case study of manufacturing company

Success Stories

Cracking the Code on Scope 3 Emissions: Schneider Electric's Zero Carbon Project

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Testimonial

ADT and Infosys - Making Smart Homes Smarter

Siemens Adopts Generative AI Model to Summarize and Classify Social Conversations

Client Speak

Wesco and Infosys - Digitally Fortifying the Supply Chain

Kone: Impacting people’s daily lives with the Cloud

Success Story

The Infosys and Lanxess – M365 Transformation Journey

Cummins Powers its Next with Infosys

Siemens Gamesa: Tech-Powered Change that Navigates to Next. One that Fits the Future.

Johnson Controls: A Step Toward Success

KONE: Leveling Up With the Cloud

How Siemens Harnessed Infosys Wingspan to Upskill their Workforce

Accelerating the Enterprise: USG Boral SAP S/4HANA Migration Case Study

Aerospace manufacturer transforms manufacturing with a smart factory ecosystem

Remote inspection and quality control for automobile company

Digital thread drives operational excellence at manufacturing company

AGCO and Infosys: Driving Customer Experience Transformation Journey

Carrier's journey with Infosys and ServiceNow: From successful spinoff to the shop floor

Collaborate to Automate – How Siemens Healthineers is Traversing its Automation Journey

Global ERP solution on cloud drives operational excellence

Migration of SAP applications using Infosys Cobalt for a global leader in mining and construction equipment manufacturing

Learnings From Siemens Gamesa’s Global Digital Transformation Journey

Virtual platform facilitates seamless dealer engagement for material handing solutions company

Blockchain application provides real-time visibility into global supply chain

Client Testimonial

Enhanced Event Experience for Toyota Material Handling Powered by Infosys Meridian

Case Study: Accelerating the Enterprise: USG Boral SAP S/4HANA Migration

HFS Case Study – Use service partners to import fresh thinking to your industry

Enabling Smart Manufacturing for Honda Car India

Infrastructure-as-a-service Ecosystem Boosts Business

Agile Model Accelerates Business Reporting

MDM System Enhances Visibility into Operations

PIM System Supports E-Commerce

Automation of Invoice Imaging Process for Suppliers

Cloud Platform for Faster and Informed Business Decisions

Data Lake Distills Business Insights across Lifecycle of Equipment

Product Order Code Information System Offers Visibility into Pricing

Data Platform Offers Real-Time Business Insights

RPA Validates Trademark Status and Validity

Platform Modernization on an Industrial Scale

Smart Factory Solution Ensures Sustainable MRO Operations

Clients Speak

Digital Transformation Journey at AGCO

Redefining Digital in Manufacturing for ABB

BSH Enhances Application Lifecycle Using Cloud Platform

Infosys Re-Energizes the Core for Leviton

Cummins Amplifies Online Presence with Infosys

Infosys Helps Alstom Innovate for Tomorrow

Syngenta Partners with Infosys to Go Beyond Their Core

Tap, Find Tool, Place Order – A Mobile App for Hilti Powered by Infosys

Trending @infosys.

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Machine vs. production monitoring: the road to production..., 2024 product releases: an inside look, introducing batch connect machines, introducing condition monitoring workflows.

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IoT in Manufacturing: Top Use Cases and Case Studies

Updated May 17, 2021

Within this article, we’ll be discussing practical IoT applications in manufacturing and use cases of industrial IoT technology in manufacturing

What is IoT?

What is iiot, the benefits of iot in manufacturing.

IoT represents a digital transformation in manufacturing processes and business operations. Using it alongside an advanced machine data platform can be transformational. And there are many benefits of IoT in manufacturing:

Process Optimization

Inventory Management

Predictive Maintenance

IoT in Manufacturing Use Cases [+Case Studies]

Remote monitoring.

Learn more about remote monitoring for machine builders and OEMs.

Supply Chain Management and Optimization

• Real-time tracking of assets and products
• Automation of warehouse tasks
• Digitized paperwork management
• Forecasting accuracy improvement
• Greater control of inventory

Digital Twins

Real-Time Machine Monitoring

Production visibility.

Integrating Systems

Compiling kpis.

Asset Utilization

Difficulties of Adopting IoT in Manufactur ing

1. large investments are required and the roi is questionable, 2. concerns about data security, 3. employees who aren’t qualified, 4. integration with operational technology and older systems, how to use iot and machine data for remote operations, boosting your operational efficiency with iiot, subscribe to our mailing list, related posts, read the latest.

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The Lean Post / Articles / Lean Management Case Studies Library

Lean Management Case Studies Library

By Chet Marchwinski

May 16, 2014

Learn how a variety of businesses and organizations used lean management principles to solve real business problems. We’ve arranged the examples in 16 categories to help you find the ones right for your environment.

Lean Management Examples from a Variety of Businesses

The following case studies of lean management principles in action show you how a variety of real businesses solved real business problems under diverse conditions.

We’ve arranged the stories in 16 categories to help you find the examples you need. There is some overlap. For instance, a “Lean Manufacturing” case study may also appear with “Privately Held Companies.”

