Mass production is tricky.
Products need to be manufactured correctly the first time and the process must be efficient. Otherwise, a manufacturer wastes time, money, manpower and materials.
That’s where Jule Hegwood steps in.
“If you make a better product, people are going to want it,” Hegwood said.
Hegwood is a quality engineer at Manchester manufacturer Vision Technical Molding LLC. A 36-year veteran of the manufacturing industry, she preaches quality assurance and lean programs — necessities for any company trying to compete in the global marketplace, she said.
“We are a very precision industry … there’s no way we could forgo quality,” Hegwood said. “Having a quality engineer is an absolute necessity at the place where I work.”
Vision Technical Molding makes plastic molds for the medical device industry. Because each product must be precise, having a quality assurance department is mandated by the federal government, much like many of the state’s other manufacturing subsectors, such as aerospace.
Vision Technical Molding, founded in 1996, has expanded rapidly in the past decade. From its original four-press operation in South Windsor, the firm moved to a 16,000-square-foot Manchester facility in 2004, expanded by 6,000 square feet three years later, and grew to 42,000 square feet by 2009. The facility houses 25 presses.
With the rapid increase in volume, Vision works hard to ensure each product is high quality, said Eric Hasel, quality assurance manager. If any product is even the slightest bit flawed, the company loses money on re-production.
“If you are not making a product right the first time, you are making it over again,” Hasel said.
That’s why quality assurance should be proactive, Hegwood said. She works to be part of every step in the manufacturing process, so any needed changes are made before the final product is produced.
More than just assuring quality, manufacturers need to make their processes more efficient, cutting down on costs to the customer while increasing profits, Hegwood said. That’s why she encourages all companies to jump on the lean production bandwagon.
Lean production or lean manufacturing exists in many disciplines — Six Sigma, Toyota Production System, Kaizen — but the concept behind each one is to reduce waste in processes while still producing a high-quality product.
An employee heavily trained in lean techniques — such as Hegwood, who is a Six Sigma master black belt — can save a company $500,000 to $1 million in waste processes.
Quality assurance and lean are a natural marriage, Hegwood said. As quality engineers look to keep mistakes to a minimum by working proactively, they can eliminate waste in those production processes.
“Six Sigma made the last 15 years of my career gel,” Hegwood said. “It made what I was trying to do as a quality engineer make that much more sense.”
The lean movement started in the mid 1990s, and by the end of that decade, most companies realized it gave them a competitive advantage in the marketplace, said Mike Gugger, manager of consulting services for CONNStep, the state’s business consulting firm.
Lean offers control, efficiencies and the ability to see what is coming, all making life easy for companies, Gugger said. As more Connecticut manufacturers face challenges from around the globe, they need to be competitive on quality and cost.
“I don’t care what you make. Somebody somewhere is competing with you, and it is a battle,” Gugger said. “The market isn’t just down the street or in the next state or even across the country. It is around the globe.”
Because of Connecticut manufacturers’ commitment to quality and lean — through federal mandate or otherwise — a sense of community has developed among quality engineers and lean professionals.
The Hartford chapter of the ASQ, formerly known as the American Society for Quality, has more than 400 members and maintains strong membership, despite the recession, said Paul Deuth, spokesman for the Hartford organization.
This community of people is important in discussing best practices for quality and lean production, since most manufacturers’ quality assurance departments are small, Hegwood said. Of the 70 employees at Vision Technical Molding, for example, only five make up the quality assurance department.
“In our section meetings, our people are talking shop,” Hegwood said. “Quality assurance people in general are very dedicated.”
As quality assurance people learn more and more from each other — and delve into lean production techniques — the processes get better, which is best for the bottom line, Hegwood said.
“It is all about the customer,” Hegwood said. “From the start of the lean process, the focus has to be on the customer.”
