From Inquiry to Your Door: A Look at the People and Process that Delivers Value
September 15, 2017
At Eagle Performance Plastics, Inc, our ultimate goal is to deliver value to our customer by being the most responsive and reliable source of custom machined plastic components. To accomplish this, we rely on the individual commitment of our people and the commitment of the whole team.
All inquiries begin with our Customer Account Specialists, Deanna, Laurie and Jodi, along with assistant, Kathy, who enter requests for quotes and purchase orders into our system. They spend a considerable amount of time assisting customers with lead-times, technical issues and pricing among a multitude of details.
New part inquiries and orders move on to our quoting department where Stephen and Ann consider the methods, run time, and material sourcing as well as any special tooling that might be required.
All orders then go to our programming department. We program all parts off-line prior to releasing out to the shop floor. That way, our programming team of 5-8 people, led by Eric, can ensure that all details are noted on our work orders and travelers. Having details clear and questions answered before it leaves the programming department allows our machinists to produce the part accurately and efficiently, greatly reducing any opportunity for errors and quality issues.
Not only do our travelers contain all the details related to the part, but each manufacturing step is noted and bar-coded. This allows us to accurately track our times, making the overall quoting process even more accurate. Bar coding each step also allows us to proficiently manage our schedule as we know every commitment for every resource we have.
Cheryl, who has been with Eagle for over 25 years, manages our inventory and purchasing of raw stock. She focuses on competitive pricing and timely delivery of needed materials.
Manufacturing is headed up by Tom who keeps his team on track by making sure we fulfill the promised ship dates and utilize the operators and equipment in the most efficient way possible.
Sheri, our Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager, has set up procedures for in-process quality control as well as final inspection which is run by Pat, our full time Inspector. Sheri also manages all of our metrics for quality and on-time delivery. In today’s marketplace, everything moves at an incredible pace. There is no time to re-work a part that is incorrect. That is why, at Eagle, we take continuous improvement very seriously.
Completing the order is not the end of the process. Ryan and Katie in our shipping/receiving team work together to make sure all orders are carefully packaged and shipped in the most efficient manner. It does no good to do every step perfect only to have the package arrive late or damaged.
In addition to people, we have created processes and systems to handle expedites and special requests, so that we can actually do what we say we will do. We have Account Managers to work with customers on applications as well as Technical Resources for design and material specification assistance.
From Cathy who answers our phone to Ryan who packages your order, we are 46 individuals working together to add value by providing our customers with highly responsive and extremely reliable service.