Lean Manufacturing

• Logistics, Supply Chain, and Warehousing
• Lean Material Handling
• Job Shops (Low-volume, High-mix Manufacturing); Tool and Die
• Lean in Government
• Lean Healthcare
• Lean Accounting
• Lean Construction
• Lean in Office and Service Processes
• Lean in Education

Problem Solving

Pull Systems

Culture Change

People Development

Privately Held Companies

Maintenance

Many of the executives who took part in these transformations are interviewed in LEI’s Senior Executive Series on Lean Leadership . After reading the case studies, be sure to get their personal perspectives on leading change. (Feel free to link to this page, but please respect the copyrights of LEI and journalists by not copying the articles.)

Are you doing something new or notable in the practice of lean management? Let us share what you learned with the lean community. For more information, contact LEI’s Director of Communications Chet Marchwinski at cmarchwinski at lean dot org

Thrustmaster Turns Around

Learn how Thrustmaster of Texas successfully adopted lean thinking and practices to make sustainable improvements in a short period of time, and how other manufacturers of highly engineered, low-volume products can follow their lead using the Lean Transformation Framework.

Lean + Circular Principals = a New True North for Manufacturer

SunPower’s lean journey resembled most others until it defined a new mission, a new True North by combining lean principals with those of the “circular economy” to launch what it is calling a CLean Transformation.

Sustain Your Lean Business System with a “Golden Triangle” After a medical device maker took a hit to margins to fight off global competition, it rebuilt them by lifting its lean operating system to a higher level and keeping it there with a “golden triangle” of sustainability.

Followup Story:

Manufacturing Balancing Act: Pull Versus ERP

In this follow-up to “Sustain Your Lean Business System with a ‘Golden Triangle,’” a case study about Phase 2 Medical Manufacturing, the company needs warehouse space to keep pace with sales growth spurred by the lean transformation. Instead, it expands a pull system by connecting the plan-for-every-part database that underpins one-piece flow production with ERP, typically associated with big batch production.

Cultivating a Lean Problem-Solving Culture at O.C. Tanner If you are in the “appreciation business”, you have to live it in your own workplace. For O.C. Tanner that meant a lean transformation had to show the company appreciated and wanted people’s problem-solving ideas. Here’s a report on that effort, including what worked and what didn’t.

Lean Partnership with Dealer Network Helps Vermeer Reduce End-to-End Inventory on Top Sellers

A lean transformation had taken heavy-equipment manufacturer Vermeer away from batch manufacturing, but batch ordering by dealers was delaying how quickly they got equipment like brush chippers. Learn how it  began converting its domestic industrial-line distribution network to lean replenishment, improving service to end customers and improving cash flow for Vermeer and its dealers.

Herman Miller’s Experiment in Excellence At Herman Miller, the lean management effort helps it build problem solvers as well as world-class office furniture. And as this case study shows, lean practices also helped it weather a brutal recession.

Build Your “House” of Production on a Stable Foundation Rigorous problem solving creates basic stability in a machining intensive facility.

A Journey to Value Streams: Reorganizing Into Five Groups Drives Lean Improvements and Customer Responsiveness An approach to creating a value -stream culture centered on autonomy, entrepreneurialism, and lean principles.

Change in Implementation Approach Opens the Door at EMCO to Greater Gains in Less Time A relatively quick, intensive project accelerates the rate of improvement and creates a showcase facility for spreading lean concepts.

Creating the Course and Tools for a Lean Accounting System A lean accounting implementation fills the frustrating disconnect between shop-floor improvements and financial statements.

For Athletic Shoe Company, the Soul of Lean Management Is Problem Solving After taking a lean tools approach to change, management re-organized the transformation around problem solving and process improvement to create a culture that engaged people while boosting performance.

Knife Company Hones Competitiveness by Bucking the Status Quo An iconic family-owned company turns to lean manufacturing to reduce costs by at least 30% to keep its U.S. operations open.

Lean Transformation Lives and Dies with Tools and Dies After a failed first try at just-in-time production , a company transforms tool maintenance, design, and fabrication to create a solid foundation for a second attempt.

Seasoned Lean Effort Avoids “Flavor-of-the-Month” Pitfall A look at how one company’s approach to what new tools it introduced, in what order, and how it prevented each new technique from being viewed as a “flavor of the month” fad.

Shifting to Value-Stream Managers: a Shop-Floor Revolution Leads to a Revolution in Plant Organization

Two years into a lean transformation, the low-hanging fruit has been plucked and progress has started to slow. Read how a Thomas & Betts plant recharged the transformation and reached higher levels of performance by using value-stream managers to span functional walls.

Using Plan-Do-Check-Act as a Strategy and Tactic for Helping Suppliers Improve

At Medtronic’s Neuromodulation business unit, the plan-do-check-act cycle is used on a strategic level to guide overall strategy for selecting and developing key suppliers as well as on a tactical level for guiding lean transformations at supplier facilities.

back to top

Logistics, Supply Chain, and Warehousing How a Retailer’s Distribution Center Exemplifies the Lean Precept “Respect for People,” and Reaps the Benefits

To make sure training engaged and resonated with people after previous attempts at a lean transformation faltered, LifeWay matched lean management tools and principles to its Bible-based culture and language.

Lean management case study series: Lean in Distribution: Go to Where the Action Is!

