Choose an automation partner with a strong vision and proven record of carrying it out.

Leadership and a commitment to quality are requisites in many businesses, but in few industries, is it so critical as in automation. Designing and building solutions for manufacturing factories is an expensive task, where the costs of failure are high. If there is a delay in delivering the assembly to the customer, it can cost millions of dollars in lost production time. If the assembly processes are flawed, such that they lead to manufacturing errors or safety concerns, they can lead to further losses in product and consumer trust.

Responsibility for delivering a reliable automation assembly rests with the company leadership—and not just as a technicality. Organizational leaders have the power to decide how their companies will be run, and that includes determining which KPIs matter for company success, how easily employees can communicate with management, and what the response to a process challenge should be.

At Eagle, we believe in a culture of quality, transparency, and accountability. This means that we are rigorous in examining our own processes and encourage our employees to be vocal about how we can improve them. This mindset has seen us through decades of manufacturing excellence, and for a good reason. Here’s why.

1. Process management is the first step toward quality control.

For all of our projects, we have procedures we follow, which we have refined over the years to prevent the possibility of mistakes and errors. By making these processes routine, we reduce the likelihood that a key detail will be missed or overlooked.

As leaders, we have made effective process management a core part of our business. This means we are always looking for ways to streamline our process, removing procedures that add complexity without increasing value and adding strategies that improve outcomes, even if it requires an extra step.

2. A mindset of continuous improvement reduces the risk for the customer.

We believe that complacency leads to a deterioration in quality standards. That’s why, even when we’ve taken every step to deliver our best work, we don’t allow ourselves to rest on our laurels. Instead, we go over our projects to look for ways in which we could do better.

This isn’t just about looking for faults. It’s also about looking for new ideas. If we find a process that solves a particular issue, we want to keep track of that moving forward. Continuous improvement is as much about saving the good as it is about getting rid of the bad.

Ways in which we practice continuous improvement as an organization include:

• Lessons learned meetings.
• Kaizen events to establish measurable action steps.
• 3rd process improvement consultants.

Implementing these processes means we have achieved a 97% on-time delivery rate for our customers—a number which we are very proud of.

3. Having a big picture vision helps businesses adapt to changing markets.

Over the decades, we’ve seen the manufacturing industry evolve significantly. Processes have not only become more automated, they have also become more technologically sophisticated, with the introduction of WiFi-equipped machinery and advanced robotics.

At Eagle, our organizational leadership made an early commitment to understanding the benefits of these new manufacturing techniques to better serve our customers by how to apply them in our automation solutions best. This forward-thinking means we now offer a range of Industry 4.0 solutions that keep our customers at the forefront of their respective industries.

Staying abreast of industry developments is how we’ve remained successful. It’s how we intend to continue being successful, and it’s how we plan to bring success to our customers.

4. A full organizational buy-in ensures every team member is committed to the same quality goals.

Finally, any organizational value is only meaningful if leadership demonstrates their own commitment to it. That means setting measurable goals that support those values and celebrating when those values are met. It also means communicating expectations about those values to the team and holding themselves to the same standard.

At Eagle, our lessons learned meetings and Kaizen events are one way to ensure we’re staying accountable to our values. But we have also built up an apprenticeship program that lets us train skilled workers in values we believe are integral to quality manufacturing. We believe that when every worker is committed to the same high standards, it improves the entire business’s quality.

Factory automation projects are too big to risk failure from ineffective leadership.

At Eagle, we recognize that the success of our customers rests, in part, on our shoulders. When they choose to contract with us as their automation partner, they trust our ability to deliver on our promises. As leaders in both our company and our industry, we take that responsibility seriously.

That’s why we commit to ideals such as continuous improvement and quality standards. It’s also why we build error-proof manufacturing and advanced testing technology into our assemblies—so that our customers can be assured that the high standards of manufacturing excellence to which we hold ourselves accountable are working on their behalf as well.

If you would like to discuss your factory automation needs, contact us today. We would be happy to schedule a meeting with you to discuss our capabilities.

Brandon Fuller | b.fuller@EagleTechnologies.com

Eagle Technologies, headquarters in Bridgman, MI

Eagle builds the machines that automate manufacturing. From high-tech robotics to advanced product testing capabilities, Eagle offers end-to-end manufacturing solutions for every industry.