The hunt for flawless products

Hoyer goes to great lengths to prevent manufacturing errors. Specially trained quality control employees in the company’s production centres, along with a special quality system called 8D, are two of the most important elements in Hoyer’s quality assurance work. 8D is a well-known system in the field of quality assurance and has been adopted and further developed in-house by Hoyer.

“The advantage of 8D is that we work in a structured and systematic way to solve problems. It provides a higher level of quality in the processes and the solutions that are identified. The method allows us to solve problems at their root and thereby create long-lasting solutions. Our approach to the quality assurance work is the customers’ guarantee that if, contrary to expectations, a problem were to arise with a Hoyer product, then we will become actively involved and solve the problem,” explains Mads Texel Jakobsen, Hoyer’s Quality Manager.

Quality at the assembly line

If Hoyer receives a claim, the case is managed in a clearly defined way via various steps in the system, while quality control personnel at factories are on hand to help if necessary during the entire process. The company’s approach to a given claim is, however, situation-specific and solution-orientated, which may mean that the so-called Q-supervisors are contacted directly if this is deemed necessary in individual cases. The Q-supervisors are local Hoyer employees who are trained in accordance with European quality standards and have their own offices at select factories that manufacture various Hoyer products.

“Our Q-supervisors are essential to our quality assurance work because they give us the chance to influence the quality of the manufacturing. The Q-supervisors are actively involved in production and perform daily audits of the production processes. It is therefore often possible to catch potential errors before they are about to occur,” Mads Texel Jakobsen explains.

Working with product development

The development of the Q-supervisors’ role is partly driven by greater customer demands and partly the result of the further development of the 8D system, which they are now working with proactively to identify the source of errors and correct them. The Q-supervisors also provide support from the sidelines when new products are developed. Among many contributions, they support customers when audits are performed at the factories as part of the product development process.

“The Quality Department and Q-supervisors are heavily involved when special products are developed in partnership with our customers. In each step of the project, they are there to assess quality and ensure that it meets requirements. As such, they are fully familiar with the specifications and quality requirements and know what needs to be monitored closely when serial production is initiated,” Mads Texel Jakobsen says.

About Hoyer

Facts about the 8D quality system

• Recognised problem-solving tool used in the automative industry and other sectors
• The purpose of the system is to identify and eliminate the underlying causes of a given non-conformity

The system consists of eight steps:

1. Establish a team to handle the problem
2. Identify the problem
3. Isolate the problem and limit the damage
4. Identify the root cause of the problem
5. Initiate preliminary initiatives to correct the problem
6. Identify preventive and corrective measures to prevent the problem from occurring again
7. Verification to ensure the corrective measures have been implemented correctly, are sufficient to eliminate the problem and are upheld
8. Conclude process and file report.