Starting with daily management walkabouts and standard work , this distributor had laid the groundwork for steady gains for years to come, just two years after its first kaizen workshop .

Putting Lean Principles in the Warehouse

Executives at Menlo Worldwide Logistics saw an opportunity to leapfrog the competition by embracing lean in its outsourced warehousing and receiving operations.

Lean Thinking Therapy Spreads Beyond the Shop

A company expands the lean transformation from the shop floor to international distribution, domestic shipping, and product development.

Sell One, Buy One, Make One: Transforming from Conventional to Lean Distribution

Large inventories to cover fluctuations in demand once characterized Toyota’s service parts distribution system — but no more. Here’s how one DC made the switch.

Material Handling

Following Four Steps to a Lean Material-Handling System Leads to a Leap in Performance

Creating the critical Plan for Every Part was one step in a methodical four-step implementation process to replace a traditional material-handling system.

Low-volume, High-mix Manufacturing; Tool and Die

The Backbone of Lean in the Back Shops

Sikorsky managers apply the lean concept of “every part, every interval” (EPEI) to level the mix in demand and create flow through a key manufacturing cell .

Landscape Forms Cultivates Lean to Fuel Growth Goals

With single-item orders 80% of the time, a low-volume, high-mix manufacturer decided single-piece flow cells were the best way decided the best way to add new products without having to constantly reconfigure production.

Lean Transformation Lives and Dies with Tools and Dies

After a failed first try at just-in-time production, a company transforms tool maintenance, design, and fabrication to create a solid foundation for a second attempt.

Canada Post Puts Its Stamp on a Lean Transformation

The “ inventory ” of mail already is paid for, so moving it faster doesn’t improve cash flow as in lean manufacturing. But Canada Post discovered that traditional batch-and-queue postal operations could benefit from lean principles.

Lean Thinking in Government: The State of Iowa

This story examines a kaizen event at a veterans home and more broadly at the lean effort in Iowa government.

Lean Thinking Helps City of Chula Vista with Budget Crunch

Goodrich Aerostructures’ Chula Vista plant introduces city government to lean thinking and practices so in order to maintain municipal services without resorting to further cuts in the workforce.

Using Lean Thinking to Reinvent City Government

Grand Rapids, MI, turns to lean principles to consolidate operations, eliminate wasted time and effort, and streamline to improve productivity while providing the quality of service that residents want.

Transforming Healthcare: What Matters Most? How the Cleveland Clinic Is Cultivating a Problem-Solving Mindset and Building a Culture of Improvement

The Cleveland Clinic reinvents its continuous improvement program to instill a problem-solving mindset and the skillset to solve everyday problems among the clinic’s thousands of caregivers.

View from the Hospital Floor: How to Build a Culture of Improvement One Unit at a Time

In order to do more and improve faster, the Cleveland Clinic is rolling out a methodology for building a “culture of improvement” across the 48,000-employee hospital system as this followup to the above story shows. Here’s how it works according to the people making the changes.

Dentist Drills Down to the Root Causes of Office Waste

Dentistry is a job shop that Dr. Sami Bahri is out to improve fundamentally for the benefit of patients through the application of lean principles.

Lean management case study series: Pediatric Hospital in Tough Market Pegs Growth to Lean Process Improvement

Lean improvement projects at Akron Children’s Hospital have saved millions of dollars, increased utilization of expensive assets, and reduced wait times for patients and their families.

Lean Design and Construction Project an Extension of Lean Commitment at Akron Children’s Hospital

Input from nurses, doctors, therapists, technicians, and patient parents heavily influenced design decisions..

“Pulling” Lean Through a Hospital

A thoughtful rollout of lean principles in the ER and eye-opening results created a “pull” for lean from other departments.

Best in Healthcare Getting Better with Lean

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, stresses to doctors that the lean effort is aimed not at changing the moment of care, the touch moment between doctor and patient, but the 95% of the time when the patient is not in the doctor’s office

Fighting Cancer with Linear Accelerators and Accelerated Processes

Cross-functional team design and implement a lean process to dramatically increase the number of patients with brain and bone metastases receiving consultation, simulation, and first treatment on the same day without workarounds or expediting.

Massachusetts General Looks to Lean

A proton therapy treatment center, for many adults and children the best hope of beating cancer, applies lean principles to increase capacity.

New Facility, New Flow, and New Levels of Patient Care: The wait is over for patients at the Clearview Cancer Institute in Alabama

Physicians and staff have tirelessly reengineer processes and patient flow to eliminate as much waiting and waste as possible.

The Anatomy of Innovation

At a hospital in Pittsburgh, the emerging vision for the “hospital of the future” is described as giving the right patient, the right care, at the right time, in the right way, all the time.

Creating the Course and Tools for a Lean Accounting System

A lean accounting implementation fills the frustrating disconnect between shop-floor improvements and the financial statement.

Knife Company Hones Competitiveness by Bucking the Status Quo

An iconic family-owned company turns to lean manufacturing to reduce costs by at least 30% to keep its U.S. operations open.

Office and Service Processes

The “inventory” of mail already is paid for, so moving it faster doesn’t improve cash flow as in lean manufacturing. But Canada Post discovered that traditional batch-and-queue postal operations could benefit from lean principles.

