Jabil Circuit Among First EMS Providers to Achieve QS-9000 3rd ed
5 August 1999
Jabil Circuit Among First EMS Providers to Achieve QS-9000 Third Edition Certification
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--Aug. 4, 1999--Jabil Circuit, Inc., , has become one of the world's only major tier-one contract manufacturers to be certified as a QS-9000 Third Edition supplier for the auto industry.Jabil is one of the largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers in the world with 1998 revenues of $1.4 billion. The company's customers include Johnson Controls, Cisco Systems, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and Magellan.
"Jabil was the first major EMS provider to achieve QS-9000 certification when these quality standards were established by the auto industry several years ago," Dana Coin, director of Jabil's Global Automotive Group, said. "QS-9000 Third Edition significantly tightens the current requirements and establishes an important new quality benchmark for auto suppliers."
QS-9000 is the auto industry's version of the widely recognized ISO-9001 quality standards first established in Europe, according to Frank Krajcirovic, Jabil's vice president of quality. The company's Michigan facilities were ISO-9001 certified in 1992.
"Because our Michigan facilities support the automotive industry to such a major extent, we believe that it was strategically important to expand our quality operating systems through QS-9000 and QS-9000 Third Edition certification," Krajcirovic said.
Jabil Circuit is a designer and manufacturer of circuit board assemblies and systems for communications, personal computers, peripherals and automotive products. The company's automotive business is expected to account for seven percent of revenues in fiscal 1999.
QS-9000 is a more rigorous set of quality standards than ISO-9001 and includes all elements of a company's operating systems, according to Krajcirovic. Auditors focus on each requirement and perform evaluations of specific technical, statistical and process capabilities. Detailed data and records to assure 100 percent compliance support each quality requirement.
Quality requirements include production part approval with detailed analysis of the process and its effect on a product's form, fit and function. Specific critical characteristics must be verified and reported to assure that process capability is within prescribed limits.
Krajcirovic added that continuous improvement must be fully supported both with action and data to achieve certification. For example, formal continuous improvement targets must be maintained for machine set-up and downtime, scrap, rework, process variation, yields, cost, handling and customer complaints.
To ensure that an organization's manufacturing capabilities measure up, QS-9000 also requires cross-functional teams to develop systems and manufacturing approaches that eliminate potential errors during the manufacturing process. Teams evaluate such areas as automation, ergonomics, equipment and tooling. The process drives an organization toward "zero-defect" capability.
Jabil's Michigan facilities first achieved QS-9000 certification in September of 1997 and achieved QS-9000 Third Edition certification in late June of 1999. In addition to QS-9000 certification, Jabil's quality operating system certifications include ISO-9001 and ISO-9002; the British Approval Board for Telecommunications (B.A.B.T.); the Underwriters Laboratories (UL); the Technischer Uberwachungs Verin (T.U.V.); EN46002, and the Good Manufacturing Practices (G.M.P.).
Headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, Jabil was founded in Michigan in 1966 and currently employs more than 7,000 worldwide, including 1,800 at its facilities in Auburn Hills. In addition to Michigan, the company has 12 other automated manufacturing facilities in California, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico and Scotland.