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Vornado: Taking No-Code Compliance Software Beyond QMS
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions
- Quality Assurance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
When Ken Hankins, Director of Product Quality and Consumer Satisfaction, arrived at Vornado in late 2018, he quickly identified some key opportunities to improve operations. The quality management team was using largely manual processes to collect and collate data, passing information back and forth using spreadsheets and e-mail. Although these methods worked, they were extremely labor-intensive and often resulted in information that was incomplete, or which was out of sync across the company’s multiple locations. As a result, business leaders at Vornado’s headquarters had limited visibility to data from their numerous overseas manufacturing facilities. Hankins recognized that the company needed greater transparency across all of its locations, with automated data collection and a centralized repository for all of its quality management information. Acceptable quality levels (AQLs), for example, were not available to Vornado’s quality managers in real time, making it difficult to determine where they should focus their attention. Hankins knew that effective quality management programs are driven by data – but the company simply didn’t have much of the data that it needed.
About The Customer
Vornado is a global manufacturer of fans & air circulators, heaters, humidifiers, and other products designed to enhance air quality and comfort. The company is based in Andover, Kansas and traces its roots back to 1945, when aircraft designer Ralph K. Odor teamed up with fabricator O.A. Sutton and designer Richard Ten Eyck to produce their first innovative Vornadofan™. The company’s spirit of innovation continues to this day; including, for example, household fans that can be operated remotely using Amazon Alexa. Vornado’s focus on “making good stuff that lasts” and its “above-and-beyond customer service” have led to steady growth, resulting in total revenues of over $400 million annually. In recent years, Vornado has expanded its operations to include both domestic and overseas manufacturing. This has prompted company leaders to seek out ways to improve visibility, increase efficiency, and enhance communication for the company’s distributed workforce.
The Solution
Vornado began researching QMS software to automate and improve its quality management processes. Their focus throughout that process was on agility and adaptability. “There are a lot of good products out there,” said Hankins, “but none of them could give us 100% of what we needed.” Like all companies, Vornado has unique needs, and they weren’t willing to settle for an inflexible QMS system that would force them to adapt their business processes to fit the software. Instead, they needed software that could quickly and easily be adapted to fit their way of doing business. When they discovered Intellect and its philosophy of “extreme configurability” using the industry’s only no-code compliance platform, they realized they had found the ideal product to meet their needs. Ken Hankins wears multiple hats at Vornado. In addition to his role as the Director of Product Quality, he’s also responsible for Customer Satisfaction, which includes warranty replacement and customer service. When Hankins understood just how flexible and adaptable Intellect QMS was, he identified two high-value opportunities to improve customer service operations using the software.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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