White Paper
Right Things, Right Tote, Right Time
Crotty Corporation, located in southwest Michigan, is a small company that manufactures visors for the Big 3 Detroit automakers. In 1996, General Motors requested that Crotty institute a compliance marking program to improve quality and efficiency. The new bar code driven system now handles more than 163 permutations — assuring the right things end up in the right totes at the right time.
General Motors represents the majority of Crotty's business, said Bonnie Saddler, Electronic Data Processing Manager. "The compliance marking system recommended by GM's quality improvement program would also increase our internal quality and efficiency, so we had many reasons to respond." On the upside, Crotty could reap the internal benefits of a bar code system as well as meeting its customer's request. On the downside, if Crotty placed the wrong visors in the wrong totes, it risked losing business.
The program's objective was to provide GM with 100 percent quality satisfaction, but where to start? "We're a 53-year-old, family-owned company with $50 million in annual sales and 700 employees. We did not have the resources to embark on such an ambitious program ourselves, but with the help of our VAR, Business Computer Connections (BCC), we were on our way to a bar code labeling program that would meet GM's request and meet QS-9000 quality standards."
