Quality Control At Scroll Technologies

Quality Control

At Scroll Technologies

For fifteen years Scroll Technologies has been a leader in the field of air conditioning and refrigeration. Quality and product innovation have given Scroll Technologies a highly respected name within this global industry. At Scroll Technologies it is the mangers and policies that govern a highly effective workforce to meet the challenges of the industry. In this paper we will examine some of the quality control measures that make Scroll Technologies such a productive company.

In 1991 Scroll technologies product was in its infancy stages. The scroll compressor with its patented scroll pump system was new, and the manufacturing of this product was unprecedented. They suffered many set backs because of the lack of control measures. It was trial and error to establish a consistent way of producing a quality product. In its first two years the company developed a bad reputation and nearly went bankrupt. They new they had a good product but the manufacturing of it was another matter. It was quickly realized that standard operating procedures were necessary if the company was to establish a place in the industry. They new they had a good product but the manufacturing of it was another matter.

The establishment of a quality control department soon came after and became standard procedure to inspect the components before they went to assembly. Money was spent and gauging machines were purchased. This proved to be a success. As the compressors were tested in the laboratory they began to show more consistent performance during a run-in period. However gauging each component prior to assembly was a time consuming process and the company was unable to meet customer demands. So an interval was set up to gauge a predetermined amount of parts, this resulted in speeding up the process without compromising quality. Jim Patterson is a quality engineer with Scroll Technologies. According to Dave many changes have been made in the inspection criteria for components before assembly. It used to be standard operating procedure to gauge parts each time they left a machining operation. Dave discovered that there was no deviation in the part until the seventh machining operation. This reduced the amount of gauge time by eighty percent. He also reduced the amount of paperwork involved with gauging parts for assembly (Fenochi, 2008). Slowly Scroll Technologies began to move in the right direction. By 1997 Scroll Technologies saw a boost in customer sales and was purchased jointly by Carrier Compressor Division and Bristol Compressor. Scroll Technologies had now reached a place of respect in the industry that these two companies were willing to put them in their systems.

This successful partnership continued until 2006 when The Danfoss Group a Norwegian firm that produces controls for air conditioning and refrigeration purchased Scroll Technologies in a large bid that saved the compressor company. With this change in ownership came many new requirements. Scroll Technologies now had to shift there focus globally. In order to be considered a serious force in a global market. Scroll Technologies had to become ISO certified. ISO stands for International Standards Organization. Most customers worldwide will not even consider doing business with a company that is not ISO certified. This process took almost a year to complete. Scroll Technologies did a thorough house cleaning. They restructured the management hierarchy to incorporate the new representatives from Europe. They inspected the procedures and forms, and found some to be redundant. They eliminated these and updated other procedures and forms, which are handled and controlled in a more efficient way. Scroll Technologies’ top management is committed to maintaining an effective quality management system, which establishes documents and implements the quality policy and related processes for providing products that meet or exceed customer requirements. The quality management system satisfies the requirements of ISO 9001: 2000. The goal of Scroll Technologies is to continually improve quality management system effectiveness and efficiency.

The quality management system that Scroll Technologies has adopted accomplishes several key tasks. It describes and controls the process needed for a quality management system. It establishes and controls the sequence and interaction of these processes. It specifies the criteria and methods required to ensure the effective operation and control of manufacturing processes. It also ensures the availability of information necessary to support the operation and monitoring of management and manufacturing processes. Lastly, it measures, monitors and analyzes these processes, and implements action necessary to achieve planned results and continual improvement.

One of the keys to the new quality management system is document control. At Scroll Technologies there are three levels of documentation. Level one is the quality system manual. Level two is quality procedures. And level three includes work instruction, forms, and reports. The Quality manager has the overall responsibility for ensuring that all records required for the quality management system (including customer-specific records) are controlled and maintained. Documented procedures describe the controls for identification, storage, protection, retention and disposition of quality records.

Management’s commitment to the development and continual improvement of the effectiveness of the quality management system has included several tasks. They have begun communicating to all personnel, the importance of meeting customers as well as regulatory and legal requirements. This has a positive affect on employee self esteem. They feel more in touch with the goals of the company. Management has also established a quality policy and quality objectives. This has cleared up some of the confusion that existed before in the decision making of front line managers. Now they have clear policies in place for reference.

Management is providing the necessary resources to all appropriate personnel to achieve their goals. Customer needs and expectations are determined, converted into requirements and fulfilled with the aim of achieving