About Efco
Efco is a leading company specialising in concrete forming systems for various construction projects, including bridges, houses, and parking garages. Their operations encompass the procurement and management of steel required for these forming systems, highlighting their pivotal role in the construction industry's supply chain.
Industry
Construction
Location
Des Moines, Iowa, United States of America
Making decisions on time with asynchronous collaboration
This video provides a comprehensive overview of Dave Anderson's role and perspectives on collaboration using Unifize. Dave, the Quality Assurance Manager at Efco, shares how Unifize has significantly improved operational efficiency and problem-solving across shifts by enhancing real-time communication and decision-making. He discusses the platform's impact on reducing response times, moving away from paper-based processes, and the financial savings realized by optimizing staff positions. Dave's enthusiasm for Unifize's collaborative environment underscores the platform's effectiveness in fostering accountability and involvement among team members.
Making decisions on time with asynchronous collaboration
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 The reliance on outdated, paper-driven processes not only consumed considerable resources but also limited the company's agility and ability to respond to operational challenges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.
Transcript
[00:00 - 00:11]
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.
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.
02:12
How smaller groups lead to 70% faster actions
In this video, Dave Anderson from Efco shares his transformative experience with Unifize, emphasizing how the platform fostered smaller, more efficient discussion groups to swiftly address problems. By enabling seamless collaboration and record-keeping online, Unifize ensured that all stakeholders stayed informed and engaged, leading to a remarkable 70% improvement in action response times. Dave highlights the significant reduction in administrative overhead, from managing paperwork to leveraging Unifize’s streamlined processes, showcasing the platform's impact on enhancing productivity and resource allocation.
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00:42
Getting 100% buy-in from everybody
In this compelling video, Dave Anderson delves into the crucial aspect of achieving universal buy-in within an organization for Unifize. He outlines the challenges and strategies involved in garnering complete commitment from every team member, emphasizing the importance of direct involvement and accountability. Through personal insights and experiences, Dave illustrates how Unifize's approach eliminates sidelines, ensuring that every stakeholder is actively engaged in addressing issues, leading to more cohesive and efficient problem-solving processes.
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00:44
Under 24h response times from Unifize Customer Support
Dave Anderson praises the exceptional customer support of Unifize in this video, emphasizing the prompt and efficient response times to queries and issues. He shares his positive experiences, highlighting how Unifize’s support team consistently delivers solutions within hours, not days, ensuring minimal disruption to workflow. Dave's testimonial underlines the crucial role of Unifize’s customer service in enhancing operational efficiency and problem resolution, making it a valuable asset to any organization seeking to improve its process management.
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01:08
Moving records from paper to the cloud
In this insightful video, Dave Anderson discusses the pivotal shift from paper-based processes to cloud-based solutions with Unifize. He shares the historical challenges of managing quality control and inventory through cumbersome paper records, detailing how these processes were prone to errors and inefficiency. With Unifize, Dave explains the transition to digital record-keeping, highlighting the platform's ability to foster smaller, focused discussion groups for problem-solving, ensuring all stakeholders are informed and engaged in real-time. This digital transformation has significantly enhanced accuracy, collaboration, and resolution speed within his organization.
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01:39
Future of Unifize in Efco
Dave Anderson explores the exciting prospects of Unifize within Efco in this forward-looking video. He discusses the evolution of quality management processes facilitated by Unifize, highlighting the platform's ability to enable trend spotting and proactive responses to various challenges. Dave shares insights on integrating Unifize across different company operations, including warranty claims and quality records management, and addresses the ongoing transition from paper-based to digital systems. This journey with Unifize not only aims to enhance operational efficiency but also to lay the groundwork for future innovations in managing company workflows.
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03:22
Comparing Unifize vs QT9
In this detailed comparison, Dave Anderson shares his candid insights on choosing Unifize over QT9 for quality management at Efco. He praises Unifize for its superior collaboration features, emphasizing how it promotes more personal and effective problem-solving through direct conversations and teamwork, unlike QT9's focus on mere record-keeping. Dave highlights the difference in sales delivery and upfront communication about platform capabilities, which made Unifize stand out. This testimonial underscores the importance of collaboration in modern quality management systems and how Unifize excels in creating a more engaged and accountable team environment.
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00:56
Improving accountability
In this video, Dave Anderson emphasizes the unique approach Unifize brings to improving accountability within teams. By fostering direct, personal interactions over generic software notifications, Unifize encourages a culture where problems are not just flagged but solved collaboratively. Dave highlights how the platform's emphasis on smaller, focused groups and one-on-one conversations enables a more intimate and effective problem-solving process. This method contrasts sharply with traditional email chains, offering a real-time, engaged approach that ensures everyone is directly accountable and involved in the resolution process.
