Reducing Cost of Poor Quality

Quality Management Case Study: End-to-End Traceability and Root Cause Intelligence

  • Industry: Manufacturing (Applicable to Industrial, Discrete, and Process Manufacturing) 

  • Company Size: 3,600 employees worldwide, $2B in global revenue 

  • About the Client: manufacturer of industrial equipment and components 

  • Project Type: Quality Management System Integration & Value Realization 

Challenges & Objectives 

Challenge: 
The organization lacked visibility into quality issues across production and field performance. Tracing corrective actions to specific runs, processes, or suppliers was limited and identifying trends over time was difficult. Although a new quality platform had been selected, required integrations and data dependencies were undefined or incorrectly assumed to be in scope, putting value realization at risk. 

Objectives 

Post-contract engagement to define an integration strategy that aligned the quality platform with business objectives and operational realities, define data dependencies, and establish a project roadmap. The  project required improvements in identifying critical scope gaps, clarifying required integrations and data dependencies that benefited from applying a Speed to Value approach to map quality processes across manual workflows, legacy systems, and the new platform.  

Assessment & Solution 

Services Provided: Defined an integration strategy and value realization approach to enable end-to-end quality traceability, root cause analysis, and trend visibility across manufacturing operations and corrective and preventative actions.

Project Approach:  

  • Assessed the selected quality platform against business objectives, operational processes, and data requirements 

  • Mapped current systems architectures to identify critical integration scope gaps and misaligned assumptions impacting quality outcomes 

  • Defined future state system architectures and data flows to support traceability, root cause analysis, and trend tracking 

  • Developed a phased, value-driven roadmap for data migration, process integration, and system alignment 

Results & Impact 

Outcomes: 

  • Clarified required integrations that more clearly enabled traceability, root cause analysis, and quality trend tracking 

  • Defined a phased roadmap aligned to business value rather than software assumptions 

  • Identified critical scope gaps early, enabling proactive vendor engagement 

  • Facilitated key conversations between IT and the business to define solution capabilities and prioritize technical requirements 

Operational Impact:

  • End-to-end visibility across production, suppliers, and field performance enables traceability and root cause analysis 

  • Quality trends can be identified and analyzed, supporting quicker corrective action and better prevention, influencing a reduction in the cost of poor quality 

  • Clear integration scope and shared expectations align leadership, stakeholders, and vendors around measurable outcomes 

  • A phased integration roadmap establishes a scalable foundation for future quality analytics and continuous improvement