06 Sep Eliminating a $5 million per Year Customer Experienced Defect
Client:
A coating manufacturer’s number one customer complaint in terms of both frequency and cost was cracking. Despite numerous internal attempts to solve the problem, no progress was made in reducing the frequency of the defect. The quality problem was resulting in a loss of customers to competing firms.
Goal:
Determine the cause of the defect and reduce the frequency by 70% or more.
Results:
A team led by an eMRI consultant was assembled. The key to success was developing a measurement system that was capable of measuring cracking on a variable data scale. Once cracking could be quantified (rather than just saying it is cracking or not), the root cause of the defect could be properly investigated. Within 3 months of developing the measurement system, the root cause was identified and procedures put in place to eliminate it.
Savings:
$5,000,000 per year in reduced customer claims plus improvements in customer retention.
