The answer is: it doesn’t matter what quality means to the spring industry. It does matter what quality means to the customers of the spring industry. The answer for each customer varies, and with that what exactly does quality mean? When the spring industry misses the mark at times it starts talking about quality in their own terms, not the terms best for customer. For an example, if one were to ask a spring manufacturer, ” how do you define quality for your company?” a typical reply many times is, “well, we’re ISO Certified, or we have CNC equipment that can hold tight tolerances,” or, “we utilize SPC checking techniques throughout the shop.”
These are all nice tools and can certainly help in producing spring parts to customer specifications, however as many experienced spring manufacturers know, having the best spring equipment and technology for producing parts can still lead to frustrated customers, frustrated spring makers, and wasted resources for both. Many customers would probably say in terms of quality, it doesn’t matter how you do it, just do it smoothly.
To that end, spring quality starts in the office. The office is where communication between the customer and spring manufacturer typically start, and in reviewing past root causes of quality problems higher percentages occur in the office where there has been a miscommunication between customer and spring manufacturer.
Consider this simple example; a customer requests a spring to be left-hand wound. The estimator takes the order, but forgets to make the change on the drawing. The shop makes the part to print, but it’s not to the customer’s specs. If the estimator would have made the change and had the customer sign off on the drawing, chances are the mistake would have been caught before the parts were manufactured and less frustration for everyone.
Thus, Katy Spring values spring quality from office to spring production. For the sake of both us and our customers, attention to detail and communication are key pillars of business here at Katy Spring. We strive to provide springs up to spring industry and YOUR standards.
Scott