Overview
Dave Anderson, the dedicated Quality Assurance Manager at Efco, shares his journey of integrating Unifize into their operations, transforming their traditional, paper-based quality management into a dynamic, cloud-based system. His experience highlights how Unifize streamlined collaboration, enhanced decision-making processes, and significantly improved efficiency across multiple shifts in the demanding field of steel forming equipment manufacturing.
Challenge
Dave encountered substantial obstacles in managing documentation, ensuring process efficiency, and fostering effective communication across Efco's operations. The reliance on outdated, paper-driven processes not only consumed considerable resources but also limited the company's agility and ability to respond to operational challenges promptly.
Solution
Efco chose Unifize for its adaptability, user-friendly interface, and the powerful collaboration it facilitated among teams. The platform stood out for its ability to handle complex documentation digitally and support real-time problem-solving, offering a solution perfectly aligned with Efco's specific requirements.
Ease of Use
Unifize's intuitive design allowed Dave and his team to tailor the platform to Efco's workflows, greatly simplifying the transition from paper to digital, streamlining documentation management, and maintaining operational continuity without significant disruptions.
Communication and Collaboration
The platform revolutionized Efco's internal communication, centralizing discussions and decision-making. By moving away from inefficient email chains to Unifize's discussion boards, Efco ensured that critical information was always accessible and actionable, significantly improving project management and problem resolution.
Documentation and Compliance
While Efco's processes mirrored ISO principles without formal certification, Unifize enabled a new level of documentation integrity and operational consistency. Its comprehensive record-keeping capabilities facilitated better audit preparation and compliance with industry standards, despite Efco not pursuing formal ISO certification.
Results
The implementation of Unifize led to marked improvements in Efco's operational efficiency, notably reducing response times to issues and enhancing team collaboration. This efficiency gain was achieved without compromising the quality or integrity of the company's processes, even realizing significant cost savings by optimizing staffing strategies.
Professional Preparedness
Unifize's detailed record-keeping and real-time collaboration tools have equipped Dave and his team with the resources to address operational and quality challenges confidently, ensuring Efco's readiness for any compliance or audit requirements.
Regulatory Alignment
Although Efco operates with a focus on ASTM standards and AWS training for welders, Unifize supported their adherence to these industry-specific guidelines, enhancing their commitment to quality and operational excellence.
Conclusion
For Dave Anderson and Efco, Unifize has been instrumental in navigating the complexities of modern manufacturing, enhancing operational efficiencies, and ensuring all team members stay informed and engaged. Dave's story reflects the potential of Unifize to revolutionize quality management and operational processes, demonstrating how innovative solutions can facilitate significant improvements in traditional manufacturing environments.
I think, collaboration within a conversation, makes things more personal instead of somebody getting flagged by a piece of software saying, “Hey, you got a problem, go fix it.”
[00:11 - 00:19]
Well, with Unifize, we can collaborate. And I was like, okay, did we try this? You know, what's next? What can we you know, what else can be done?
[00:19 - 00:22]
Unifize set itself apart for that reason.
[00:22 - 00:36]
We're not sending emails or whatever we're doing everything inside Unifize. Smaller groups can help everybody just concentrate on the issue. It's kind of like a committee, that you don't have to take time for and find a conference room to sit down and discuss.
[00:36 - 00:41]
You can you know, you can make decisions on the fly within Unifize.
[00:45 - 00:57]
I'm Dave Anderson. I'm quality assurance manager here at Efco, and I've been with the company for 20 years and I've been quality assurance manager for the last three.
[00:57 - 01:13]
Efco supplies products to big construction firms. Just be an improvement minded was like I know we can be better. We're not perfect, but let's get as close to perfect as we possibly can and just continue to strive for that. That's what I enjoy about quality.
[01:13 - 01:28]
When we were looking for quality management systems, we were primarily concerned with something very easy to use and we can get 100% accountability. We are able to gain that with Unifize.
[01:32 - 01:47]
Unifize has helped the off shifts because on first shift, we can call an engineer and get a decision made really quick. We have repeat problems that come up, you know, ten years down the road. We're now able to go back look at that issue.
[01:47 - 01:59]
If it's in the resolution process, what was determined at that time, the off shifts don't have to wait for an engineer approval any more of this because of “Oh, this is how we handled it, you know, back then.” That's a big improvement for the off shifts.
[01:59 - 02:16]
The longer we have this, those resolutions are going to grow and we should be able to have a pretty sizable library of how to address issues as they arise in the future. I believe time wise and reaction time to those tickets has increased 70%.
[02:16 - 02:38]
That I mean that It's minutes now with Unifize. You know, paper based that was 111 hours. With Unifize that got us down to 33 hours. So that just opens up doors for, you know, allocating our resources to help other people elsewhere and not sitting in the office filling out paper all the time. Thanks to Unifize on that.
[02:42 - 03:00]
The really cool thing is the phone app you can be anywhere on the floor. You don't necessarily have to sit in front of your computer to collaborate. The little bit of paper we do use now has a barcode. You scan that with your phone takes that individual right to the discussion or the conversation within Unifize.
[03:00 - 03:04]
There you have it. You know what's going on just by scanning the barcode on the ticket.
[03:04 - 03:17]
You have a ticket show up, in the next department they are like, what's this? Well scan the code. You know exactly what's going on with that part that's in your area and what you need to do with it using Unifize.
[03:20 - 03:35]
You know, for the cost of Unifize it was you know, the total cost of employing somebody at that position was for Efco was a $44,000 a year savings just by not filling the position because Unifize created an environment where we didn't really need that position anymore.
[03:35 - 03:42]
Anybody that's a user and directly involved with Unifize and directly involved in the conversation has to they're involved.
[03:42 - 03:52]
There's no sidelines to this anymore. It is just like you people are responsible. A small group of people are responsible for this particular issue.
[03:52 - 03:59]
It's a 100% buy-in on everybody. Sooner or later, somebody is going to have to contribute. That's what I like about it.
[03:59 - 04:11]
Once we are ready to rock and roll on getting all of our processes, you know, buttoned up without any errors, we're going, we're going all in. I'm going to drive it.
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Unifize Results
Speed to compliance
Faster time-to-market
Fewer meetings