CLEVELAND, OH¾ April 2, 2008¾
OKAY Industries Inc., New Britain, CT, has received the 2008
Parkview Metal Products Excellence in Quality Award as part of
the Precision Metalforming Association’s (PMA’s) Awards of
Excellence in Metalforming. The company produces precision metal
stampings and subassemblies for medical, surgical, automotive,
defense, aerospace and other specialty industrial markets.
OKAY’s management team has demonstrated a strong commitment
to the quality system, developing the company’s Prioritized
Action Plan for Continuous Improvement (PAPFCI), which is
reviewed and approved by the company’s outside board of
directors. This document clearly defines specific objectives by
part number or process and identifies champions responsible for
the action items. Each quarter, senior staff meets with all
managers to review the progress made on the PAPFCI. In addition,
senior staff meets with department managers weekly to review
current issues including customer complaints, efficiencies and
delivery performance. OKAY’s president holds a monthly
communications meeting as well, where key items are reviewed
with all employees, including monthly quality and delivery
performance analysis.
Most importantly: Senior staff has established a quality
culture. OKAY lists its priorities as safety first, quality
second and productivity third. These priorities are understood
and observed on a daily basis.
OKAY uses an enterprise-management system called Plexus
Online to help manage data so that empowered employees can make
informed decisions to control the company’s products and
processes. The system also tracks problem controls, which are
broken down into customer complaints, internal audit
non-conformances, supplier corrective actions, machine and
equipment failure, audit findings, and continual improvements.
The corrective action system automatically sends e-mail
reminders to those required to perform each action item. Problem
solving is a team effort at OKAY, with 30 employees trained in
several problem-solving techniques. Numerous items are used to
enhance Okay’s preventive-action processes, including the
creation of a Process Ready Check Sheet, which ensures that each
operation is ready to begin production and requires a sign off
by the manufacturing and quality departments.
OKAY also works closely with its suppliers. The company
performed a multitude of on-site supplier audits in 2007,
including a review of processes, documentation and results of
year-to-date shipments and corrective actions. Whenever there is
an issue with a supplier, OKAY issues a supplier notice (SCAR).
In 2006, when OKAY began the program, 144 Supplier Corrective
Actions were issued. In 2007 the SCAR count had declined by 51
percent. OKAY also had three of its key suppliers attend
extensive root-cause analysis and problem-solving classes, and
the drop in supplier-related issues shows how well the supplier
partnerships are working.
OKAY also participates in second- and third-party
assessments. The company was visited by and/or audited by eight
customers in 2007, and received successful audits from all. In
addition, OKAY undergoes biannual ISO/TS assessments, and the
last four audits have netted only one minor non-conformity. A
team of 12 internal auditors perform audits throughout the year,
which touch on each process and the requirements of TS 16949 and
ISO 9000:2000.
The Quality Award is one of eight Awards of Excellence in
Metalforming, presented annually by PMA. Sponsored by Parkview
Metal Products, Lake Zurich, IL, the award recognizes
outstanding achievement by a PMA manufacturing member in the
development and implementation of a company-wide quality system
that effectively uses continuous improvement. Along with
recognition in industry publications and at exhibitions, OKAY
will receive a $1,500 cash prize. OKAY Industries will donate
the cash prize to E.C. Goodwin Technical High School in New
Britain, CT.
PMA is the full-service trade association representing the
$91-billion metal-forming industry of North America—the industry
that creates precision metal products using stamping,
fabricating and other value-added processes. Its nearly 1,200
member companies include metal stampers, fabricators, spinners,
slide formers and roll formers as well as suppliers of
equipment, materials and services to the industry. Members are
located in 30 countries, with the majority found in North
America in 41 states of the United States as well as Canada and
Mexico.
EDITOR’S NOTE: More information on PMA’s Awards of Excellence
in Metal-forming is available at
