Quality management

Our Total Quality Management (TQM) concept dictates a focus on customers, constant improvement, a  process orientation and fact-based decision-making. A typical concrete goal is to substantially shorten the time from production order until the product leaves the plant.

Distinguishing characteristics of TQM:

• Meets the ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard, ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard and ISO 13485 Medical Device Standard.
• Supports customer-specific requirements such as Quality System Regulation (QSR) for the medical  technology industry and Quality Assurance Test (QAT) for the telecom industry. QSR comprises the FDA regulations for medical devices to be sold in the United States. QAT is required in order to deliver to a particular international operator.

Constant improvements
PartnerTech has established joint tools within the scope of TQM that enable our employees to constantly identify improvements and eliminate any problems and shortcomings before they begin to affect quality or customer performance. As an integral part of daily operations, the tools encourage employee commitment, as well as guiding our customer teams as they formulate objectives and activities in partnership with the customer. The monitoring tools are broken down into four main categories.

Monitoring and follow-up
Among these tools are 5S a collective term for Sort, Systematize, Straighten up, Secure (proactivity) and Standardize – and Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE). In addition, Team Room regularly monitors the company's key ratios. That's where employees can follow quality and performance on a joint, continual basis.

Risk elimination
The 10-step Supplier Quality Assurance Plan (SQAP) tool is used to ensure superior production quality.

Improving processes
The Six Sigma tools and problem resolution groups focus on skills development, willingness to change and efficient production. All waste is to be minimized and resources are to be used wisely.

Improving products
PartnerTech uses the Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE) and Six Sigma tools. VA/VE involves an overview of a product in order to make it as cost-effective as possible and optimize it for production.

These quality assurance tools are vital to a business like PartnerTech for a number of reasons. They are important when independent parties evaluate our organization in relation to the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 13485 standards. The DNV (Det Norske Veritas) foundation performs reviews throughout the year to verify that we meet our stringent requirements and identify that which bears improvement.