News/Published: July 6, 2023

Ease.io Announces 2022 Champions for Quality Winners

2022 Champions for Quality

SAN CLEMENTE, California – July 6, 2023 – Ease.io, a leading provider in plant floor audits and insights software for manufacturers, has announced the 2022 Champions for Quality Award winners. In this fifth year of the awards, the company once again received a record number of nominations from customers across multiple countries and continents.

The Champions for Quality Awards combine public award nominations from manufacturers around the world with insight-driven awards from the EASE plant floor audit platform. The awards recognize individuals, specific manufacturing facilities, and entire organizations that foster a culture of quality and build long-lasting quality processes which positively impact the bottom line.

The 2022 awards consist of a total of eight awards. Four category winners were chosen from public nominations, and an additional four category winners were selected based on plant audit data from the EASE audits and insights platform over the past 12 months. This year’s awards highlight those who have contributed to quality programs like layered process audits, operational excellence, and Lean initiatives, as well as safety.

“The Champions for Quality Awards are an annual highlight at Ease.io, and this year’s honorees are incredibly deserving of this recognition,” said Eric Stoop, CEO of Ease.io. “From completing audits and closing out findings on time, to championing digital transformation across an entire region, to mentoring the next generation of quality professionals, the 2022 Champions for Quality go above and beyond to ensure consistent quality and make their plants safer. Congratulations to this year’s winners and honorable mentions!”

2022 Champions for Quality Winners

Here are this year’s winners by category:

Ambassador

Ambassadors are known for fostering a culture of quality at their manufacturing plants with layered process audits and other quality initiatives.

  • Winner: Alexis Cuiriz – ABC Technologies San Juan Plant (San Juan del Rio, Mexico)
  • Winner: Timothy Graham – Danfoss Power Solutions (Tennessee, USA)
Influencer

Influencers have dedicated their careers to training leaders and influencing quality on a global scale

  • Winner: Matt Kunesh, Brembo North America Inc. (Michigan, USA)

Honorable Mentions:

Christopher Harden, Eaton Aerospace (Portsmouth, UK)

Jesus Gomez, Pace Industries, LLC (Saltillo, Mexico)

Leadership

Leadership nominees are EASE customers who are strong advocates for quality and operations programs with organization-wide benefits. This year two individuals were selected for the Leadership Award.

  • Winner: Tyler Ochs, Allegion (Indiana, USA)

Honorable Mentions:

Margaret Fairbairn, Magna Exteriors (Ontario, Canada)

Will Baucom, Intech Medical (Alabama, USA)

Trailblazer

These nominees use the EASE software for more than just layered process audits, leveraging this platform for other audit types including safety audits, 5S, and more.

  • Winner: 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)

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.

  • Winner: 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.

  • Winner: Patrick Gant, Magna Cosma LMV Automotive (Liberty Plant)
  • Winner: 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.

  • Winner: Dana Incorporated – Brazil Plants

Implementation champion:

Enice Oliveira, Quality Systems Coordinator

Honorable Mentions:

Brazil Plant, ElringKlinger (Raul Ferreira)

Germany Plants, Camaco Amvian (Andrea Willkofer)

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.

  • Winner: IAC Group

Ease.io congratulates all winners on their outstanding achievements and thanks all participants for their dedication towards fostering a culture of quality and safety.

 

About Ease.io

EASE is the innovative mobile platform that helps manufacturers simplify how they administer, conduct, and respond to plant floor audits. With best-in-class support for layered process audits, safety, 5S, and more, EASE drastically reduces labor costs and delivers insights that ensure audit programs drive real business value.

Leading automotive, aerospace and manufacturing organizations around the globe depend on EASE’s enterprise scale, expertise, and customer-centricity. Ease.io is a privately held company based in San Clemente, California. To learn more, please visit www.ease.io.

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