A leading manufacturer of golf equipment selects MetricStream to strengthen supplier quality compliance through real-time monitoring of inspections and process capability.

1. CASE STUDY
A TOP GLOBAL GOLF EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER STRENGTHENS
MetricStream SUPPLIER QUALITY COMPLIANCE THROUGH REAL-TIME
MONITORING OF INSPECTIONS AND PROCESS CAPABILITY
Customer
The customer is a premier manufacturer of high performance golf equipment, apparel and shoes that
are used by professional golfers across the world to win golf tournaments. The company is renowned
for its balance of technology, in-depth research and cutting-edge design which put it at the forefront of
golf equipment innovation.
Overview
Associated with high quality and performance, the company’s products are used by some of the top
professional golfers in the world. However, it isn’t easy maintaining that consistency in quality, given
Customer the breadth and scope of the company’s operations. For instance, clubs are sourced from the Far East,
A LEADING MANUFACTURER OF GOLF EQUIPMENT and assembled in California and Japan. Considering the extent of this supply chain, it is critical for the
company to continuously monitor process capability or Cpk. (Cpk is a way of statistically arriving at
a number that predicts the ability of the manufacturing process to produce parts as per the specifica-
tion.)
Benefits
Increased efficiency: MetricStream Solution enables Earlier, the company ran rigorous process capability programs to ensure quality. However, as the
the company’s engineers to automate end-to-end demand grew and markets expanded, the company found that its programs were no longer cost-effec-
supplier quality management workflows, including tive, nor up-to-date. Moreover, they were becoming inefficient and increasingly difficult to manage.
Cpk calculation. Therefore, quality management time-
lines can be crunched, process flows accelerated, In response, the company opted to upgrade its supplier quality management processes with Met-
and overall efficiency strengthened.
ricStream Solution. MetricStream enabled the company to establish an integrated, on-going and
automated process of monitoring supplier quality compliance, measuring Cpk and identifying SKUs
Cost-effectiveness: MetricStream Solution elimi- that fell outside the requisite thresholds.
nates the need for resource-intensive, manual paper-
based processes. Therefore, the company can divert
valuable resources to other more critical processes.
Engineers can focus on more value-added activities
Challenges
instead of spending time preparing reports and calcu- Cumbersome manual processes: The company’s engineers used spreadsheets to enter inspection
lating Cpk. Suppliers will also find the solution cost- data, calculate Cpk and prepare reports. This was an extremely time-consuming process, given the
effective, as it is Web-based, and does not require
additional investments in hardware or software.
volume of data, products and suppliers that had to be studied. Engineers had to manually sift through
hundreds of unwieldy papers, verify the accuracy of data and check that thresholds had not been
Integrated quality management: MetricStream breached. Despite their best efforts, there was always the likelihood of data errors occurring.
provides a single, integrated platform to manage the
entire supply quality management chain. It replaces Ad hoc quality checks: Monitoring process capability required collecting inspection data from suppli-
linear, fragmented workflows with a consolidated, ers, manually calculating Cpk, preparing reports and distributing them to users. Considering the effort
streamlined process that spans suppliers, engineers
and time required to complete this process, it was nearly impossible to ensure ongoing, consistent
and managers. Collaboration is enhanced across
global locations, and issue remediation or correction
checks on quality. Process capability monitoring was usually conducted only once a month. This
is swifter. Moreover, a systematic workflow is intro- raised the possibility that some products that did not meet Cpk standards, would escape review.
duced with defined norms for the collection of inspec-
tion data, sample preparation and Cpk calculation. Delay between data collection and report preparation: Given the volume of products that are man-
ufactured every day, it is critical for managers to identify and correct quality issues in a timely manner.
Accelerated response to issues: Every two hours, Earlier, engineers had to spend so much time gathering inspections data and analyzing quality, that
MetricStream Solution recalculates Cpk and regener-
issue identification and resolution was inevitably delayed. This, in turn, stalled product roll out.
ates metrics. The information is immediately made
available to the company’s engineers, managers
and suppliers across the enterprise. In addition, Limited visibility into reports: Instead of gaining real-time visibility into supplier quality, the com-
daily alerts are sent when indices fall outside the pany’s managers had to wait for process capability reports to be manually filed every month. Many
threshold. Thus, engineers can address issues in time of these reports were out-dated, and did not provide the in-depth insights required to make important
and take corrective action before the lots even reach strategic decisions. This limited managerial ability to identify quality-based issues and trends in a
the warehouse. timely manner, and address them quickly.
Solution
The company wanted to establish a seamless process for supplier inspections and process capabil-
ity monitoring that was integrated across suppliers, engineers and managers. They also wanted to
automate critical quality calculations, accelerate workflows, and gain greater visibility into supplier
quality metrics at the enterprise level.
