Reduce Calibration Costs, Increase Quality & Speed!

Most people understand the importance of calibrated equipment to quality measurements and most people think it costs too much. It actually does, probably by 25% or more, which is why so many companies have projects to reduce calibration costs.  Those costs aren’t high because your calibration supplier’s cost per calibration is too high or quality not satisfactory. That’s not our experience. Beating suppliers up on cost-per-calibration is not the highest leverage action but it is often the only one companies see. Rather,  hoarding test equipment and the time of service groups with chronic ASAP requests leads to excessive costs.  We’ve written about in “That One Bad Habit That Costs You Millions.”

Views on Calibration Services can be Tainted by Your Own Bad Habits.

You can hear it in the language of various constituents who may not see the source of the problem aEAM has been developed to fix.

• Quality groups see calibration as a potential risk for audit findings and enact cumbersome and costly processes that still may leave occasion for non-compliance and the threats to business and revenues that come along.

  • Better practices can reduce the risk of audit findings and make your team a source of quality measurements and competitive advantages.

• Managers may view it as a burden on their budgets that they have little to no control over. They have difficulty reducing calibration costs.

  • End hoarding and free 25% to 50% of your budget for other things including more strategic, value-added services from your calibration supplier.

• Engineers and technicians often view it as a hindrance to meeting deadlines on their work.

  • Establish controls and eliminate 95% of the time spent on administrative burdens allowing your engineers and technicians to focus on what they love doing most…adding value.

Today’s highly competitive market requires adherence to quality requirements to avoid noncompliance issues while still finding real and significant opportunities for budget reductions, wherever they may be found. Sente’s Accelerated Enterprise Asset Management can help identify these opportunities and assist in maintaining adherence to quality requirements.

End Audit Anxiety and User Distractions with Advanced Controls

Audits are indeed a source of anxiety because of the lack of controls in many environments. Too many will result in loss of trust with customers or worse, loss of revenue. We have a track record of solving these problems fast!  One common source of audit findings is the inaccurate location of assets when comparing “floor to database”. This increases the time and attention users of equipment must spend searching for equipment when due for calibration instead of focused on their important development or test deadlines. Sente “Accountability Practices” are practices that quickly identify the process breakdowns that lead to “lost” assets and fix them. With accountability practices in place database location accuracy remains greater than 95% avoiding lost time searching and late turn-ins. As anxiety ends the space to reduce calibration costs opens.

Give Equipment Users Peace of Mind with Automated Out of Tolerance Notifications

Late turn-ins on calibration are not the only risk in the process. When equipment is found to vary from the manufacturer’s specifications (out of tolerance) during service there should be a process to verify that the work performed with this equipment was not affected. Often, there had been several people using the equipment on multiple tasks, and identifying all the potential impacts can be tedious or impossible. With Sente’s eEAM engineers and technicians will be automatically reminded that equipment assigned to them is due for service. In the event of an out of tolerance condition, all historical users can be notified and check past work to verify accuracy and repeat any necessary work performed using the malfunctioning assets.

Reduce Calibration Expenses by Ending Hoarding, Increasing Utilization

Companies regularly send in equipment for costly calibration services without examining utilization patterns on their assets. This costs them 25% to 50% in excess support costs. They simply see that the date is approaching and round up the gear to be sent to an outside vendor or to be calibrated by an internal group. The reasons for this missed opportunity on savings vary; there is no process for capturing utilization or the use history of the equipment doesn’t exist or isn’t accessible.

Personnel is often unaware of the effects of hoarding assets on calibrations costs. Users hoard assets – and rightly in our estimation – so they have the equipment they need when they need it. By establishing “Use Accountability” a trustworthy process is established that promises users will have the equipment when they need it. They stop hoarding. Utilization increases by up to 400%. Teams reduce calibration costs typically by 25% or more.  For more information about how hoarding and low utilization affect costs read, Equipment Utilization: What’s Your Number?

Accelerated Enterprise Asset Management Drives Significant Performance Improvements

Utilizing Sente’s eEAM tools and processes, data-driven decisions can be made on which equipment should be calibrated and which equipment can be safely disposed of or placed in storage without leaving gaps in capacity, capability, and technology. Our results reducing calibration costs and so many other costs are well documented by customers and analysts.

Calibration does not need to be thought of as an expensive burden or merely a cost of doing business.   Supplier costs per calibration are an easy target but not the most lucrative when working to reduce calibration costs.  Take advantage of the opportunity to end hoarding and transform your calibration cost and compliance performance into a competitive advantage for your asset management team. Sente has a proven track record that helps our business partners identify areas of calibration process improvement that result in significant and quantifiable budget savings while reducing the risk of audit findings.