Lean Landscapers

At an Atlanta landscaping company, lean practices are making inroads into a service industry in unusual yet fundamental ways.

LSG Sky Chefs Caters to New Market Realities

Business at airline caterer LSG Sky Chefs dropped 30% when airlines cut flights after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Sky Chefs responded with a rapid launch of a lean initiative.

leveraging Lean to Get the Oil Out

Aera Energy LLC, a California oil and gas company,  relies on lean principles to improve key processes, including drilling new wells, repairing existing ones, and maximizing the number of barrels of crude pumped each day.

Columbus Public Schools Use Process Thinking to Improve Academic Achievement.

Columbus, OH, public schools, experiment with lean tools and process thinking to remove wasteful activities that don’t help them help students learn.

Lean Inroads into Alabama Academia

How the University of Alabama in Huntsville integrated lean concepts throughout its industrial engineering curriculum.

Linking Lean Thinking to the Classroom

Value-stream mapping is one of many activities included in the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS), an academic program designed to link high-school classroom learning to the skills needed in college and business.

Build Your “House” of Production on a Stable Foundation

Rigorous problem solving creates basic stability in a machining intensive facility.

For Athletic Shoe Company, the Soul of Lean Management Is Problem Solving

After talking a lean tools approach to change, management re-organized the transformation around problem solving and process improvement to create a culture that engaged people while boosting performance.

Toothbrush Plant Reverses Decay in Competitiveness

The rapid introduction of a lean system, beginning with just-in-time production and pull, helps a highly automated Midwest plant fight off overseas competition by reducing lead times and inventory while augmenting the plant’s advantage in service.

A Journey to Value Streams: Reorganizing Into Five Groups Drives Lean Improvements and Customer Responsiveness

An approach to creating a value-stream culture centered on autonomy, entrepreneurialism, and lean principles.

Making Lean Leaders — Ariens internship program develops lean and leadership skills

Besides making snow-blowers, mowers, and string trimmers, Ariens Co., of Brillion, WI, makes lean leaders.

Starting with daily management walkabouts and standard work, this 84-year-old, family-owned distributor laid the groundwork for steady gains for years to come, just two years after its first kaizen workshop.

Sustain Your Lean Business System with a “Golden Triangle”

After a medical device maker took a hit to margins to fight off global competition, it rebuilt them by lifting its lean operating system to a higher level and keeping it there with a “golden triangle” of sustainability. You’ll recognize two elements of the triangle right away: visual control and standardized work . The third, accountability management or a kamishibai system, is probably less well known but just as critical.

Cultivating a Lean Problem-Solving Culture at O.C. Tanner

If you are in the “appreciation business”, you have to live it in your own workplace. For O.C. Tanner that meant a lean transformation had to show the company appreciated and wanted people’s problem-solving ideas. Here’s a report on that effort, including what worked and what didn’t.

Lean Thinking in Aircraft Repair and Maintenance Takes Wing at FedEx Express

A major check that used to take 32,715 man-hours was cut to 21,535 hours in six months. That translated into a $2 million savings, which dovetailed with the company’s emphasis on reducing costs during the recession.

Construction

Input from nurses, doctors, therapists, technicians, and patient parents heavily influenced design decisions—from incorporating emergency room hallways that protect the privacy of abused children to the number of electrical outlets in each neonatal intensive care room.

Virtual Lean Learning Experience (VLX)

A continuing education service offering the latest in lean leadership and management.

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About Chet Marchwinski

Chet has been a humble, unwashed scribe of the lean continuous improvement movement since books by Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo first hit North America in the 1980s. At LEI, he contributes to content creation, marketing, public relations, and social media. Previously, he also wrote case studies on lean management implementations in…

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Case Studies

Helping Starbucks design stores that are inclusive for all

Building a next-generation carbon platform to accelerate the path to net zero

Banking on innovation: How ING uses generative AI to put people first

From farm to tablet: Building a new business to solve an old challenge

Rewired in action

Partnering on America’s toughest challenges

Made in Africa: Catalyzing stronger, sustainable, and inclusive economies

How a government agency is preparing workers to thrive in the skills-based economy

How a global components manufacturer built an ambitious carbon reduction roadmap

How a major New Zealand retailer reinvented itself around customer satisfaction

Undaunted by global disruption, a logistics company embraces bold transformation

988: Three digits and the nationwide effort to help millions in crisis

An AI power play: Fueling the next wave of innovation in the energy sector

How a manufacturing moonshot was made

Protecting workers through award-winning design

How Telkomsel transformed to reach digital-first consumers

Flying across the sea, propelled by AI

How a steel plant in India tapped the value of data—and won global acclaim

Reimagining the real estate industry for the next normal

Inside a mining company’s AI transformation

New at mckinsey blog.

JobsOhio and the long-term, innovative revitalization of a state’s economy

McKinsey’s new Sustainability Academy helps clients upskill workers for the net-zero transition

Tearing the ‘paper ceiling’: McKinsey supports effort driving upward mobility for millions of workers

How to Overcome the Challenges of Creating Manufacturing Case Studies

Why are manufacturing case studies so important?

