Quality Manager

About the Role

An active hands-on manager who will develop, establish, and continually improve manufacturing systems and processes through coaching and mentoring all manufacturing leaders, engineers, purchasing, and team members. Keeping an associate-focused leadership mentality centered around a kaizen improvement culture, utilizing lean thinking to drive process stability and robustness delivering 100% customer satisfaction.

Ruger Guiding Principles

• Engage all people through Servant Leadership
• Respect and trust each other, value relationships
• Communicate openly and honestly; be direct and approachable
• Ask for Help!
• Learn and improve continuously
• Be process and results oriented
• Drive decision-making, empowerment, and accountability to the lowest appropriate level
• Be proactive and respond quickly
• Decide and go

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain short and long-term quality goals for Manufacturing that include all 4 pillars of quality: Supplier, Process, Product, and Customer.
• Establish a balanced scorecard tracking Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) through ongoing daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual measures of the quality system as it relates to:
  • Customer Returns
  • Scrap – Total System and by Process
  • Change Control Lead (process and product)
  • Deviations
  • Supplier Issues Scorecard
  • NPD Launch / PPAP
• Maintain and improve the Quality System in collaboration with all Gun Division Quality Managers to deliver a measured and stable manufacturing environment.
• Provide guidance to manufacturing engineers to create processes highly specific to content, sequence, timing, and outcome, establishing robust plans to maintain process control, ongoing quality, and waste minimization.
• Collaborate with Lead Engineers (Manufacturing and Product) to develop, deploy, and maintain product and internal quality standards.
• Coach, mentor, and ensure all engineers thoroughly conduct proper new part and process introduction, as well as ongoing process change integrity.
• Ensure all new product development efforts are completed in accordance with the New Product Development Process. Manage New Product Development Quality through strong support of the APQP process.
• Establish QE roles and responsibilities for all programs through APQP tools and practices. Drive a culture of quality early in programs to support on-time delivery with a ZERO defect expectation.
• Develop and maintain Quality Engineering Standards in all areas of the plant, including:
  • Process Capability
  • pFMEA
  • Process Sheets
  • Gage Control Plans
  • Gage Qualification and MSA practices in support of Process Gemba principles
• Maintain robust measurement practices for the ongoing development, execution, and evaluation of Ruger products, driving low-cost, high-impact outcomes.
• Evaluate inspection and other equipment to meet current and future production needs, including:
  • NDT testing equipment evaluation
  • Metallurgical inspection equipment development and maintenance
  • Gaging systems and types: CMM, Keyence, variable data, and functional style gaging methods
• Maintain a robust Quality Lab in accordance with Ruger Quality Standards.
• Maintain calibration of all key measurement equipment at the necessary frequency to ensure robust and accurate measurements.
• Guide and assist Ruger engineers and team members in technical problem-solving while mentoring through rigorous root cause analysis, including:
  • DMAIC / 5Why / Find and Fix / Symptomatic Analysis / Good Bad Comparison
• Maintain a consistent form of inspection for organizational needs, including:
  • Incoming Inspection of supplier parts
  • Hardness inspection: Macro and Micro
  • Non-Destructive Testing
  • Support for Engineering: various specialized checks
• Develop and maintain a strong process for supporting purchasing through supplier quality engagement to prevent incoming quality issues, including:
  • Supplier Development Support and engagement
  • Tracking and management of supplier issues with focus on permanent corrective actions
  • Developing strong relationships with Ruger-sourced suppliers and internal Value Streams
• Support Manufacturing with a Process Change Request (PCR) and approval process. Manage ongoing changes to ensure actions are tracked and closed appropriately or open concerns and issues are mitigated.
• Lead the Customer Service Repair Technicians for all customer returns, maintaining key KPIs, including:
  • Less than 5-day average turnaround time from Dock to Ship
  • Monthly reporting to Value Streams for Top issues
  • Coordinate all repairs with the Value Streams and drive Permanent Corrective Actions back to the source
• Coach and mentor all manufacturing team members to engage with strong servant leadership and communication to shop-floor associates and all stakeholders.
• Participate as a leader in recruitment of key team members.
• Participate in key team member performance evaluations and development plans.