9/3/26

Quality Assurance is the process of ensuring that suppliers furnish materials and equipment that meet the end users’ specifications and is of suitable quality and workmanship to support a facility’s reliability goals. Purchasing equipment and materials that are of the highest quality and in conformance to end user specifications will ensure reliability of mill/plant processes and allow effective maintenance of equipment at the lowest possible cost.

KEY PRINCIPLES:

·        Known established formal specifications.

·        Clearly communicated expectations.

·        Procedures and equipment in place to verify that vendor supplied items meet or exceed specifications upon receipt or through performance checks, as applicable.

·        Specifications are furnished to all vendors for quotation.

·        Communicate performance requirements to all suppliers and contractors. Includes inspection visits to supplier facilities to verify quality control and quality assurance programs.

Networks

Mills and plants should put significant value in networking with suppliers and contractors that have maintenance equipment repairs and specific reliability services as their core business. The strategy is to work with these suppliers and contractors and harness their capabilities to close gaps faster and with a focus on these best practices. Experience has shown the advantages for the supplier and consumer to have a highly cooperative relationship as well as offer highly competitive pricing.  

Key Reliability Partners

Many large volume suppliers have total cost of ownership programs that tend to be rear view focused and avoided cost focus which doesn’t drive gap closure. It is vital to align projects directly to gap closure and with a specific cost saving associated with it. Involving suppliers and contractors with mill and plant initiatives and holding periodic review meetings to track progress of improvement initiatives and assign supplier resources to portions of integrated action plans. This puts a level of ownership and accountability onto suppliers to deliver results and enable better results and maintain goal alignment.

Some known benefits to having cooperative supplier-customer relationship are:

·        Improved reliability

·        Supplier having a “seat at the table” as a team member

·        Improved engagement and collaboration at all levels

·        Suppliers playing an important role in gap closure

·        Sustainability

Cooper Trade Group’s goal is to deliver on these Best Practices via quality products, expeditious service at the best possible price to enable you to meet set goals. We don’t operate a high-volume business, but we pride ourselves on finding high-quality repair parts and consumables and providing them to you at the best price anywhere!

Thank you for reading and remember, we are always happy to help!

Mike