Well, the industrial buying trends have been pointing in this direction for years: You would be wise to have customer-centric copy on your website for when prospects visit to do their research. But the pace of the digital content revolution has surpassed even what some of us in the business have expected.

The typical B2B buying process now involves six to 10 decision-makers, according to Gartner. Each person is independently scouring online for five to six content pieces to bring to the table. 

And what do these prospects want to see? High on that list will be how your product, service, or solution has worked for others. Which brings us to the topic on hand: manufacturing case studies. Why don’t we see more of these in the industrial marketing ecosystem?

In the latest edition of the Industrial Marketer podcast, co-hosts Joey and Nels discuss how case studies and success stories are under-utilized and under-appreciated as a content marketing tool. 

What Is a Manufacturing Case Study?

Many marketing terms have lost their original meaning and been diluted in application. 

A white paper, for example, has its origins in government and academia as an in depth report on policy or research findings. Now the term “white paper” signals little more than promotional information about technical features or how a product or service functions as a solution. 

The “case study” originated in clinical medicine, but it became more synonymous with business when graduate business schools began digging into why things worked, or why they didn’t work. A traditional case study drafted for manufacturing marketing purposes includes:

• Background 

The power of a case study is in the outcome, with key statistics or metrics that demonstrate the real-world proof of your solution in the marketplace. And therein lies the rub.

Hurdles — Real & Imagined — to Producing Case Studies

In recent memory, it certainly feels like the manufacturing community has increased the number of hurdles to doing case studies and raised the height of those hurdles.  Ask your clients for information to do a manufacturing case study and you are likely to hear objections around:

• Proprietary information  – This includes trade secrets about products and materials but also who is doing work for whom. Many manufacturers will tell you the less competitors know the better.
• Performance metrics  – Clients are hesitant to share financial information about anything, but many are now hesitant to share information about cycle times, error rates or anything related to production. 
• Contact terms with that client  – The belief is that if a client knows the details of how much your innovation has reduced cycle times and increased your margin, they will use that information against you in the next negotiation.

The results have meant a near death knell for the traditional manufacturing case study. Nowadays, instead of a metric-filled recap that could be a digital marketer’s dream content, what we see are vague references to saving time and money for an entity in a large industrial sector. 

So, what are industrial marketers to do if they want to create manufacturing case studies that will land with their target audiences?

Reframe Case Studies as Success Stories

For practical purposes, what we really are talking about in industrial marketing circles when we say “case studies” is offering real-world proof of success with your solution. We are talking about success stories and even testimonials. 

In lieu of a traditional case study full-combo platter of company name, solution and real metrics, industrial marketers should be creative about telling success stories in any way they can. Find ways to get your clients to say yes to bragging on their successes. For example, you can reduce the format to be framed around two key categories: the challenge and the solution. 

Here is a great way to frame the challenge: “Our (industry) customer challenged us with designing and manufacturing a (application) to achieve (objective).” This approach can be replicated for many situations. Be specific about what you are being asked to do. That’s what is important to prospects. Play to your strengths. Use examples that you know will resonate with your ideal customers.

For solutions, be clear about what you were able to accomplish. You can describe specs or dimensions or materials without giving away trade secrets. In the end, you might not be able to say much more regarding results than, “All design specifications were met.” But even that can be a powerful statement to a prospect. You were asked to help a client do something, and you did. If you can’t go into details about the results, go into details about how you met the challenge.

Leverage Customer Testimonials

Don’t underestimate the power of a customer testimonial, especially in video format. Work with your customer to get the most possible value from a testimonial. Listen to what they want to say, and encourage them to address the areas that are important to you. Maybe you develop a script for them. 

A testimonial is like a reference. Get a range of testimonials, from new customers to your most loyal. Map out a list of possible testimonials — e.g., one customer might be able to address how you improved their cycle time. Another customer might talk about how you helped with quality. Maybe you solved a vexing issue for a new customer. 

A group of testimonials can tell a powerful story. And you also could be sitting on a gold mine of nuggets that you could sprinkle throughout your website in FAQs, on product pages, and on the main page each industry you serve. Don’t forget: More people than ever are researching your products and services. In the absence of traditional manufacturing case studies, success stories and testimonials can help get them farther along the buying journey.

Listen to the Podcast for More on Manufacturing Case Studies

For more insights into how to implement a CRM in a way that will help you drive growth, tune into Episode 28 of the  Industrial Marketer  podcast.

Subscribe to the Industrial Marketer Podcast

The  Industrial Marketer  podcast comes out twice a month. To subscribe, visit  our Buzzsprout show page  and select your podcast platform of choice.

And if you have any ideas for topics you’d like us to cover on the podcast — or here on the  Industrial Marketer  website — send us a message on  Facebook  or  Twitter  and let us know!

Tags: content marketing , content strategy , Industrial Marketing Podcast

About the Author

Nels Jensen is a veteran B2B journalist, Senior Content Creator at INDUSTRIAL , and co-host of the Industrial Marketer podcast. His early career was in sports. He says business is a lot like sports; people keep score and there are winners and losers.