After considering several quality management systems, the company chose MetricStream Solution
based on its rich and flexible functionalities, as well as its potential to significantly strengthen the
company’s supplier quality management processes.

2. MetricStream
MetricStream provided the company an integrated Supplier Quality Management Solution replete
Benefits with powerful dashboards, alerts and comprehensive reports. The 100% Web-based solution enables
Enhanced visibility for suppliers, engineers and
the company to streamline supplier quality management workflows, conduct inspections, define
managers: MetricStream Solution provides powerful specifications and sampling plans for SKU attributes, automate Cpk calculations and accelerate issue
dashboards and reports with drill-down capabilities identification and correction.
that enable the company’s engineers and suppli-
ers to view data at any level of detail. The data Supplier quality data entry: MetricStream’s integrated capabilities enable all the company’s suppli-
can be assessed and aggregated downstream, and ers to enter information for SKUs on a common interface. This makes it convenient to calculate Cpk
simultaneously rolled back upstream to be viewed at
and conduct inspections across multiple suppliers and locations. Security is ensured through separate
the executive level. The data can also be converted
into business intelligence that is critical in directing
logins and access controls. Therefore, each supplier can only enter data for those SKUs, classes and
quality strategy. models that he/she has authority over.
Reduced Cost of Poor Quality: MetricStream Once the data is entered, it accumulates with previously entered data for the week to provide a com-
Solution helps the company collaborate closely with prehensive snapshot of SKU details. Multiple high level and detailed reports provide visibility into the
suppliers, and reduce the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) extent of data that has been entered.
which would otherwise cause significant losses. The
solution’s integrated, closed-loop system enables
both the company and its suppliers to continuously Inspection management: MetricStream Solution enables the company’s engineers to establish a
monitor quality, and proactively identify and resolve systematic process for collecting, plotting and analyzing inspection data to identify material non-
issues. Therefore the costs of producing defective conformance before lots are shipped.
goods, as well as product recalls are minimized.
The company’s engineers can predefine attributes, processes and dimensions for the various SKUs. If
the data is insufficient, a complaint can be initiated.
Users can generate inspection forms by entering either enter ad hoc inspection details, a PO receipt,
or WIP completion. The system then leverages Skip-Lot Logic to determine which items should be
inspected, and which should be skipped. It also helps determine sample size through fixed sampling
percentages or a planned table. This eliminates tedious manual involvement, and accelerates inspec-
tions.
Cpk for inspection attributes is calculated against various factors such as SKU, SKU class, attribute,
class, geography and supplier, with multiple drill-down paths. The calculations are automated, thus
minimizing the risk of errors and the time taken for calculation. The system also simplifies the ability
to determine if the inspection passed or failed. If it failed, the issue is automatically routed for non-
conformance investigation.
Why MetricStream Real-time alerts: Every two hours, MetricStream Solution recalculates Cpk information for each sup-
plier. If the result falls below the required level, automatic alerts are immediately sent to the quality
MetricStream Supplier Quality Management Solution engineer and supplier, with reports of the offending SKUs. Thus supplier quality can be monitored
is widely used by leading global corporations in the
continually, proactively and in real time. Also, issues can be identified and resolved quickly.
manufacturing industry
MetricStream Solution provides real-time alerts in other instances as well – when an inspection re-
The solution provides robust security capabilities
quest is assigned to an auditor, or when an inspection request has not been completed within the due
that enable it to be used across multiple suppliers,
vendors and contractors
date, or when an inspection request has been completed and routed for review/approval.
Reporting: MetricStream Solution provides a number of comprehensive reports to track the status of
The solution streamlines, automates and integrates
end-to-end workflows for increased efficiency and
supplier quality management. Suppliers receive reports detailing the process/attributes that they are
reduced risk of errors responsible for, along with all computations used in determining the Cpk. Historical Cpk trends can be
identified with the number of poor and mediocre Cpks highlighted in colour codes.
Flexible capabilities enable the solution to be seam-
lessly integrated with existing systems including Similar values can be viewed by the company’s engineers through week-by-week details of all the
the Internal Quality and Supplier Quality modules for Cpks for a particular supplier, aggregated for all the SKUs. The reports can be drilled down to view
corrective actions
individual SKUs, as well as Cpk trends.
MetricStream solution is scalable, easy-to-use, and
can be extended to address other areas of GRC MetricStream Solution also provides powerful dashboards with role-based access that help track the
including Corrective/Preventive Action, Issue Reme- status of supplier quality management in real-time. Embedded scorecards help monitor supplier perfor-
diation, Auditing and Risk Management mance, measuring Key Performance Indicators, and tracking them against milestones.
For more information, visit
www.metricstream.com
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