Quality Management in the Purchasing Department at HEUFT SYSTEMTECHNIK GMBH

The quality of HEUFT products is not an issue which is dealt with during the installation or final check of a product before delivering - it is dealt with during its construction and the acquisition of the necessary components. Purchasing quality goods belongs to one of the most important tasks of an efficient Purchasing Department. Purchasing today no longer involves obtaining goods at all costs but market orientation, a knowledge of manufacturing procedures and products, purposefully selecting suppliers and the support of technical departments.

Introduction

The Purchasing Department at HEUFT SYSTEMTECHNIK GMBH is responsible for obtaining all the component parts and modules required for manufacturing HEUFT devices and machines.
This involves a multitude of mechanical and electronic structural parts in the form of component parts or complete modules in accordance with HEUFT guidelines as well as a large number of DIN standard parts and other commodities.

The HEUFT Purchasing Department

The Purchasing Department consists of dedicated and efficient employees who are well-qualified to deal with these demanding tasks. They have been employed by the HEUFT company for many years now and are geared towards and constantly act in accordance with the high HEUFT in-house quality requirements and guidelines.

Market orientation

The Purchasing Department is constantly active in national and international procurement markets in order to obtain the large number of articles cost-effectively and on schedule at all times. It is always on the lookout for new, efficient suppliers with whom it can cement long-term business relationships. New manufacturing methods and products are investigated, noted and suggested if and when the need arises. All available resources are used for this:

• the suppliers are visited in person
• procurement market research is carried out via the Internet and by visiting trade fairs
• The HEUFT Purchasing Department is an active member of and on the executive committee of the German association for material management and purchasing

This makes a high level of market transparency and benchmarking possible.

Co-operation within the HEUFT organization

The Purchasing Department works closely together with the technical departments; the Development, Production, Project and Quality Assurance Departments, and with all the other HEUFT departments. In this way there is high degree of transparency as regards the tasks of the individual technical areas. The Purchasing Department is involved with product development at an early stage and can therefore make its contribution in a supportive and advisory way as regards product development and optimisation of the supply chain due to its knowledge about markets and products, suitable suppliers and manufacturing methods.

Selecting suppliers

We only select suppliers who fulfil our quality requirements. Conformity between the organizational and technical pre-requisites of the supplier and HEUFT quality requirements forms the basis for a long-lasting business relationship.

Audit

A supplier audit is carried out before an initial order is placed with a new supplier. The aim is to check and ensure that the requirements regarding manufacturing methods and quality assurance during manufacture are in accordance with the above-mentioned requirements. Only such suppliers are included in the HEUFT supply chain.

Quality assurance

Avoiding faults instead of finding faults and constantly improving the complete process chain at the start of production, delivery of serial products and use in the field is achieved by the HEUFT Purchasing Department due to maintaining intensive contact and actively looking after suppliers. Changes to construction which improve the product or reduce manufacturing costs are directly implemented by the supplier.

Manufacturing transparency and working closely together with our suppliers makes it possible for us to optimise manufacture when a product is developed and later during serial production.
Agreements in writing regarding quality assurance when manufacturing parts and using tools ensure that the HEUFT / supplier relationship has a sound footing on a partnership basis.
For the supplier quality is work which is rewarded.

Despite all these precautions complaints cannot be ruled out. In this case a firmly established system which has been agreed with the suppliers in advance is resorted to in order to rectify faults immediately with any parts supplied. Reports are written and if necessary talks are held at the supplier´s or at the HEUFT premises in order to establish the cause in order to avoid further manufacturing faults occurring in the future.

Checking dates

The delivery of parts and components required by the Production Department on time is a pre-requisite for keeping the delivery dates agreed with our customers. It is imperative that these dates are guaranteed. For this reason the delivery dates for all supplier parts ordered are regularly checked. If a delay occurs the supplier is noted and contacted at an early stage. Any necessary changes to dates are discussed and agreed with the Production Department if necessary.

Goods inwards checks and in-house distribution of goods

A continuous numbering system makes it possible to allocate each item ordered to the correct manufacturing group. Each supplier marks all parts to be delivered with pre-determined descriptions, partly with barcodes. This ensures a fast throughput of the delivered goods after the first goods inwards check. All articles supplied are recorded in the goods ordered program. In this way outstanding goods or those which have not been delivered are identified and further steps can be taken in accordance with fixed organizational procedures.

Concluding remark

The development and manufacture of high-class products no longer suffices. Every customer expects HEUFT to supply first-class quality from the very beginning! An efficient Production Department can contribute a great deal to this so that the high HEUFT in-house and customer requirements can be met. In this way we also achieve the best possible customer commitment and time and time again a decision is made in favour of HEUFT products. A well-planned Purchasing Department, working as equal partners with all the departments of this high-quality "creation chain" and not least the suppliers guarantees that this success continues.