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00:46
Adopting a new system in an institutional knowledge based shop floor
Dave Anderson shares insights on the challenges and successes of implementing Unifize in a shop floor rich with institutional knowledge. He discusses the initial resistance to change and the skepticism towards adopting new systems. However, Dave highlights the transformative moment when team members begin to use Unifize, noting the ease and efficiency it brings to processes previously burdened by paperwork. This video illustrates the journey from hesitation to acceptance, showcasing the significant improvements in workflow and productivity with the adoption of digital solutions.
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00:34
What collaboration means to Dave
In this video, Dave Anderson passionately discusses the essence of collaboration through Unifize. He emphasizes the significance of having smaller, focused groups tackling specific issues such as scrap or rework. Dave appreciates how Unifize facilitates open discussions, allowing for collective problem-solving where no single individual holds all the answers. This collective approach brings diverse ideas to the forefront, enhancing the problem-solving process. Dave's testimonial underscores the value of collaboration in fostering a more innovative, efficient, and inclusive work environment.
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01:42
About Dave
In this video, Dave Anderson, Quality Assurance Manager at Efco with 20 years of tenure, shares his journey from the shop floor to senior supervisory roles before stepping into quality assurance. With a passion for continuous improvement and an improvement-minded approach, Dave emphasizes the importance of striving for perfection in quality management. His experience highlights the value of shop floor knowledge in identifying root causes and implementing sustainable solutions, underscoring the significant impact of hands-on experience in quality roles.
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01:54
About Efco and their products
Dave Anderson provides an overview of Efco's operations, focusing on their specialization in steel forming equipment for concrete construction projects, from stadiums to bridges. Efco, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, with a manufacturing presence in Georgetown, Canada, and strategic locations worldwide, serves the global construction industry. The company has transitioned from coiled to sheet steel, employing advanced manufacturing technologies. Dave highlights Efco's role in major projects, such as the Las Vegas Sphere and Dallas Cowboys Stadium, underscoring its significance in the construction sector.
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00:58
Does Efco comply to any external standards
Dave Anderson discusses Efco's approach to compliance standards, emphasizing that while not formally ISO certified, Efco's processes mirror ISO principles of record-keeping and operational consistency ("say what you do, do what you say"). He highlights Efco's adherence to ASTM standards for manufacturing, from threaded products to welding, and the training of welders to AWS standards. This ensures a high level of quality and readiness for certification, despite not having pursued formal ISO certification due to not yet seeing the need for it.
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01:07
How did you discover Unifize
Dave Anderson shares the journey of discovering Unifize through a diligent search for a quality management system that could transition Efco from traditional, paper-based processes to a more efficient, cloud-based solution. Starting with Google, they came across Software Advice, which recommended several QMS options, including Unifize and QT9. Dave highlights the clunky and outdated methods of record-keeping they wanted to move away from, leading them to prioritize cloud-based solutions. Ultimately, the choice was made for Unifize, largely due to its superior collaboration features over the competition.
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00:39
Enabling collaboration across multiple shifts
Dave Anderson highlights Unifize's role in fostering seamless collaboration across multiple shifts at Efco. He introduces a novel discussion process within Unifize that allows for more than just quality action tickets, addressing the challenge off-shifts face without direct engineering support. By initiating discussion boards for any arising issue, supervisors can communicate problems in real-time, ensuring that the first shift can immediately see and decide on the necessary actions. This approach has significantly improved decision-making and problem resolution, enhancing operational efficiency across shifts.
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01:11
Handling resolutions for repeating issues
Dave Anderson discusses Unifize's resolution process, a critical component tied to the discussion board and quality action ticket system. This process addresses repetitive issues by allowing team members to refer to past resolutions, enabling off-shifts to act without waiting for engineer approvals. By documenting how problems were previously resolved, Unifize empowers supervisors with decision-making support and reduces the need for certain positions, such as the quality auditor on second shift. This growing library of resolutions enhances efficiency and problem-solving capabilities across shifts.
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01:01
Collaborating right from the shop floor using Unifize
Dave Anderson showcases the power of Unifize's mobile application, revolutionizing real-time collaboration directly from the shop floor. He highlights how team members can instantly join discussions, contribute insights, and make decisions without being tethered to a desktop computer. The introduction of barcodes on paperwork, a minimal but crucial use of paper, allows anyone to scan and immediately access the relevant discussion on Unifize. This feature underscores the platform's commitment to enhancing efficiency and communication across various departments, making it a game-changer for operational workflows.
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01:47
How did Dave improve efficiency and save $44,000 by not filling a position
Dave Anderson shares how he capitalized on the departure of a second-shift position to integrate Unifize, leading to a $44,000 annual savings for Efco. This strategic decision was facilitated by Unifize's capability to streamline operations and eliminate the need for the position. By not filling the vacancy, Efco leveraged Unifize's platform to enhance accountability and efficiency, showcasing the tangible financial benefits of adopting digital solutions over traditional staffing strategies.
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