MISSION VIEJO, Calif., May 8th, 2018—Ease, Inc. hosted the second annual Beacon User Summit last month in Detroit, Michigan, bringing together quality professionals from many of today’s leading automotive and aerospace suppliers as well as other manufacturing industries. This year’s event focused on creating “Champions for Quality” by building a culture of quality, getting the most out of their layered process audits, and celebrating all those who are involved.
Attendees included quality champions from companies such as:
- 3M
- Eaton Aerospace
- Cooper Tire
- Continental
- Guardian Industries
- Musashi Auto Parts
- Tenneco
- Mubea
- Brose
- Magna International
“The Beacon User Summit provides an opportunity for quality professionals to network, learn, and inspire each other to be Champions for Quality,” says Eric Stoop, CEO of Ease Inc., “and this year was no exception. We doubled in attendance and had great speakers and panelists that provided key take-aways on how to improve Layered Process Audit programs.”
Event highlights included a riveting discussion between Eric Stoop and Richard Nave from The Luminous Group, whose consulting team helps companies implement layered process audits and other quality initiatives. There was also a Beacon Quality customer panel discussion, an exciting roadmap presentation for Beacon Quality led by Scot Larsen, CTO of Ease Inc., and their inaugural Champions for Quality awards presentation.
During his discussion with Stoop, Nave presented several compelling real-world cases in which manufacturers vastly increased their productivity, quality, and profits just by creating a culture of quality that’s valued from top management all the way down to the shop floor. He also pointed out the fact that layered process audits are not about just identifying nonconformances and errors, as only doing so would create tension and nervousness from the shop floor employees. Instead, managers should encourage conversation and hone in on effective problem-solving skills between all levels of production. In doing so, improvement and quality will rise.
The Champions for Quality Awards gave voice to quality professionals, nominated by their peers and voted on by the public. "Our first annual Champions for Quality awards was a bigger success than I could have imagined," states Rachel Pradhan, Marketing Director of Ease, Inc., "and hearing the stories of our award winners in person was a highlight of this year's event." To learn more about the awards and the winners, read the Champions for Quality Press Release.
During the roadmap presentation, Scot Larsen shared some exclusive insight on the near future for Beacon Quality. "The next six months of Beacon Quality's roadmap is focused on 'Voice of Customer'," says Larsen, "this year we visited customers and also hosted our first customer council at the summit, and all that feedback and feature requests fed right into our roadmap, so we’re all very excited about the future of Beacon Quality." To get more details on the product roadmap, read the Beacon Quality Roadmap press release.
After a day full of education and networking, attendees left the 2018 Beacon User Summit with more tools to build and establish a strong culture of quality at their plants. A vision of an organization that is run efficiently, with little to no waste, was painted by every speaker, and attendees were able to confidently take those ideas back to their teams.
To learn more about layered process audits, or to schedule a free demo of Beacon Quality, visit www.beaconquality.com.
Photography by California Event Photos.
About Beacon Quality: Founded in 1986, Ease, Inc. is the leading provider of cloud-based and on-premise layered process audit (LPA) software Beacon Quality, for the automotive and aerospace industries.
We have decades of experience helping companies improve visibility and control at every stage of production, with tools that promote company-wide engagement and operational excellence. Our mission: empowering businesses to deliver higher quality products better, faster and at lower cost.