American Leather is a leading manufacturer of high-end, custom-made furniture, known for its quality, innovation, speed, and timeless designs. With a commitment to producing long-lasting and luxurious pieces, quality is embedded in every step of production at American Leather.
Cesar Valenzuela, Head of Process Improvement & Quality at American Leather, shares how he and his team manage quality and conduct inspections - from initial design through production to final and pre-loading inspections. As a quality professional, Cesar has always approached quality as a chain of checks which constantly required fine-tuning. To achieve this, real-time access to inspections including pictures of findings and comments is crucial.
Closing the gaps in QC
Previously, inspections and quality control processes relied on static checklists and offline cameras for documentation of inspections. This process required manually linking all images to specific production and customer orders. American Leather found that valuable time was spent sorting through numerous photos.
“We didn’t have a way to connect pictures with the orders and checklist, unless we did it manually – that took hours and wasn’t intuitive” Cesar explains “With Qarma, that completely changed, one application, one handset - tablet or phone - we have the checklist, we take the pictures, and everything is documented with our order number.”
The development of new collections from initial design to final approval enables American leather to connect and communicate with the customer in an effective way without necessarily being onsite.
“Instead of bringing the customer in to inspect the first version of every piece, we can now do it with images in the Qarma reports,” Cesar says.
Seeking a flexible inspection tool with real-time updates
American Leather was looking for a solution that could integrate with their current production system, acting as an extended quality and customer-centric tool while making the inspection process more efficient.
Qarma allows the customer to quickly review the first production runs of new developments by sending real-time notifications as new pieces come off the line, allowing them to review and identify potential updates. For example, when working with natural woods, they can quickly align with the customer to ensure their expectations are met before the pieces are even bagged, packaged, or shipped.
“The flexibility to send reports to customers has added another layer of benefits. Now, whenever we ship or develop a new product, our customers can see the latest version before it even ships”.
Speed of Quality
The ability to communicate real-time findings and share pictures has reduced the approval flow from six days to just one. Apart from connecting with customers, it has also connected internal teams.
“The clarity and speed of communication have made a huge difference in how we work with customers,” Cesar adds. “They can review everything from anywhere, and we get feedback faster. It’s a win for both us and our customers.”
A collaborative workflow starts with customized checkpoints
Cesar highlights the ability to customize processes based on customer requirements: “One major benefit is customization. We can modify anything in checklists. If a customer raises a specific concern, we can create a checkpoint for it, and it is immediately implemented on the production floor”.
With everything in one platform, everyone from the internal teams to customers can access the same information, which leads to quicker decision making.
“Empowering inspectors has been a great change. Before we had separate quality and manufacturing departments. As we standardize processes with Qarma, we essentially merged the two – now it is manufacturing inspecting manufacturing. Which has closed the gap tremendously”
What’s next?
Over the years, American Leather has built up a lot of quality data, which is now used to continuously update quality methods and finetune quality metrics in real-time.
“Real-time access to information has been a game-changer for us” Cesar says, “The more we automate, the better it gets. Automating reporting in real-time will be the biggest benefit”
American Leather has not only enhanced its QC workflow, but also improved communication – both internally and with customers - while reducing approval processes for new collections.
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