Contract manufacturing has to be held to higher standard.
At RG Group, we’ve continuously held ourselves to very high manufacturing standards and they’ve always served us well. But when we entered into a contract manufacturing relationship to produce devices used in industrial applications, we needed to go even higher. The standard procedures we’ve been using for outfitting coal cars or building mobile fire containment units needed to be ratcheted up a notch.
General Procedures
In order to streamline our overall approach, we gave our manufacturing practices an overhaul, from the way we organize our bill of materials (BOM), our purchasing process, even the planned layout of the manufacturing floor. As part of that restructure we were able to work our BOM into appropriate sub-assemblies, creating greater efficiency and minimizing assembly time for us (and our customer).
Workspace
Producing sterilization units requires a clean work environment… from turning the first screw to the final stages of testing and everything in between. In order to provide that, we decided to install new, dedicated workstations offering a higher level of control at every phase of a project.
Documentation
With the increased need for cleanliness comes extensive documentation. We’ve shored up our documentation process, paying particular attention to planning drawings and assembly instructions. This guarantees increased consistency and quality.
Moving Forward
Since our customer is constantly pushing their technology into new markets, we are, too. We’re continually adapting the systems we’ve already built for use in those new markets. While our initial changes were made to accommodate a customer in the medical field, the updates we’ve adopted have served us well with all of our partnerships. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a smoother, more efficient process… even if you weren’t the one asking for it?