INDUCTION SERVICES INC.: Maintaining Strong and Effective Internal Quality Audit
Our instructor at The Center was phenomenal. The class materials were easy to understand. It was very refreshing not to have ‘dry’ materials. The Center has consistently met our expectations in our training needs at an affordable cost.
-- Carolyn Czech, Human Resources Manager
Induction Services, Inc. (www.inductionservices.com) has been a full-service, customer-focused supplier of induction heat treatment since 1956. Induction Services provides customers in the automotive, appliance, marine, agricultural and aerospace industries with metallurgical assistance and induction heat treating of shafts, gears, castings, forgings and more. Induction Services employs 40 at their Warren, Mich., facility.
Challenge
Induction Services has sought out the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (The Center) for all quality systems training since 2009. When it came time to transition from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015, Induction Services immediately turned to The Center to invest in training to certify their current internal auditors to the revised standard.
Solution
Five team members at Induction Services attended The Center’s three-day ISO 9001:2015 Internal Auditor training ahead of their upgrade audit. During the training, a minor discrepancy was found in the procedure that did not meet the minimum requirement of the standard. Although it was a simple fix, the team noted this problem would not have been identified without this additional training. All team members left the training with a clear understanding of how to audit the processes to the procedures. They continue to conduct audits regularly and effectively. At their most recent surveillance audit with the registrar, the auditor commended Induction Services on the strength and effectiveness of their internal audits.
Results
- Cost Savings: Induction Services reported saving approximately 35% in costs by having training conducted on-site. This enabled all auditors to be trained at once, rather than in separate groups off-site. Additionally, other training opportunities were at least 15 to 20 percent higher in cost and only offered off-site training.
- Quality Improvement: An increased knowledge of core tools among internal auditors has helped the company to maintain their objective goal of <1% defects.
- Productivity Improvement: Having well-trained auditors to understand the procedures, launch new jobs and continually improve existing jobs using their knowledge of core tools has improved turnaround time, consistently meeting customer expectations.