James Elliott

Fusion UV Systems has increased its growth and production and maintained a 99% customer satisfaction level for the last five years without adding new employees. But how did it manage this extraordinary feat?

“We achieved this record because of our quality program that has been in place for quite some time,” explained James Elliott, VP of operations for the Gaithersburg, MD-based company. “Because we are ISO certified, we analyze every complaint that comes into the company. All complaints are logged into the system and are addressed and assigned to an individual to investigate.

“Over a period of years, we have weeded out problems and standardized systems to improve our processes,” said Elliott. “We’ll identify the root of the problem, implement a corrective action, and then implement preventive actions to make sure that it never happens again.”

Elliott admits that while Fusion’s quality procedures didn’t start off too strong, constant improvement has resulted in impressive gains. “Customer satisfaction is measured with an index made up of factors that include if the order was completed being and delivered on time and if the precise customer specifications were met.

Every functional area of the company is involved in Fusion’s quality initiative. “Once a month, we have meetings to review any outstanding customer complaints, delivery statistics, installation procedures, and other factors. In addition, senior management reviews these and other activities every quarter.”

To improve customer satisfaction, customers are given a questionnaire to gauge their satisfaction with what they have purchased. “This has been a huge factor in our success with quality,” said David Harbourne, president of Fusion.

Huge jump
Fusion’s lean manufacturing processes have paid dividends in many areas of the company. Prior to starting its lean activities, Fusion was manufacturing and installing 200 to 250 systems a month. After focusing much of its activities and efforts on streamlining the assembly, shipping, and testing processes, activity during its peak month in 2003 exceeded 750 units.

Fusion managed to increase its production so dramatically by starting small and picking a problem area to analyze. “We use video cameras to record an entire process multiple times. We can view and analyze the performance of a mix of operators from front to back. Fusion’s quality assurance personnel, including individuals from each functional area, immediately go to work on what they find.”

“We let the team analyze the video and search for areas where productivity improvements can be made—things like making sure all the tools employees need are located within reach, duplicate movements are reduced, and components are available when needed. We typically find that when we apply these lean techniques, we achieve at least a 50% improvement in the overall function of that process.”

Elliott continued, “We use the skills we learned from these findings to address and remove bottle necks and improve efficiencies going forward.”

Global distribution
About 70% of Fusion’s business is outside of North America, and one of its biggest challenges is global distribution, explained Harbourne. “The most efficient way of dealing with global distribution is to use logistics companies. We have learned over the years that they can do a much better job and are more efficient in local distribution than our own distributors, particularly in small overseas offices,” Harbourne explained. “We ship in bulk to the logistics companies, and they separate the shipment and deliver it directly to our customers.”

To ensure products are shipped to its customers as efficiently as possible, Fusion’s order entry personnel works closely with the customer to identify and confirm shipping needs. If the customer has a preferred method or carrier, Fusion will naturally accommodate its request. “Our goal in this whole process is to maximize customer satisfaction,” said Elliott. “If the customer wants its equipment packaged in bright yellow containers, then that’s what we’ll ship their products in.”

If customers choose not to specify, then Fusion will find the lowest-cost carrier and provide them with a freight quote based on the rough dimensions and weight of what they are purchasing. “We’ll get the best freight rates to get the product where it needs to be,” said Elliott.

“It all comes down to company-wide commitment to the customers and their needs. It’s a given that product quality has to be 100%, and our ISO certification is part of that assurance worldwide. The proof of our quality—and we have maintained this despite having fewer people on our payroll—is that our customers say they can count on us to deliver products that meet or often exceed their expectations,” Harbourne concluded.