When Hayden Westers joined Vanguard Furniture’s quality team, he brought with him a deep respect for and fascination with the processes behind each finished piece and the systems that guide them.
As Asia Quality Manager, Hayden collaborates with four quality inspectors on overseeing manufacturing across several countries.
The team provides support and quality control (QC) critical to Vanguard’s facilities in the US, where approximately 900 employees hand-build home furnishings using time-honored techniques, such as 8-way, hand-tied spring systems and multi-step, hand-applied finishes.
At the time, Vanguard had a solid foundation for QC but was keen to level up its efforts. Those efforts have led to a 40% reduction in customer claims.
“We were doing good work, but I knew we could do even better by shifting our mindset and adding Qarma to the mix,” Hayden says.
Checking the boxes
Hayden had used Qarma at a previous company and recognized its potential to add value to Vanguard’s quality efforts.
Existing processes were robust but labor-intensive and somewhat fragmented. On-site information documentation was compiled into PDF or PowerPoint reports and emailed to the team. This approach had inherent risks, such as the loss or misplacement of significant data, including where or when a photo was taken.
“Today, our quality inspectors easily go through checklists on-site. They can share information on quality questions in real-time while photo documentation is automatically uploaded to our systems – and that happens through Qarma,” Hayden says.
Grasping the new opportunities
Making the most of the new tool has involved more than technical decisions.
Vanguard Furniture has also evolved its QC mindset to engage even more proactively with manufacturers.
One concrete example was a minimal defect involving over-sanding. In the high-touch world of furniture manufacturing, such defects can significantly impact customer satisfaction. However, they can be hard to track and identify without a central system.
Data gathered via Qarma helped Hayden and his team identify the defect and collaborate with the manufacturer to identify and fix the underlying hardware issue.
Training, including on the importance and structure of good documentation, has been a cornerstone of impressive QC improvements. For example, inspectors have been encouraged to log every issue, no matter how minor.
“Even if a customer never sees it, we need to,” Hayden explains. “Documenting an insignificant issue gives us and our suppliers the chance to correct it before it becomes something larger.”
Baselines and continuous improvement
Today, Qarma plays a central role in how Hayden and his team approach QC.
The team regularly reviews Qarma data alongside customer feedback. If a claim is received, the team can trace it back to a specific report and whether it has been identified.
As a result, the feedback loop has tightened, and accountability has increased.
Integrated with Power BI, Qarma's data enables Hayden's team to visualize trends across time and geography. They can see which vendors are improving, which issues are recurring, and where to focus attention next.
“It is not about blame,” Hayden says. “It is about showing a manufacturer exactly what we are seeing. That clarity helps everyone do better.”
Measurable and meaningful results
In an industry often viewed as behind the digital curve, the added data and visibility is transformational.
"Furniture is still very hands-on," Hayden says. "We have not had the same tech growth as other sectors. A tool like Qarma allows us to catch up and bring new light to issues in an extremely refreshing way."
The data tells its own story. Since implementing upgrades, evolving its approach, and integrating Qarma, Vanguard has seen a 40% drop in customer claims.
Simultaneously, inspection reports have become more consistent, vendors have become more responsive, and the quality team has become more confident in their evaluations.
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