Materion Corporation is a global leader in advanced materials solutions for high performance industries including semiconductors, industrial, aerospace and defense, energy and automotive.
With 100 years of expertise in specialty engineered alloy systems, inorganic chemicals and powders, precious and non-precious metals, beryllium and beryllium composites, precision filters and optical coatings, Materion partners with customers to enable breakthrough solutions that move the world forward.
When disparate approaches to quality made simple tasks unnecessarily complex, Materion’s quality team knew it needed to modernize its quality processes and system. The company took a phased approach to implement Octave Reliance (formerly ETQ Reliance), streamlining quality processes and enhancing risk management efforts.
Challenge
With 20+ global manufacturing sites, each determining its own approach to quality — from standalone Lotus Notes based quality management systems (QMS) to spreadsheets to nothing at all — Materion’s quality team realized something needed to change. The company’s lack of standardized business processes meant that something that should be simple, like sharing common documents, was unnecessarily complex, with multiple varying versions becoming the norm. Additionally, the organization had no centralized way to roll up quality-focused results like non-conformances and corrective actions to effectively address issues at the site, business unit or corporate level. So, when the company moved to sunset Lotus Notes, its quality team took the opportunity to transform and modernize Materion’s approach to quality with an enterprise QMS.
Solution
Materion’s quality team pulled together a project team to evaluate potential quality management solutions. The team — consisting of the company’s CIO, quality directors across business units, VPs, and business application owners — ultimately selecte Reliance. The company took a phased approach, implementing core applications (document control, training, and corrective actions) first, then implementing audits, risk register and change management functionality. All told, Materion plans an eight-phase implementation that will roll out Reliance across all of the company’s sites around the globe.
Throughout the deployment, Materion’s quality team appreciated Reliance’s out-ofthe-box utility. With a tight implementation timeline, the company needed to achieve value without customizing the software at each site. As a result, the company has standardized business processes across locations, making it easier for IT and quality pros to support, providing opportunities for cross site collaboration, and facilitating a strong base of power users to bolster system adoption. In addition, upgrades are much easier, faster and less costly to implement, and standardized data make it easier for staffers to track and analyze metrics.
Materion especially appreciates Reliance’s export control compliance. Because it supplies the aerospace and defense industry, Materion is bound by ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), EAR (Export Administration Regulations) requirements, and other government regulations. Using Reliance provides an additional level of security, ensuring compliance with government and customer requirements. Octave pulls user designations from Materion’s corporate HMS system, ensuring only authorized users can access export control documents.
“Octave Reliance serves as a hub for operational excellence, reducing the time and cost of a dual entry by pushing and pulling data from SAP, Office 365, and other existing systems. Reliance also has centralized customer satisfaction information, allowing Materion staffers to view and analyze trends at all levels of the organization.”
Results
By allowing the company to exit its mishmash of unsupported platforms, Reliance has helped support Materion’s growth. With multiple system integration points, Octave serves as a hub for operational excellence, reducing the time and cost of dual entry by pushing and pulling data from SAP, Office 365, and other existing systems. Octave also has centralized customer satisfaction information, allowing Materion staffers to view and analyze trends at all levels of the organization.
Octave has also helped Materion improve processes across business units, tying external, internal and supplier audit management directly to corrective actions. The centralized quality system also enhanced risk management, providing a secure environment that ensures Materion meets a wide range of government and industry regulations.
Users have realized numerous benefits of Octave’s integrated quality management system. The software’s intuitive, easy-to-use interface makes it easier to search and access documents and save favorites for quick future access. With one system for the entire company, documents and processes are streamlined and centralized instead of separate quality systems at different locations while still allowing authors or managers to control access. And Octave’s corrective action management system drives continuous improvement, allowing users to set due dates and escalate as needed.
About Materion
Materion Corporation is a global leader in advanced materials solutions for high-performance industries including semiconductor, industrial, aerospace & defense, energy and automotive. With 100 years of expertise in specialty engineered alloy systems, inorganic chemicals and powders, precious and non-precious metals, beryllium and beryllium composites, and precision filters and optical coatings, Materion partners with customers to enable breakthrough solutions that move the world forward. Headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, the company employs more than 3,700 talented people worldwide, serving customers in more than 60 countries. For more information, visit www.materion.com