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ISO 9001:2015 Case study: Context of the organization as a success factor in manufacturing company

Clause 4.1 of ISO 9001:2015  is causing lot of ambiguities and raising more questions than answers to most quality practitioners. Defining context of the organization basically means determining the foundation of your QMS and where your company stands in terms of internal and external issues related to the QMS. This requirement of clause 4 can seem too general, and there is a risk of going too wide when defining the internal and external issues. In fulfilling this clause, you should focus only on issues that can affect the customer satisfaction and delivery of quality product and/or service.

This simple example will help you understand how to determine context of the organization according to ISO 9001 in small or midsize production company and give some inspiration in your implementation project.

Small company from the South East Europe, let’s call it ABC Company, produces terrace and staircase metal fences and exports its products for some time in Germany. Since the projects are being more and more lucrative, their German customers required implementation of ISO 9001. First milestone in implementation of the standard was definition of context of the organization .

Internal context

  The country where ABC Company is located is not an EU member and yet over 90% of its products are exported to Germany, particularly metal fences. Their product delivery includes not only the production of the metal fences but also installation on the buildings and production of metal fixtures for furniture industry. Considering that the company employees cannot stay in Germany more than three months without getting a working visa, the employees are organized into teams where one team is abroad in charge of installation of the products while other two teams are working at home location on production and assembly of the fences. Once this three months period expires, the team abroad switch with one of the teams located at home location. Each team has a mechanical engineer in charge and several shift managers that control and supervise the rest of employees. Employees are highly skilled for the operation they conduct so there is no so much formalism in reporting and getting instructions from superiors.

External context

Since the most of the products are delivered to Germany, the company is obliged to apply German and EU regulations regarding product quality, environmental protection and occupational health and safety. Being present on German market for 5 years, the company identified all legal requirements together with requirements of their customer which is one big German construction company and they are one of the subcontractors. Domestic market has far less requirements but it is struggling and prices on the foreign markets are more favorable so the future direction of the company is to meet requirements of it foreign customer and try to find another customers in EU countries.

Documenting context of the organization

The CEO of ABC Company decided to conduct SWOT analysis to furtherly examine the context of the organization and ensure inputs for further identification of risks and opportunities .

Table: SWOT analysis

The CEO decided that the records of SWOT analysis will be included in QMS  documentation; however, he did it reluctantly since information in the SWOT analysis can be considered as sensitive and he doesn’t feel comfortable showing them to the third party (e.g. certification auditor) but he did it at the insistence of Quality Manager. The final solution was to require from the certification body an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) and make sure that the information provided during the audit will be confidential and protected.

What’s next?

Information gathered through process of defining context of the organization will be used as an input for further phases in implementation of ISO 9001. The fact that only one kind of product is delivered to the customer who requires ISO 9001 certificate can influence the decision about the scope of QMS (for more information, see: How to define the scope of the QMS according to ISO 9001:2015 ), other issues identified can lead to actions to address risks and opportunities (for more information, see: How to address risks and opportunities in ISO 9001 ) or can even influence the business plan and overall strategy of the company in the future years in terms of expanding to another markets and seeking for more reliable suppliers.

To learn more about ISO 9001 requirements and particularly context of the organization, try our free online training:  ISO 9001:2015 Foundations Course .

Strahinja Stojanovic is certified as a lead auditor for the ISO 13485, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 standards by RABQSA. He participated in the implementation of these standards in more than 100 SMEs, through the creation of documentation and performing in-house training for maintaining management systems, internal audits, and management reviews.

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Manufacturing Case Study

The Manufacturer is a family-owned, owner-operated company that has experienced significant growth over the last 15 years. The Manufacturer operates in a fast-changing, highly competitive industry, manufacturing and selling parts to the after-market automobile industry.

The Opportunity

The Manufacturer was experiencing poor operating results which were restricting the company’s access to financing. They engaged Kreischer Miller to provide consulting and advisory services addressing the key issues impacting the company’s overall profitability, with a focus on the following:

• Assessing existing financial systems and processes to determine the level of accuracy and controls over the information and the quality of the output as a basis to make decisions.
• Reviewing inventory controls and costing to determine the level of accuracy and ensure that the company understood and accounted for the fully absorbed costs of its products.
• Reviewing the company’s product and customer mix related to its costs to determine the profitability of different segments of the company based on product or customer type.

The Solution

The lack of an integrated product costing system was a main cause of the Manufacturer’s problems. Misinformation generated by the costing system caused the company to execute a fundamentally flawed pricing and product strategy. There was no “one size fits all” answer to the problem. Instead, the solution was addressed in two stages—short-term and long-term.

In the short-term, the focus was on improving product costing and overall profitability.  We recalculated overheads by updating departmental expenses and changing basis of allocation to products to better reflect actual utilization and absorption of costs.  We also evaluated product profitability by segment and developed an action list of profitability improvement initiatives.

The long-term stage of the solution was focused on creating an integrated product costing system.  We evaluated the implementation of a new, fully-integrated accounting and management information system that would be appropriate for a manufacturing company of this size.  We also performed a thorough needs and requirement study as a basis to evaluate and compare various systems and platforms.

