Plexus Corporation – Past, Present and Future
Plexus Corporation has gained a reputation as an internationally acclaimed developer and provider of training for organizations seeking to improve their performance and comply or certify to ISO 9000-based quality management systems. Plexus’ partnerships with AIAG, IAOB and ASQ, its International Plexus Partner offices in 12 countries around the world, and its stable of highly qualified trainers serve to enhance and build on that reputation. Many companies would be satisfied with what Plexus has achieved in the twelve years since its founding in 1993. But Plexus Corporation is not satisfied because there are many organizations that are not getting the help they need. Plexus is compelled to provide that help. The result is that Plexus Corporation is evolving because the needs of its customers are evolving. While Plexus will continue to develop and deliver worldclass training to individuals and organizations seeking improvement through compliance and certifications to quality management standards, Plexus is now prepared to offer more concentrated, tailored and revenue-generating assistance to organizations.
Times–––They Are Changing
Organizations that are obligated by their customers to seek quality management certification have for several years grumbled about the cost associated with compliance, a cost that most have come to accept as the cost of doing business, with little hope of a return on investment. In a growing economy with predictable levels of competition, an organization may be able to convince itself to complete tasks that don’t directly grow its bottom line. But in an environment of world trade, a shrinking market share, and cheap labor overseas, most organizations have little appetite for efforts that show little or no return on investment. Indeed, most are looking internally for ways to cut costs and increase revenues.
Given those facts, it is no surprise that organizations are rethinking management system compliance.
Expanded Services
Plexus has responded to these changing times in three ways:
1. Plexus has developed, refined and validated a process-based approach to management that meets compliance requirements, and also positively (and significantly) impacts an organization’s bottom line.
2. Plexus has developed a model for organizational and individual learning that ensures that an organization’s and individual’s gains do not evaporate.
3. Plexus now offers more individual, on-site, consultative-style assistance than in the past.
Impressive Results
The results of Plexus Corporation’s expanded services are impressive! Cadillac Products Automotive Company, which is located in Troy, Michigan, received help from Plexus Corporation in early 2004. In one year’s time, one of Cadillac’s several manufacturing
plants (the first to apply Plexus’ assistance – the other sites are currently moving forward with their own versions of the program) recorded a dramatic turn around to its bottom line! They attributed their success to the multi-faceted help provided by Plexus Corporation, the centerpiece of that help – “Terrapene Process Management Suite.”
What Plexus’ Customers Say
Dennis Gentry, ASQ-CQA and Corporate Quality Director of Cadillac Products Automotive Company, has this to say about using Terrapene as a tool for implementing Process-Based Management at Cadillac Products: "Through the use of process-based management and Terrapene, we found and corrected a major gap between corporate and our plants. 'At our Rogers City facility, we reduced manufacturing variances (moving from negative to positive) and significantly improved Overall Equipment Efficiency in the first year with process-based management and Terrapene."
Andy Stone, Quality Manager of Rogers City, further stated: "Terrapene has provided several benefits to our system. First, it provided an excellent means to document the sequence and interaction of our processes and allowed us to attach and utilize our existing documentation. Secondly, the turtle diagram has forced more discussion and put additional emphasis on the measures and objectives of our processes. Having more focus on our metrics has driven our continuous improvement process to new levels. In addition, the system allows for easy integration of more than one standard."
Patrick Smith, VP at Minsor Systems Inc, has this say about process-based management: "ISO/TS 16949:2002 is all about process-based management to run our business, and Terrapene is the tool to provide the visibility to manage our organization as a process-based system. We successfully registered three facilities simultaneously in half the implementation time it took to do one QS-9000 registered plant. The process approach saved our entire organization time and money."
What’s Next?
Plexus Corporation’s President, Dr. Alan Peterson, states that though the results thus far are impressive, Plexus and its customers have only scratched the surface. “Process-based management properly implemented and applied can help a company improve its bottom line, while maintaining its compliancy to requirements, as evidenced by the results at Cadillac Products Automotive Company. We envision that organizations using Terrapene (and process-based management) will significantly outpace organizations relying on compliance-oriented management systems. Based on the data gathered thus far, they will surpass traditional management systems in efficiency, effectiveness, individual and group learning, and revenue generation.”