Success – QTI Sensing Solutions
Have Your Quality and Eat it Too
QTI Sensing Solutions
Operational Excellence
Nampa, ID
QTI Sensing Solutions is a leading producer of high-quality temperature sensors. It was founded in 1977 and continues to maintain its leadership position for mission-critical applications as well as for medical and industrial applications by supplying the world’s top companies with innovative products and services.
Project
The company was producing small product batches of product with long lead times. Production workers and managers had come to accept 55-gallon drums on the factory floor that filled with rejected parts. QTI had explored Lean Manufacturing earlier and had adopted some of the principles. This Lean background provided a basic foundation for QTI, but managers wanted to introduce Lean to newer employees and they wanted to introduce the statistical rigors of Six Sigma. A team of three QTI managers enrolled in TechHelp’s Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course (LSS), where each was tasked with selecting and completing a real project at the QTI plant. TechHelp is a member of the MEP National Network™.
Results
- Reduced rejects to a handful.
- Improved product flow with Lean concepts.
- Reduced WIP by 10,000 pieces.
- Created 5S Champion, focused on continuous improvement of workplace organization.
- Created clear, visual, bilingual work instructions at the source of the work.
- Created FDMA inspection checklists ranked by importance.
- Mistake proofed processes using the Production Part Approval Process.
- Cut production lead time by over half and improved on-time delivery with every month ahead of goal.
Our goal is to be the best temperature sensor manufacturer in the world and Lean Six Sigma is what the best companies in the world are doing. We’ll keep doing it and getting better; it’s a never-ending journey.
– Brandon Coleman, General Manager