In 2013, Trane — then Ingersoll Rand — launched Octave Reliance (formerly ETQ Reliance) for its Club Car brand. Strategic planning included deploying modules for customer complaints and corrective action. In 2016, the company expanded its use of Reliance across the enterprise, launching Change Management and Supplier Audits globally and deploying corrective and preventative actions (CAPA) and Planned Deviation to six pilot sites.
Filling the gap
From 2017 through 2019, Trane continued scaling its use of Reliance, first by introducing Non-Conforming Material (NCM) with transactional capabilities and localization in six languages. Then, the company completed the design for Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) and Supplier Deviations and began building a Reliance-based cloud portal for Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR), Supply Discrepancy Report (SDR), and PPAP.
Rapid lean deployment
Trane’s three-person quality team decreased scrap and rework by 32%. In November 2019, Trane completed deployment across 52 sites for NCM, Corrective Action Request (CAR), SCAR, Internal Audit, Supplier Audits, Deviation, Materials Escalation, Change Management, and Document Control — all with a team of only three.
Reaping the benefits
“Think big, start small, scale fast” was the motto of Trane’s quality team. So, it’s not surprising that the company started its quality journey differently than many other enterprises. Instead of beginning with Document Control, the company “thought big” by focusing on developing and deploying ETQ Reliance applications that would help solve its plants’ most prevalent problems.
Starting small, Trane deployed its “core four” applications to help bring order to its internal functions and supply base — non-conforming materials, process and product deviation, internal and supplier corrective action. That allowed Trane’s quality team to address issues while proving the platform’s ROI and favorable business impact, giving the team a runway to continue building and deploying additional modules.
By taking this approach, Trane’s quality team convinced company leadership to fund Reliance across the enterprise rather than requiring individual plants to make the purchase. That plan hyper-accelerated adoption into plants, streamlining the process exponentially.
Essentially, Trane uses Reliance as a data superhighway, facilitating data transfer throughout all areas of its business.
“By bringing a consistent methodology to our reporting and providing a true apples-to-apples approach, we were able to convince our C-suite to fund Reliance across our business. Traditionally, each plant picks up the cost. To remove roadblocks, we’ve removed any talk of cost. There’s no longer any barrier of ‘my plant can’t afford this," Adam Ryley, Global Quality Systems Leader, Trane Technologies.
Today, over 9,000 Trane users rely on Reliance to automate and centralize its internal and external quality management processes across plants. With this enterprise QMS solution, Trane sees substantial ROI and improvements in key metrics.
Reduced scrap and rework by 32%
Reduced overall warranty costs by 70% and tens of millions of dollars (standard warranty costs and Initial Customer Quality (ICQ) claims)
Reduced cycle time by up to 87%, with a 50% cycle time reduction on average
The previous system required 13 mouse clicks to transact a part from A to B; the current system takes only one
About Trane
Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator that creates comfortable, energy-efficient indoor environments for commercial and residential applications. For more information, please visit www.trane.com or www.tranetechnologies.com
