W.E. Rawson Ltd have been manufacturing and distributing non-woven textiles from their site in Wakefield for 150 years.

In this interview, Lee Clack, W.E. Rawson's Quality Manager, recounts his journey towards implementing EQMS. You can watch a shorter video testimonial here. 

Qualsys: How did you recognise the need for a quality management system?

Lee Clack: We have around 250 employees across three sites in our Wakefield branch, and we faced three main challenges with managing quality.

Before we implemented EQMS, there was no easy way for us to record, track and escalate issues. This led to certain issues recurring because we'd put nothing in place to prevent them.

Another challenge was that our manufacturing facility operates 24 hours a day. With many different production lines to manage, it's vital that we have a member of staff on site who knows who's trained on what equipment.

And lastly, there was no quick way for us to see how the business was performing. We didn't have the trending or reporting tools we needed for continuous quality improvement.

We have three different businesses operating here. There were lots of issues which were never reported or documented, making it impossible for us to drive continuous improvement.

Tell us how you persuaded management that the company needed a quality management system.

Once I'd recognised the need for a tool to drive continuous improvement, I got the board and the other managers in the same room to scope the project.

During this meeting, it became clear that many of the other managers were facing similar challenges. A lack of transparency. A long, frustrating process of chasing people for information. Reacting to issues rather than being proactive. And finding that a lot of issues were being repeated instead of resolved.

Why did you choose EQMS?

I did some thorough research into quality management systems, then invited Qualsys to present to our board and general managers what EQMS could offer. We chose EQMS because it's versatile and the modules are fully integrated.

With Document Manager, we can control all 14,000 of our documents, and it means employees always have the right information when they need it.

We use Training Records Manager to manage 8,000 training records and make sure employee training is up to date. And we have another 20,000+ training records, which EQMS can handle with no impact on resource at all.

And with Issue Manager, any one of the 250 employees across the site can log an issue at any time using a simple form.

EQMS has really benefited us, and the system's fantastic! I've worked with so many systems and I've not come across one that's so versatile and that's the beauty of it – we've been able to configure it the way we wanted.

I've worked with so many systems and I've not come across one that's so versatile as EQMS. We've been able to configure it the way we wanted.

What are your plans for quality improvement in the future?

We have quite ambitious plans. We're transitioning to ISO 9001:2015 and we're looking to achieve BREEAM accreditation. We're also focusing on reducing waste and becoming more environmentally aware, and undertaking several continuous improvement projects across the site. 

What you should do now

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