Customer and suppliers cooperate for quality improvement

A case study of customer/supplier cooperation is presented. A defense contractor supplies to the Department of Defense (DOD) a product used in protective clothing by the military. The material acts as a barrier to toxic materials and, therefore, must meet stringent requirements for low permeability to these toxic substances. In early 1988 supplier lot failures suddenly started to increase. This condition ultimately resulted in a plant shutdown due to the inability of the contractor´s product to meet the permeability specification. To resolve the situation, the authors used the Shewhart cycle for continuous process improvement. A cooperative approach between DOD and the supplier along with the use of the Shewhart cycle started a Win-Win dialogue rather than the typical Lose-Lose confrontation