Kevin Ward, Enterprise Quality Director for Special Processes, Goodrich Corporation
To give an example of the involvement of Goodrich: we had developed our own internal auditing class. Our internal auditing skills varied around the world, meaning that the audit results could not be relied upon.
Goodrich shared their training material with PRI, as did other companies. The eQuaLearn internal auditing class is the result. Approximately 100 Goodrich personnel have taken that class which, as a result of input from other companies as well as Goodrich, represents industry recommended best practice.
At Goodrich today, to be an internal auditor, you must have taken the eQuaLearn internal auditing class and ideally the Root Cause Corrective Action, Problem Solving Tools and (for heat treaters) Introduction to Pyrometry as well. Our internal audits, which are still conducted using the Nadcap checklists, produce consistent and reliable results now.
Having sent several hundred staff to various eQuaLearn classes and continuing to be involved in course development, it made sense to become an eQuaLearn member. It is the most economical way for Goodrich to train a global workforce consistently in order to benchmark ourselves. The fact that training is held around the world is advantageous: in fact, some Goodrich sites have hosted training sessions, for example in Toulouse, France and in Bangalore, India.
Ultimately, increasing the knowledge and skills of our staff and suppliers contributes to making the end product better.
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