'Good' is never good enough. The quality of our products and services provided should only
be exceeded by those who provide it. "Our quality management system is the vehicle that will allow us to be
inventive and flexible and create desire among all levels of the company to renew and reinvent our processes yearly, if not daily, in order to consistently
provide a high quality product to our customers. The quality management system that we have developed pursuant to ISO 9002 certification is documented proof that we stand behind our words." ART has acknowledged that its QMS will always be a work in progress, changing to fit current needs or technological changes. ART's managers are
confident that with the participation of all their employees in the QMS, their efforts will be successful and their customers will continually receive products
and services from ART that exceed their expectations. About the authors
Anthony C. Fletcher is a principal and director of operations for Eagle Group USA Inc. He is an RAB QS-LA and an ASQ CQE. Contact him via e-mail at tfletcher@qualitydigest.com
. Rebecca M. Sukes is operations administrator and acts as the deputy management representative at Automotive Refinish Technologies Inc. in
Southfield, Michigan. She is responsible for the development, implementation and rollout of ART's ISO 9002 quality management
system, and she also manages internal audits and assists in the business operations. Contact her by phone at (248) 304-5512 or via e-mail at rsukes@qualitydigest.com . |
