How we work
How an engagement runs.
From the first call to the last report: what we look at, how the work is packaged, how the week runs and when we stop.
Talk about your situationIt starts with a letter, a scorecard or a launch.
An escalation letter from your customer. A supplier you have to develop. A launch that is slipping. A claim nobody can settle. We start by asking what the customer wants from you and what you have already tried.
Ask about this stageInside your customer's programme
Escalation and supplier-development programmes have their own names and levels at every customer and in every industry. We work inside yours, by its rules.
We ask before we conclude.
The first days we spend on the floor, asking. Then the data: defects by production date, the control plan, the PFMEA. Out of that comes the gap map, by process element and by theme.
Ask about this stageOne package per gap
Logistics, production, the quality system, engineering, maintenance, development, customer care. Wherever the assessment finds a gap, that gap gets its own package.
Every gap becomes a package with an owner.
Problem solving. Containment at the gate. Systemic improvement. Implementing the actions and proving they work. Each package has a scope, a milestone and the evidence that closes it.
Ask about this stageScope, budget and exit are agreed first
We agree the scope, the budget and what done means before the work starts. Review points show where we are. An extension is agreed on evidence, not on habit.
Agree who leads, what it costs and when we review.
Before the first week we agree who leads the project, who does what on both sides, how the budget is built, where the milestones are and what would justify an extension.
Ask about this stageWhere we are, what we did, what comes next
Where we are. What was done, with the evidence. What comes next. Which decisions we need from you.
Inside your plant's teams, not beside them.
A project lead and experts by domain work inside the plant's own problem-solving teams, shoulder by shoulder with your people. Your quality manager stays the owner and approver of every case.
Ask about this stage
A short pitch every day, a review every week.
A short pitch every morning, a wrap-up every evening, booked hours on the floor. Every week we review what was done, what the evidence shows, what comes next and which decisions are needed. One red work package makes the whole status red.
Ask about this stageThe work ends on evidence, not on a date.
A containment point closes only after the agreed run of clean days at every gate. The programme steps down when the customer's criteria are met, not when the calendar says so. The registers stay with you.
Ask about this stageThe vocabulary
Your customer's programme uses its own names and levels. These are the generic terms.
- Quality notification
- The customer's formal notice that a delivery or a process has fallen below the agreed level. It starts the clock on an answer.
- Improvement action plan
- The supplier's written answer to the notification: actions, owners, dates and the evidence of effect.
- Focus supplier programme
- A period of closer customer supervision: regular visits, a process audit at the start and at the end, agreed targets.
- New-business hold
- The customer awards no new work until the programme's exit criteria are met.
- Containment point and clean point
- A check in the flow that stops a known defect; the clean point marks the first checked material released under the agreed controls.
- Quality gate
- The inspection and release step at which a batch may move on, with its own record.
- Resident engineer
- A person placed in the supplier's plant or at the customer's checkpoint for the duration of the programme.
- Task force
- The cross-functional team assembled for the programme, with a lead on each side.
- Steering committee
- The customer's and the supplier's managers who meet periodically to decide on scope, budget and escalation.
- 8D with containment held until validation
- The problem-solving method whose containment stays in place until the corrective action has been shown to work.
- Open-points list
- The single register of actions, owners, dates and status that every review reads.
- CSL1 / CSL2 and the quality wall ("firewall")
- Defined in the escalation service's questions
How long
Most projects run for two months or longer. A narrowly scoped firewall assignment may take one month.
Questions
How long does an engagement run?
Most projects run for two months or longer. A narrowly scoped firewall assignment may take one month. Working cycles are agreed up front and extended on evidence.
Who commissions the work, and who sees what?
The customer or the supplier commissions it. Either way, nothing reaches the customer that has not been aligned with the plant first. Where the two sides disagree, the disagreement is recorded; there is never a parallel report.
What do we need from you?
Access to the floor and the people, defect data by production date, a named deputy for each party and a lead for the task force.
What does it cost?
Each project is scoped and priced on its own; there is no public price list. The first conversation is where we identify the likely scope and what we need to price it.
Start
Start with a conversation.
Use the 30-minute call to explain the issue, deadline and what your team has already tried. We can then decide whether engineering support, training or a software walkthrough is the right next step.
Discuss your quality issue