2019 - What a Year!

It’s been one heck of a year!

If 2004 was the year Quality Liaison Services began, 2019 is the year the company set the standard in supplier representation and quality assurance. We broke new ground in the third-party inspection services sector by embracing innovative technologies and continued to fine-tune our quality management system while keeping product failure rates incredibly low. Also, our team of skilled personnel began supporting clients in new industries and emerging markets.

On top of all those accomplishments, QLS celebrated its fifteenth anniversary.

What we do

End-users demand quality products and, in turn, OEMs demand quality performance all the way down their supply chains. Most, if not all manufacturers, will say quality is their top priority. The problem is that sometimes quality can fall by the wayside when a variety of factors come into play, such as deadlines, budgets, and workforce turnover.

QLS provides a link between OEMs and their suppliers with monitoring and surveillance, inspection and containment, and rework and repair services. Additionally, we have engineering and product validation, testing, controlled shipping capabilities. Benefits of our services include:

 - Improved product quality
 - Greater visibility
 - Strengthened customer relationships
 - Enhanced supply chain performance
 - Reduced downtime

Our experienced and highly trained inspectors and auditors communicate priorities to OEM and supplier teams, rooting out nonconformities before they reach the marketplace. This ultimately improves end-user satisfaction.

How we improved in 2019

Quality assurance is a product that’s never finished at QLS. In 2019, we had a breakthrough year. Our team improved on all fronts, focusing on performance, speed, and communication. We aimed to help our clients enhance product quality, which resulted in strengthened production and growth in new markets.

Here’s what we did this year.

You see what we see

At QLS, we strive to provide turnkey quality assurance services to our customers. The efficient conveyance of accurate information is critical to what we do. That’s why we launched QLS Vüe, a wearable technology that enables our teams in the field to connect hands-free to customers across the globe.

With QLS Vüe, clients can see product defects in their customer’s location as the inspection takes place. With simple voice commands, team members can video conference customers for synchronous collaboration rather than exchanging information over several hours, creating long email chains that take up valuable time and data.

Customer-focused approach

QLS attended the Quality Expo in New York City. As the premier trade show for inspection and testing solutions, the Quality Expo brings together more than 550 companies from around the world to see, touch, and test and latest manufacturing innovations.

At the Quality Expo, we were able to connect with current and prospective clients in person. We gained insight into what we did right and how we can better tailor services to suit client needs.

Serving new industries

If our decades of quality assurance experience have taught us anything, it’s that if you love what you do, you do it very well. At QLS, we are incredibly lucky to work with partners in a variety of industries who share our commitment to quality.

 - Medium-duty truck
 - Heavy-duty truck
 - Construction
 - Agriculture
 - Powersports
 - Raw materials
 - Solar/alternative energy
 - Bus
 - Engine

In 2019, we expanded our supplier representation and quality assurance services into the three new Tier 1 sectors.

 - Automotive
 - Marine
 - Defense

We continually seek out opportunities to unleash our potential, designing new and more complete quality-related programs for our clients.

Branching out

With a steadfast commitment to quality and the customer, QLS has a positive impact on the products shipped from the facilities we visit. Our personnel monitor, inspect, and review the status of parts, processes, and finished products while providing instant feedback to any quality issue or trending information.

This performance has enabled us to grow and expand into new markets. Our personnel provided client-tailored quality assurance services to new locations in the following areas in 2019.

 - Texas
 - South Carolina
 - Wisconsin
 - Mexico

Expansions

In the manufacturing supply chain, ensuring optimum product quality means going all the way. You verify and validate, not just take someone’s word for it. As staunch believers in the customer-first approach to quality assurance, we practice what we preach and put our clients’ needs first. That’s why we began offering vendor surveillance, auditing, and quality assurance services across Australia in 2019.

In Australia, manufacturing production throughout, sales, exports, and employment all gained ground that year. To get the piece parts needed to build final products, major companies now have global supply chains. Australian manufacturers have embraced this supply chain evolution, and play an increasingly important role in bringing products to market.

QLS helps OEMs and their suppliers in Australia achieve their respective goals more efficiently. As a third-party service provider, we serve two customers, not just one. The OEM partners with us to maintain productivity and improve their suppliers’ quality ratings over time. Suppliers work with us to be their eyes and ears in OEM facilities, and to provide instant response to their OEM customer needs.

Inspection advancements

Inspection is critical for every manufactured part or assembly. It guarantees conformance with relevant requirements, standards, and regulations. The process also ensures that these parts come together without issue, and that final products perform as designed.

Accurate measurement of critical dimensions requires a unique mix of capabilities in the modern manufacturing environment. Inspectors must verify that products are not only manufactured on time, but that production is repeatedly accurate.

That’s why we began offering coordinate measuring machine, or CMM, inspection services. CMMs deliver exceptional durability, speed, and accuracy for factory-floor applications.

Confirm the parts you manufacture, or those made for your final product, surpass fit, form, and function requirements using high-value CMM services from QLS. With a solution for workpieces of all sizes, component measurement begins and ends with us.

Greater precision

Just about every manufacturer requires a robust supply chain to get their final product to the customer on time and in a satisfactory condition. If you’re a supply chain partner, you understand how much attention is paid to quality.

One way to measure vendor quality is the number of parts per million defectives, which is commonly called to PPM. While each industry has a slightly different view of the PPM metric, generally speaking, it’s the number of defectives identified in every million parts manufactured.

At QLS, our PPM failure rate for 2019 was less than 0.4 PPM. This result mirrors prior years’ performance. We strive to provide the highest levels of quality to our clients, and the continued low PPM failure rate is proof that we can conform to customer requirements and have a solid understanding of quality.

Reliable performance, time and again

Quality is a crucial parameter that sets a business apart from its competitors. High quality can positively impact customer loyalty, business partnerships, and employee satisfaction, among many other things.

The cornerstone of any organization is an effective, high-performing quality management system, or QMS. A QMS helps coordinate and direct activities to meet customer and regulatory requirements and improve effectiveness and efficiency on a continuous basis. Benefits of a QMS include:

 - Improving processes
 - Reducing waste
 - Lowering costs
 - Facilitating and identifying training opportunities
 - Engaging staff
 - Setting organization-wide direction

At QLS, we take our quality management system seriously. As an ISO 9001:2015-certified service provider, we take a process-oriented approach to quality.

Our team reviewed client feedback, employee recommendations, and regulatory changes facing the sectors for which we provide quality assurance services, and used that data to fine-tune our QMS. Some benefits include:

 - Improved quality
 - Better customer service
 - Right attitude
 - Fewer nonconformities

By creating more efficient work practices and continuing to focus on core objectives, our QMS reached new heights. We believe it will make us better and improve client satisfaction in 2020.

Onward and upward

While our fifteenth year was certainly one to celebrate, QLS not a company inclined to sit on its laurels. We’ve got a lot of big things planned for 2020!

Whether you’re an OEM, vendor or supplier, there’s always room for improvement. Partner with us to take quality to the next level.