Covercraft's Biggest Challenge

The company was making acquisitions and evolving more, day by day. All this without having control of project documentation and quality. Then, the big challenge for Covercraft was to think about how they could overcome this problem once and for all because, in the future, it would be problems when it came to passing audits or quality assessments. It is worth remembering that the manufacturing sector of the automotive industry is increasingly competitive and standardized, thus further increasing the need for the company to be fully aligned with market expectations. According to Roby Potts, “Covercraft has evolved from a collection of acquisitions that operated independently to a truly consolidated manufacturing and sales company. At launch, we had zero documentation and control in five of our seven locations. After reviewing multiple products/services over three months, we chose SoftExpert’s Excellence Suite because it addressed our immediate needs/risks, and was easily scaleable (we could add additional plants as needed)”. Thus, the company saw the need to standardize and integrate document control in all its units. It then spent more than three months searching the market for quality and document management software. From the various technology solutions found and evaluated, SoftExpert solutions were the ones that best met the business needs.

The solution found to solve the problem

They chose the SoftExpert Excellence Suite to use in the company to help with document control and process. They currently have ~40 users with edit/revision access, and another ~350 users with Read-Only access. The system is used in all manufacturing and support areas. Manufacturing (operations) use the system regularly (daily). Primarily, the system is used as their Document Control system although they have developed and they are using the Workflow and Process modules for some of their paperless corporate workflows. About the Document Control topic, they use the system to develop, release, view, and edit controlled documents. They also administer their Corrective Action system in SoftEexpert as well as their Engineering Change process. This is why it is essential to adopt an integrated control and management quality system.

Results observed by Covercraft

SoftExpert Excellence Suit has brought several gains to the company in various management sectors, such as document control, auditing and inspections, and quality management. Document Control When we asked Mr. Potts how SoftExpert Excellence Suit helped achieve Covercraft's goals, he said: “It helps us by leveraging the documentation system, we have been able to flow multiple products for new manufacturing in sister locations without having to develop local site work instructions”. QMS Certification Regarding the impact of the system on the company's key metrics, was difficult to tie SE directly to metrics, but by bringing new plants online with existing products, their capacity and flexibility have been significantly enhanced. The company has also achieved external QMS certification of three of their locations and this was accomplished in less than 12 months. Audits & Inspects The biggest direct accomplishment attributable to the SoftExpert Excellence Suit launch was achieving IATF 16949 certification in two locations and ISO 9001 certification in a third location. These certifications are complex to obtain and certainly having a proper, integrated system helped a lot. According to Robby about the benefits, products bring to your team’s or company’s routine more... Standardization!

“The product allows us to exert a level of control on the organization which drives standardization. The product lent itself to moving quickly. The solution is highly configurable which allowed Covercraft to ramp up quickly and then lock in the controls when ready to release.” said Mr. Potts.

The future isn't longer a mystery

For the coming years, the company's expansion is not ruled out, and SoftExpert solutions can certainly accompany this growth. For now, the next steps to Covercraft about SoftExpert Excellence Suit will be to bring additional plants online (in the next three months), release their recently developed Management of Change Workflow, and move their new program development to the APQP module. When we asked if the company thought about using our product elsewhere, Robby said “Yes. We recently launched a project to move our marketing documentation to the SoftExpert system”. It seems that Covercraft's future will be bright and full of achievements and growth. No doubt soon, the company will have even more gains, agility, productivity, and speed in its processes, more standardization, and control over its documents and quality.

SoftExpert Suite für die Automobilindustrie

Herausforderungen und Probleme

Vorteile der SoftExpert Suite

Kanban: Geplante Maßnahmen mit der PDCA-Methode umsetzen

Prüfungen nach IATF 16949 vorbereiten und durchführen

Kalibrierungsprozesse automatisieren und Genauigkeit der Geräte sicherstellen

Korrekturmaßnahmen mit den Schritten D4 und D5 der 8D-Methode leiten

Einen neuen Änderungsantrag erfassen und einreichen

APQP-Aktivitäten planen und Verantwortliche festlegen