The Outcome

As a result of the engagement, the Manufacturer realized several positive outcomes.  First, the increased focus on the key product margins resulted in improved overall company profitability.  Additionally, implementing a more standardized pricing template has helped eliminate multiple formats and errors in quotes to prospective customers.  Plus, working with manufacturing personnel resulted in a more team-oriented approach toward improving profitability and creating a better understanding of the importance of controlling costs.  Finally, the Manufacturer selected a new integrated system that will meet its needs as it continues to grow.

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Total quality management: three case studies from around the world

With organisations to run and big orders to fill, it’s easy to see how some ceos inadvertently sacrifice quality for quantity. by integrating a system of total quality management it’s possible to have both.

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There are few boardrooms in the world whose inhabitants don’t salivate at the thought of engaging in a little aggressive expansion. After all, there’s little room in a contemporary, fast-paced business environment for any firm whose leaders don’t subscribe to ambitions of bigger factories, healthier accounts and stronger turnarounds. Yet too often such tales of excess go hand-in-hand with complaints of a severe drop in quality.

Food and entertainment markets are riddled with cautionary tales, but service sectors such as health and education aren’t immune to the disappointing by-products of unsustainable growth either. As always, the first steps in avoiding a catastrophic forsaking of quality begins with good management.

There are plenty of methods and models geared at managing the quality of a particular company’s goods or services. Yet very few of those models take into consideration the widely held belief that any company is only as strong as its weakest link. With that in mind, management consultant William Deming developed an entirely new set of methods with which to address quality.

Deming, whose managerial work revolutionised the titanic Japanese manufacturing industry, perceived quality management to be more of a philosophy than anything else. Top-to-bottom improvement, he reckoned, required uninterrupted participation of all key employees and stakeholders. Thus, the total quality management (TQM) approach was born.

All in Similar to the Six Sigma improvement process, TQM ensures long-term success by enforcing all-encompassing internal guidelines and process standards to reduce errors. By way of serious, in-depth auditing – as well as some well-orchestrated soul-searching – TQM ensures firms meet stakeholder needs and expectations efficiently and effectively, without forsaking ethical values.

By opting to reframe the way employees think about the company’s goals and processes, TQM allows CEOs to make sure certain things are done right from day one. According to Teresa Whitacre, of international consulting firm ASQ , proper quality management also boosts a company’s profitability.

“Total quality management allows the company to look at their management system as a whole entity — not just an output of the quality department,” she says. “Total quality means the organisation looks at all inputs, human resources, engineering, production, service, distribution, sales, finance, all functions, and their impact on the quality of all products or services of the organisation. TQM can improve a company’s processes and bottom line.”

Embracing the entire process sees companies strive to improve in several core areas, including: customer focus, total employee involvement, process-centred thinking, systematic approaches, good communication and leadership and integrated systems. Yet Whitacre is quick to point out that companies stand to gain very little from TQM unless they’re willing to go all-in.

“Companies need to consider the inputs of each department and determine which inputs relate to its governance system. Then, the company needs to look at the same inputs and determine if those inputs are yielding the desired results,” she says. “For example, ISO 9001 requires management reviews occur at least annually. Aside from minimum standard requirements, the company is free to review what they feel is best for them. While implementing TQM, they can add to their management review the most critical metrics for their business, such as customer complaints, returns, cost of products, and more.”

The customer knows best: AtlantiCare TQM isn’t an easy management strategy to introduce into a business; in fact, many attempts tend to fall flat. More often than not, it’s because firms maintain natural barriers to full involvement. Middle managers, for example, tend to complain their authority is being challenged when boots on the ground are encouraged to speak up in the early stages of TQM. Yet in a culture of constant quality enhancement, the views of any given workforce are invaluable.

AtlantiCare in numbers

5,000 Employees

$280m Profits before quality improvement strategy was implemented

$650m Profits after quality improvement strategy

One firm that’s proven the merit of TQM is New Jersey-based healthcare provider AtlantiCare . Managing 5,000 employees at 25 locations, AtlantiCare is a serious business that’s boasted a respectable turnaround for nearly two decades. Yet in order to increase that margin further still, managers wanted to implement improvements across the board. Because patient satisfaction is the single-most important aspect of the healthcare industry, engaging in a renewed campaign of TQM proved a natural fit. The firm chose to adopt a ‘plan-do-check-act’ cycle, revealing gaps in staff communication – which subsequently meant longer patient waiting times and more complaints. To tackle this, managers explored a sideways method of internal communications. Instead of information trickling down from top-to-bottom, all of the company’s employees were given freedom to provide vital feedback at each and every level.

AtlantiCare decided to ensure all new employees understood this quality culture from the onset. At orientation, staff now receive a crash course in the company’s performance excellence framework – a management system that organises the firm’s processes into five key areas: quality, customer service, people and workplace, growth and financial performance. As employees rise through the ranks, this emphasis on improvement follows, so managers can operate within the company’s tight-loose-tight process management style.

After creating benchmark goals for employees to achieve at all levels – including better engagement at the point of delivery, increasing clinical communication and identifying and prioritising service opportunities – AtlantiCare was able to thrive. The number of repeat customers at the firm tripled, and its market share hit a six-year high. Profits unsurprisingly followed. The firm’s revenues shot up from $280m to $650m after implementing the quality improvement strategies, and the number of patients being serviced dwarfed state numbers.

