Accounting for about 30 percent of production output, IBM Rochester's approximately 700 production suppliers are expected to provide defect-free shipments and to keep pace with its progress in improving quality and reducing development and manufacturing cycles. Suppliers are trained, audited, and certified, and they are required to submit quality plans. Since 1984, IBM Rochester employees have instructed more than 1,000 supplier employees on continuous flow manufacturing, statistical process control, and design of experiments. The Rochester quality process is a continuous loop that begins, ends, and begins again with the customer. Of the approximately 40 data sources analyzed to guide improvement efforts, most either provide information on customers' product and service requirements or guide steps to refine these expectations into detailed specifications for new IBM offerings.
Customers are also active participants.
To strengthen its competitive quality position, IBM Rochester is aiming for a tenfold improvement in key quality areas by 1991, a hundredfold improvement by 1993, and a six sigma level of defects by 1994.