Quality Management Philosophy

The Corporation

Cookson Electronics is a division of Cookson Group plc, and employs over 5,000 people. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Cookson Electronics had 2004 sales in excess of $1.2 billion USD.

A key strategy for Cookson Electronics is to lead the electronics industry as a major supplier of materials for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) fabrication, PCB assembly, and semiconductor packaging processes. This strategy includes differentiating from the competition by creating superior value and offering customers products, services, and process support at the highest quality levels.
Accordingly, each sector within Cookson Electronics is committed to the highest product quality and support. This commitment is aimed at continually setting the industry standard in customer satisfaction. When working together or directly one to one with customers, the sectors of Cookson Electronics offer an unparalleled opportunity for customers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their manufacturing processes.

Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials (CEAM) Sector

Since 1990, the Assembly Materials sector has worked to achieve standardization and satisfy customer requirements through registration to international quality standards. The sector continued to expand its registrations to new facilities after major acquisitions and/or the building of new manufacturing sites.

In the late 1990’s, a key business strategy for the organization was to strengthen the company’s business standards across the global regions for optimal performance. The move to transition the company’s ISO 900X to ISO 9001:2000 in the early 2000 was seen as the perfect opportunity to further reinforce global system standardization among its worldwide manufacturing facilities. In addition, the sector’s Quality Management Leadership concluded that eleven registrars serving 34 sites was not the ideal business model for the organization. For maximum efficiency and economies of scale, it was decided to consolidate the eleven registrars into one accredited certification body that had a global reach. Such an infrastructure was imperative to becoming “truly integrated.”

Along with registrar consolidation, a significant strategy for further standardization involved identifying Key Business Processes, Methods and Practices in compliance with ISO 9001:2000 and where warranted, ISO/TS 16949 to meet customer requirements across specific manufacturing sites. Given the common operating practices, a single registrar could directly dialogue with all sites providing a true assessment of the global activity and how well interlinked processes are working.

CEAM chose BSI as their single registrar to solidify their global approach and system standardization efforts. Cookson found BSI’s combination of features offered the most value from one registration body. Those features included:

• BSI’s reputation as a credible registrar with a hundred-year history of success
• Local auditors accessible to all of Cookson’s worldwide sites
• A multi-lingual staff that could meet the communication needs of Cookson sites
• A predictable, fixed-cost contract
• An Americas, Europe, and Asia global structure that aligned with Cookson’s three-region corporate structure

Operating under the global quality policy, which was devised and promoted by David Zerfoss, CEAM’s President and Chief Executive Officer, the company’s quality management leadership developed a Corporate Quality Manual for the business that assisted sites in achieving the transition towards ISO 9001:2000 and/or ISO/TS 16949:2002. Emphasis was placed on the process approach, which focused on identifying key and interlinked processes across the organization and evaluating performance according to their planned arrangements. The process approach gives ownership of a business process to those responsible for measuring effectiveness, improving performance, and reporting targets and trends to the business Sr. Leadership Team. The view of the company’s Sr. Business Leaders is that quality is embedded and integrated into every function and the effectiveness and efficiency of an identified process rests with the process owner(s).

Fundamental business processes have been published as internal standards for use at each CEAM site. These processes address systems such as documentation and records control, new product development and technology transfer, customer satisfaction, supplier management, internal audits, corrective/preventive action, “key performance indicators” to monitor operational efficiencies, and continual improvement among others. In addition, an electronic quality management system has been implemented to assist each facility with standardization efforts and assimilation of the given systems. Using BSI as a single registrar allows Cookson to monitor for compliance to, and effectiveness of, these standardized worldwide practices.

After consolidating to BSI as the single registrar along with corporate standards utilizing the process approach, Cookson’s Assembly Materials Sector is on the path to achieving the “global” benefits they seek. Having a single registrar provides a direct link to each registered site, allowing both companies greater ability to view and share quality management information internally. BSI’s Europe, Asia, and Americas hubs currently allow for far greater dialogue with regional meetings and global discussions between BSI and Cookson. The relationship is becoming a quality management partnership beyond registration. Building on ISO 9001 system requirements, Cookson and BSI have plans for further quality management development, including the monitoring of corporate mandated levels of performance and processes. A recent achievement in 2004/2005 timeframe was to consolidate individual site QMS certificates to a regional ISO 9001:2000 registration scheme for the Americas and Asia-Pacific (Europe was already operating with an integrated system and a single regional certificate). A future goal is to ultimately consolidate to a global registration scheme with one ISO 9001 certificate listing all facilities worldwide, including additional licenses for ISO/TS 16949 (sites manufacturing eligible products for subscribing companies in the automotive supply chain). Where ISO 14001 and OHSAS certifications are present, joint assessment approaches will also be considered.

Current Activity

In early 2004, Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials launched the six sigma philosophy across the global organization as a key business strategy where identified processes must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million “opportunities”. This goal of near-perfection is a driver within Cookson that has increased global project momentum. Through CEAM’s various training courses (e.g. Black-Belt and Green-Belt Training), six sigma delivers the statistical tools and problem-solving techniques that are the foundations for this breakthrough system to improve the effective-ness and efficiency of business processes. The six sigma strategy requires commitment and involvement of all managerial levels to identify key business processes that impact the bottom line, measuring their effectiveness and efficiency, and initiating improvements to the levels of six sigma. The goal is to enhance total customer satisfaction, gain market share, and ultimately improve profitability.

Breakthroughs are achieved much more quickly and predictably by using the six sigma methodology. To date, numerous six sigma projects have realized impressive results that have positively contributed to the bottom line. It has been well documented that in a short time, six sigma has enabled the organization to attain "breakthrough" improvements in the business (improvements that are considerably greater in scale than those typically achieved).

Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials is using the Six Sigma methods to attain positive business results and a sustainable and measurable culture shift. This is achieved by educating and involving all levels of the organization. Striving for the greatest level of quality will make achieving six sigma levels of performance a realistic goal for critical processes. CEAM Global Leaders take a holistic view in monitoring and measurement of the “Business Management system” (BMS), with four major areas of focus: 1) Internal Manufacturing, 2) Development and Improvement, 3) External Customer Focus, and 4) Business Results (Financial Performance).

We are confident that continuing this strategy will lead to sustainable growth for the benefit of all stakeholders.