Hitting the right notes: Santa Cruz Guitar Co For companies further removed from the long-term satisfaction of customers, it’s easier to let quality control slide. Yet there are plenty of ways in which growing manufacturers can pursue both quality and sales volumes simultaneously. Artisan instrument makers the Santa Cruz Guitar Co (SCGC) prove a salient example. Although the California-based company is still a small-scale manufacturing operation, SCGC has grown in recent years from a basement operation to a serious business.

SCGC in numbers

14 Craftsmen employed by SCGC

800 Custom guitars produced each year

Owner Dan Roberts now employs 14 expert craftsmen, who create over 800 custom guitars each year. In order to ensure the continued quality of his instruments, Roberts has created an environment that improves with each sale. To keep things efficient (as TQM must), the shop floor is divided into six workstations in which guitars are partially assembled and then moved to the next station. Each bench is manned by a senior craftsman, and no guitar leaves that builder’s station until he is 100 percent happy with its quality. This product quality is akin to a traditional assembly line; however, unlike a traditional, top-to-bottom factory, Roberts is intimately involved in all phases of instrument construction.

Utilising this doting method of quality management, it’s difficult to see how customers wouldn’t be satisfied with the artists’ work. Yet even if there were issues, Roberts and other senior management also spend much of their days personally answering web queries about the instruments. According to the managers, customers tend to be pleasantly surprised to find the company’s senior leaders are the ones answering their technical questions and concerns. While Roberts has no intentions of taking his manufacturing company to industrial heights, the quality of his instruments and high levels of customer satisfaction speak for themselves; the company currently boasts one lengthy backlog of orders.

A quality education: Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies Although it may appear easier to find success with TQM at a boutique-sized endeavour, the philosophy’s principles hold true in virtually every sector. Educational institutions, for example, have utilised quality management in much the same way – albeit to tackle decidedly different problems.

The global financial crisis hit higher education harder than many might have expected, and nowhere have the odds stacked higher than in India. The nation plays home to one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for business education. Yet over recent years, the relevance of business education in India has come into question. A report by one recruiter recently asserted just one in four Indian MBAs were adequately prepared for the business world.

RIMS in numbers

9% Increase in test scores post total quality management strategy

22% Increase in number of recruiters hiring from the school

20,000 Increase in the salary offered to graduates

50,000 Rise in placement revenue

At the Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies (RIMS) in Bangalore, recruiters and accreditation bodies specifically called into question the quality of students’ educations. Although the relatively small school has always struggled to compete with India’s renowned Xavier Labour Research Institute, the faculty finally began to notice clear hindrances in the success of graduates. The RIMS board decided it was time for a serious reassessment of quality management.

The school nominated Chief Academic Advisor Dr Krishnamurthy to head a volunteer team that would audit, analyse and implement process changes that would improve quality throughout (all in a particularly academic fashion). The team was tasked with looking at three key dimensions: assurance of learning, research and productivity, and quality of placements. Each member underwent extensive training to learn about action plans, quality auditing skills and continuous improvement tools – such as the ‘plan-do-study-act’ cycle.

Once faculty members were trained, the team’s first task was to identify the school’s key stakeholders, processes and their importance at the institute. Unsurprisingly, the most vital processes were identified as student intake, research, knowledge dissemination, outcomes evaluation and recruiter acceptance. From there, Krishnamurthy’s team used a fishbone diagram to help identify potential root causes of the issues plaguing these vital processes. To illustrate just how bad things were at the school, the team selected control groups and administered domain-based knowledge tests.

The deficits were disappointing. A RIMS students’ knowledge base was rated at just 36 percent, while students at Harvard rated 95 percent. Likewise, students’ critical thinking abilities rated nine percent, versus 93 percent at MIT. Worse yet, the mean salaries of graduating students averaged $36,000, versus $150,000 for students from Kellogg. Krishnamurthy’s team had their work cut out.

To tackle these issues, Krishnamurthy created an employability team, developed strategic architecture and designed pilot studies to improve the school’s curriculum and make it more competitive. In order to do so, he needed absolutely every employee and student on board – and there was some resistance at the onset. Yet the educator asserted it didn’t actually take long to convince the school’s stakeholders the changes were extremely beneficial.

“Once students started seeing the results, buy-in became complete and unconditional,” he says. Acceptance was also achieved by maintaining clearer levels of communication with stakeholders. The school actually started to provide shareholders with detailed plans and projections. Then, it proceeded with a variety of new methods, such as incorporating case studies into the curriculum, which increased general test scores by almost 10 percent. Administrators also introduced a mandate saying students must be certified in English by the British Council – increasing scores from 42 percent to 51 percent.

By improving those test scores, the perceived quality of RIMS skyrocketed. The number of top 100 businesses recruiting from the school shot up by 22 percent, while the average salary offers graduates were receiving increased by $20,000. Placement revenue rose by an impressive $50,000, and RIMS has since skyrocketed up domestic and international education tables.

No matter the business, total quality management can and will work. Yet this philosophical take on quality control will only impact firms that are in it for the long haul. Every employee must be in tune with the company’s ideologies and desires to improve, and customer satisfaction must reign supreme.

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