2022 Champions for Quality Awards Winners.
The 5th annual Champions for Quality Awards feature public award nominations from manufacturers around the world as well as insight-driven awards from the EASE plant floor audit platform. The awards recognize individuals, specific manufacturing facilities, and entire organizations across a range of categories. Congratulations to our 2022 winners for your ongoing commitment to manufacturing quality!
Public nominated awards.
The following award winners and honorable mentions were all nominated by the public and selected by a panel of Ease employees based on the stories and information provided.
Leadership
Leadership nominees are strong advocates for quality and operations programs with organization-wide benefits. Congratulations to our Leadership Award recipients.
Winners
Tyler Ochs, Allegion
Indiana, USA
Honorable Mentions
Margaret Fairbairn, Magna Exteriors
Ontario, Canada
Will Baucom, Intech Medical
Alabama, USA
Ambassador
Ambassadors are known for fostering a culture of quality at their manufacturing plants with layered process audits and other quality initiatives. This year, two nominees rose above an incredibly competitive field and were selected as co-winners of our Ambassador Award.
Winners
Alexis Cuiriz – ABC Technologies San Juan Plant
San Juan del Rio, Mexico
Timothy Graham – Danfoss Power Solutions
Tennessee, USA
Trailblazer
Trailblazers earn recognition for using the EASE plant floor audit software for more than just layered process audits, leveraging the platform for other audit types including safety audits, 5S, and more.
Winners
Rick Migliacio, AeroTEC
Washington, USA
Honorable Mentions
Jiri Urban, Marmon Foodservice Technologies
Brno-Turany, Czech Republic
Todd Perry, Graham Packaging
Kentucky, USA
Matt Davis, Morgan Olson
Michigan, USA
Influencer
Influencers have dedicated their careers to training leaders and influencing quality on a global scale.
Winners
Matt Kunesh, Brembo North America Inc.
Michigan, USA
Honorable Mentions
Christopher Harden, Eaton Aerospace
Portsmouth, UK
Jesus Gomez, Pace Industries, LLC
Saltillo, Mexico
Categories based on EASE data.
The following category winners and honorable mentions were determined using insights data from the EASE plant floor audit platform, recognizing individuals, specific manufacturing facilities and entire organizations for their commitment to quality excellence!
Plant of the Year
The Winner of this award was required to be conducting a minimum of 2,500 plant floor audits per year and creating at least 500 mitigations in the same period. To choose the winner the Ease team looked at a combination of weighted audit insights including the percentage of on-time completed plant floor audits and on-time completed mitigations.
Winners
Samsung BioLogics, Incheon Plant
South Korea
Honorable Mentions
Zeus Industrial Products, Letterkenny Plant
Ireland
Magna Cosma Presstran, St. Thomas Plant
Canada
Auditor of the Year
A plant floor auditor is not a dedicated position within a manufacturing plant, but a role carried out by employees across the plant – including those that may not be part of quality or operations. The EASE platform includes a gamification system that awards badges to auditors based on performance. The winner of this category was required to already hold an EASE Guru badge and was chosen based on audit completion rate, the number of audits completed and audit findings with the majority of their audits being focused on quality audits such as layered process audits.
Winners
Patrick Gant, Magna Cosma LMV Automotive
Liberty Plant
Kalin Randolph, Magna Cosma LMV Automotive
Liberty Plant
Honorable mention
William Specht, PGT Innovations
North Venice Plant
Best Implementation
The Ease Customer Success Team implements EASE at hundreds of plants every year. The winner was chosen based on their engagement throughout the implementation from pilot to final deployment, their advocacy throughout the process, as well as the team’s audit activity and completion rates in the weeks and months following the go-live.
Winners
Dana Incorporated – Brazil Plants (Enice Oliveira)
Brazil
Honorable Mentions
ElringKlinger, Brazil Plant (Raul Ferreira)
Brazil
Germany Plants, Camaco Amvian (Andrea Willkofer)
Germany
Quality Transformation
The winner of this award is the manufacturer that has demonstrated the most significant improvement in performance within the EASE platform over a 12-month period across all of their facilities. During this period the winner had to meet a number of minimum benchmark data points as well as have the highest percentage increase in on-time audits and mitigations.
Winners
IAC Group