HK METALCRAFT UPHOLDS REPUTATION FOR QUALITY MANAGEMENT WITH INTERNAL AUDIT TRAINING

Background

Headquartered in Lodi, New Jersey, HK Metalcraft Manufacturing Corp. (HKM) is a family-owned and operated custom metal stamping manufacturer with nearly a century’s worth of experience in the industry. Providing custom stamping, DFM, and custom engineering experience, HK Metalcraft is an innovative leader in the metal stamping industry led by the fourth generation of the Hopp family.

HK Metalcraft’s state-of-the-art facility houses their corporate headquarters, manufacturing facility, and warehouse space, and by being under one roof it allows them to offer individualized customer attention, custom engineering, advanced manufacturing techniques, run more efficiently, and deliver their custom-manufactured products globally to innovative companies in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Challenge

Facing an aging workforce without the talent pipeline to refuel and fill the gaps, HK Metalcraft finds itself in a position all too familiar to other manufacturers in the industry. When it comes to something like Quality Management, HKM has been a leader for nearly a century, delivering reliable custom metal components around the world while holding true to their commitment to customer satisfaction and quality. With this dwindling workforce come certain challenges that many manufacturers must face.

For John Speidel, General Manager of HKM, and a manufacturing leader with over 20 years of experience in the industry, “The challenge that brought us to NJMEP was increasing the number of resources we have capable of performing internal audits and collecting quality data, especially from an SPC (Statistical Process Control) standpoint.” SPC is an industry-standard methodology for measuring and controlling quality during the manufacturing process, which allows quality data in the form of Product or Process measurements to be obtained in real time. Having this real-time data is critical in an industry where precision metal-making features tight tolerances and high-quality standards to ensure products perform to the standard and reputation that HKM has developed over 90 years.

“One of the ways this could disrupt our operations in the future would be with retiring employees and succession planning,” says John. “We needed to ensure that some operators who’ve never been trained to perform audits could do so in the future.”

Solution

John and his team decided to enlist NJMEP’s expert resource to help train a new batch of internal auditors who could carry out quality audits going forward and ensure that HKM’s products continue to meet the highest standards for its customers. With the relationship between NJMEP and HKM going back over a decade, NJMEP was the clear choice for facilitating their Internal Auditor Training.

“We’ve had NJMEP help us in the past with various aspects of management review and training new operators on metrology—using new measurement devices and instruments,” says Speidel.
NJMEP’s expert resource set about training ten HKM operators on how to conduct internal audits on manufacturing operations. First, they collaborated with John and his management team on audit planning and scheduling dates, then set about reviewing HKM’s current documentation and updated the documentation wherever needed. The next stage was conducting process-based internal audits and recording findings before completing an audit report. Lastly, NJMEP’s expert resource ensured HKM’s QMS was compliant with ISO 9001: 2015/IATF 16949 Standard.

The following steps were taken:

• ISO QUALITY SYSTEMS – IATF Audit Training
  Session 1, 52 hrs, 10 employees
• LEAN MANUFACTURING- IMPLEMENTING 5S FOR WORKPLACE ORGANIZATIONS
  Session 1, 24 hrs, 10 employees
• MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY/TECH – Error Proofing – Pokayoke
  Session 1, 24 hrs, 10 employees

In the wake of HKM’s Internal Audit Training, John noticed some clear results of working together with NJMEP. “There were definitely some aha moments for operators that were never able to see some of the aspects that we just never trained them on—how all the data that we collect can be used to help them control their process,” he adds.

Results

When asked about the success of the Internal Auditing Training project NJMEP and HKM conducted, John had this to say about working together: “I definitely recommend working with NJMEP,” he says, “[NJMEP] provides manufacturers the tools they need to do things that you may otherwise not be able to do as a small business.”

The following results reflect the impact HK Metalcraft Manufacturing Corp. experienced while engaging with NJMEP over the past 12 months:

• New & Retained Sales: Between $20,000,000 and $50,000,000
• New Jobs: 4
• Retained Jobs: 37

What’s next for HK Metalcraft? “We recently installed a 150-ton servo-press into operation and we’re going to be able to expand our portfolio offering due to that,” says John.