Eco-system

Ultimately, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Naturally, the QA & QC activities at SFO cover all concerned stakeholders, like employees, suppliers and customers, and the other components of the eco-system, including Infrastructure, Plant & Machinery etc.

Employees

The competency level required for each role in the organizational pyramid is defined and recruitment/staffing is done accordingly for achieving current and future objectives of SFO. The Responsibility & Authority for each role is also well defined and employees are empowered to discharge their duties aligned to the apex quality objectives. Performance is evaluated at regular intervals and training is scheduled based on the skill gap, if any, identified in the process. Training, internal and external, is provided to the employees based on their work area and for professional development of the person, based on the career road-map and organizational evolution. NeST Centre for Management Development, NeST CyberCampus and NeST Institute of Fibre Optic Technology act as nodal agencies in conducting these training programmes. Employee motivation surveys are also held to assess the mood of the team and team activities like picnics, cultural and celebrations of festivals lead to increased bonding in the team.

Suppliers

SFO believes in forging long, mutually beneficial partnership with our suppliers. New vendors are enlisted only after rigorous onsite/offsite audits and cut-off marks are kept high to ensure minimum quality. Existing suppliers are also evaluated continuously, giving adequate weightages to the quality and timeliness of their deliveries, service, etc. We have a “vendor portal” through which we share sourcing forecast well in advance so the supplier can plan their production runs accordingly. They also can view their quality rating from the portal. We also conduct supplier training programmes for improving their QMS.

Customers

Being a customer-centric organization, regular review of the “voice of the customer” is a critical activity undertaken by SFO. This is ascertained through a Customer Satisfaction survey. The Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), is calculated as a weighted average of three metrics, viz. the score in the customer satisfaction survey, On Time Delivery (OTD) and Quality. Any slippage in the CSI is a cause for concern and gets reviewed by the top Management and remediation measures are taken to preserve the brand equity.

Infrastructure

As a growing enterprise, SFO has long-term plans for infrastructure development, covering Equipment, Hardware, workspace etc aligned to our growth strategies. The work environment at SFO is planned and created considering all the Human and physical factors, in line with OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Assessment Series) requirements to ensure safe working condition for the employees.

Plant & Machinery

To maximize returns from our considerable investments in plant and machinery and to ensure smooth, trouble-free production runs of quality products, SFO has put in place a comprehensive, ERP-driven Preventive maintenance & Calibration program with Weekly/ Monthly and/or Yearly periodicity that is carried out for each machine, equipment, Tool, Utility, Test fixture, Electrical part, etc, as per the instruction of its original manufacturer. The Maintenance team and the test engineering team are responsible for carrying out the preventive maintenance activities.

The requirements of monitoring & measuring equipment are identified in the Quality-planning meeting. Quality team is responsible to control, calibrate and maintain all monitoring & measuring devices that have a bearing to the quality of the product. Calibration in charge is responsible to identify, calibrate/check the equipment against certified instruments traceable to National / International standards. A master list of all monitoring/measuring equipment is maintained and the process employed for the Gauge R&R (Repeatability & Reproducibility) is carried out for all testing equipment

Factors like MTBF, MTTR & Machine Downtime are tracked closely by the maintenance team & predictive and preventive measures taken pro-actively to ensure uptime and ensure time and cost savings.