MAG Industrial Automation Systems has been granted the Caterpillar Inc. Supplier Quality Excellence Process Certification (SQEP). MAG's Six Sigma program helped the company achieve the award.

Caterpillar's SQEP is presented to suppliers that demonstrate strong values, ethical principles, and a commitment to Caterpillar's objective to implement a culture for zero-defects among its supply base. MAG’s Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, plant supplies machining centers, boring mills, vertical turning centers, tooling, and maintenance services to Caterpillar plants around the world.

“The most important contribution Six Sigma has made to MAG is to help strengthen our position as the world’s leading supplier of large machine tools,” says Ellie Kemp, MAG’s Six Sigma Master Black Belt, adding that the company started up its Six Sigma program as a result of the relationship with Caterpillar. “One example of this is our industry-leading delivery on vertical turning centers and horizontal boring mills. We are often able to ship product in half the time of our competitors. MAG’s fast deliveries provide real cost savings for large OEMs looking to justify equipment purchases by bringing costly subcontract work back inside, and they enable job shops to pursue work with short turnaround times that they might otherwise not be able to go after.”

The quality certification program follows Caterpillar's internal MQ11006 standard, which includes ISO 9001 registration, and requires suppliers to have a Six Sigma program in place and improvement projects in progress.

In 2002, the company outlined goals for its Six Sigma program, which, according to Kemp, focused on delivering high-quality and innovative solutions to its customers. With the Six Sigma program in place, MAG’s goal became to increase sales and revenues, achieve cost-reduction targets, reduce delivery time, eliminate waste, and make additional strides in the quality and reliability of the company’s products. “It was about transforming how we worked,” Kemp says.

In transforming how the employees worked, MAG’s lead time on some products were reduced from 12 to 18 months down to five months, and since 2002, the company has documented more than $9 million in savings from its Six Sigma projects.

“We are now on our tenth wave of projects and continue to adhere to the original goals,” says Kemp.  “Every project has been successful so it’s difficult to single out any one or two [successful] projects.  The past nine waves of projects have indeed surpassed the goals we outlined back in 2002. The current projects selected also attack cost reduction, span reduction, and align to the MAG Giddings & Lewis’ Business Goal Matrix. Continuous improvement is the way we do business every day.”