Cutting Edge: Fapco Works Towards New MMOG Certification To Better Service Clients
A challenging economy and fluctuating fuel prices have made transportation, materials, and logistics management more difficult than ever for manufacturers. That’s why it has become so important in recent years for OEMs to focus their attention on supply chain management issues such as customer requirements, capacity constraints, contingency planning, sub-tier capability, resource allocation, and employee skills. As a Tier One parts consolidation supplier, Fapco is constantly working to stay on the cutting edge of all materials management issues.
Fapco’s Certifications
One of the ways they keep up to date is by achieving the latest industry certifications. Fapco established a position of quality leadership in 1994 by earning one of the first ISO9002 registrations awarded to a North American packager. The bar was raised once again with the achievement of QS9000 registration in 1997. Now registered to ISO 9001:2008, their rigorous internal audit program ensures the continuation of Fapco’s reputation for quality. The most recent goal Fapco is working towards is MMOG/LE.
About MMOG
Materials Management Operations Guideline Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/LE) is the global standard for supply chain management processes, and is aimed at reducing costs from errors, waste, and workload for suppliers and customers.
“It’s an auto industry standard similar to ISO process,” said Fapco’s Materials Manager Jo Ann Pressey. “Where ISO concentrates on your quality control processes and procedures, MMOG focuses on the materials management side of the business. It mirrors the ISO program on the materials side, and will allow us to reduce any gaps in the supply chain for our clients.”
“The program takes the industry gold standards of what an optimum materials logistics operation should look like; and we go through every department within Fapco to assess how we match up to these standards and practices, and how we can improve upon what we’re already doing. It’s similar to an ISO audit.”
Benefits of Certification
The initial process is already underway at Fapco. There are six total chapters of continuous improvement assessments that will be completed. “We’ve worked a lot in the past to improve our QAD processes, and this fits right in with that. MMOG and QAD go hand-in-hand,” added Pressey.
Although the automotive industry is the first to adhere to this global standard, Fapco’s clients in all industries can benefit from their achievement of this process. “It will be a natural fit in the industrial side of our business as well,” concluded Pressey. “Everyone will benefit.”
Fapco Honored With Major Quality Award
Fapco Provides Zero Quality Defects Over a Three-month Period in Which Fapco Shipped Over 2.3 Million Parts
Founder and President Larry Gardiner was pleased that his team was awarded. “We are very honored that our team was presented this award in a supplier meeting,” he said. “We had no previous notice it was coming. It means a great deal to all of us here at Fapco as it validates our commitment to excellence from a very special partner customer.”
The quality award is the result of zero quality defects over a 3-month period in which Fapco shipped over 2.3 million parts. The presentation emphasized the fact that Fapco shipped over 4.8 million parts over the last six months with only one reject for four pieces, bringing their six month parts per million (ppm) score to one.
“This was special to us. We are measured by customers on a regular basis on many criteria,” said Operations Manager, Scott Sloniker. “On-time delivery, cycle times and defects per million are just a few. They measured us for this award based on a part per million defects. The standard for the year was 350 ppm defective. We raised the bar with zero parts per million for three months — almost unheard of — and another three months with only one four piece defect. So our overall ppm score was only one ppm over a six-month period.”
Sloniker explained that at that point in time Fapco had processed over 4.8 million parts for this award over a six-month period. He reviewed the process that revolves around capturing and verifying the supplier information, cross-referencing the data, getting the right box with the right label, and then shipping it to the correct location.
“We ship to multiple depots in two different ways. We’re processing between 17,000 and 20,000 unique SKUs here. Some ship three times per month, others once per year, so there is no way to get familiar with distributing one part,” stated Sloniker proudly. “This is pretty amazing and remarkable and is such a testament to all our team members working together as one. I can’t express how proud I am of everyone.”
Fapco has a history of both high quality and delivery performance with its customers. Fapco has received similar awards from several Fortune 100 companies. Whether it’s JIT inventory warehousing, small parts packaging or packaging using cold seal packaging machines, we will work to help your business grow. Get Started with Fapco Inc. today!