Safelite AutoGlass® has implemented a quality inspection programme in its two distribution centres. The programme, called the Goods-In Survey (GIS), ensures that customers receive quality vehicle glass parts.
Safelite AutoGlass® has implemented a quality inspection programme called the Goods-In Survey (GIS) in its two distribution centres, ensuring customers receive quality vehicle glass parts.
In addition to receiving windshields manufactured by sister company Safelite® Glass Corp., Safelite AutoGlass® also purchases vehicle glass from suppliers worldwide. For high-volume suppliers providing 100,000+ units per year, Safelite AutoGlass’s quality inspector randomly selects 1% of incoming inventory to pass through quality control.
Using the Inspection Standard from Belron® (Safelite’s parent company, which operates vehicle glass companies in 34 counties), vehicle glass is inspected for defects, chips, lamination issues and much more. In addition, Safelite’s technicians also record when product they receive is faulty. Results are included in the suppliers’ monthly scorecards.
Damaged glass is either returned to the supplier or sent to Safelite’s recycling facility.
“Our goal in enhancing our inspection process is to make suppliers more aware of quality expectations,” said Dino Lanno, Safelite’s senior vice president of supply chain and manufacturing. “If we can save just one customer from needing to reschedule an appointment because of a bad part, then we’ve saved one more customer experience.”
Since piloting the inspection survey, defect rates of top suppliers have been reduced by 4.79 percentage points, which equates to thousands of defective parts being removed from the supply chain.
“The GIS performance data from Safelite AutoGlass® has been extremely helpful in gauging our customer performance and in developing new practices,” said Jason Yoon, Pilkington North America, director operations and supply chain. “For example, we have installed and manned a similar GIS inspection station in our primary North American Distribution Center. In addition, the higher demands of the GIS process contributed to our decision to migrate to a tougher AGRNA quality specification. Pilkington NSG is a quality focused company, and the GIS was a beneficial enrichment to our quality system.”