Global Manufacturer and Engineering Company, Swagelok, Took Control with Automation from QT9 QMS

By moving manual quality processes to QT9's electronic QMS, Swagelok has ramped up efficiency and cut audit findings to earn a nod from auditors.

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Industry Fluid Systems & Services

Founded 1947

Location Cleveland, OH

Employees 5,700+

“The nice thing with QT9 is that we have access to everything, yet we didn't have to implement everything at once. This allowed us to grow into everything and utilize everything once we were ready.”
5 Jason Yamamoto, Operations & Service Manager

From Excel, Teams and Email, to one QMS Software

Swagelok is a privately held developer of fluid system products, assemblies and services for various industries including oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, semiconductor, transportation, pharmaceuticals, and medical. Headquartered in the U.S. with over 200 sales and service centers across 70 countries, Swagelok had been using a host of manual quality processes among their different locations, from Excel spreadsheets to files organized in Teams.

In 2018, quality managers at the Portland, Oregon, Swagelok Sales and Service Center (SSC) sought a solution that would allow them to better organize and automate their quality processes. They needed a system that would distribute ownership across the organization and grow with them.

While researching QMSs, the Portland location received a supplier corrective action automated message from one of its customers, sent via QT9 QMS. Intrigued, they began investigating the platform, visiting the customer’s facility to observe QT9 QMS in real time. As Jason Yamamoto describes, it was a “no brainer.”
Yamamoto, who managed two Swagelok SSCs in Australia/New Zealand, at the time worked in the Portland office and noted, "The real benefit we saw from Portland was our ability to get away from all the spreadsheets and manual quality management processes."

After using QT9 QMS for three years at the Portland office, the team was able to convince Swagelok Corporate to adopt QT9 eQMS as the standard for their distributor functions. Since then, 18 additional Swagelok distributors and SSCs have implemented QT9 QMS globally.

Audit Success = Customer Success

Since 1947, Swagelok has prided itself on helping customers achieve their goals by delivering the best products and services with integrity. The goal of automating their quality processes was to reduce or eliminate regulatory and customer audit findings.

The Swagelok distributorship in Alpharetta, Georgia, began implementing the QT9 system in 2022. Alpharetta Quality Manager Louis Sapic stated, "Prior to that, everything was a hodgepodge of local documents, and we were just trying to control them. Engineering changes, calibrations, PMs, they were just kind of all hidden away. We had audit findings over the years for things just not getting done or lost in the weeds, because there was not a good repository for everything."

QT9’s Document Control module and its links to other quality control modules helped solve these problems. Sapic noted, “We had an auditor come in for one of our customers. He scheduled a day and a half to audit, and we just blew right through it because of QT9.”

Yamamoto shared a similar story: “In Portland, we had the same ISO auditor for seven years. She was extremely complementary of the [QT9] system. How accessible, how quick, and how everything tied together. You could see an audit; the corrective actions from the audit; the root cause analysis; the preventive actions; the opportunities for improvement — everything was tied together in the system. And the last audit that she did for us, we had no corrective actions.”

Scaling for Continued Success

Swagelok offices have been able to implement additional QMS modules on their own timeline thanks to the scalability of the QT9 QMS model. The Australia/New Zealand office, for instance, identified one or two modules to implement each quarter, including Preventive Maintenance, Calibrations, Nonconforming Products, and other ISO functions.

“The nice thing with QT9 is that we have access to everything, yet we didn’t have to implement everything at once,” notes Yamamoto. “This allowed us to grow into everything and utilize everything once we were ready.”

Consistent formatting across the QT9 quality management system has simplified rolling out new modules. "They are all structured the same," notes Sapic. "So, once you learn one module, it is very easy to pick up everything else.”

Boutique-Level Customer Support

QT9 has assisted Swagelok offices with the implementation and rollout of additional modules. Swagelok offices have benefitted from hands-on implementation support, training and the accessibility of QT9 customer interaction specialists. “The support has been amazing,” says Yamamoto. “We feel like it has really catered to us.”

Martin Ehlert, Quality Manager for Swagelok's Sales and Service Center in the Netherlands, remarked, "What surprised me was the ease of working with QT9. It was very easy for me to get the modules up and running and implement everything. We have made big improvements in document management and the handling of our corrective and preventive actions just because we started using QT9. The visibility of the status of corrective actions and audits is much easier to present to management.”

Ehlert highlights Swagelok’s journey with QT9 QMS, emphasizing improvements in document management and overall work process. “We have made big improvements in document management and the handling of our corrective and preventive actions just because we started using QT9,” he reiterates. “The visibility of the status of corrective actions and audits is much easier to present to management. Just from a quick glance, he now has a much better idea of all that is happening within the quality management system.”

"I couldn't imagine life without QT9," states Yamamoto. "QT9 has become an integral part of the company, for me and everyone else."

Challenge

Swagelok offices in Portland, Oregon, sought to automate quality processes kept in spreadsheets. They required a solution that would enable them to distribute quality ownership across the organization and provide scalability for growth.

Solution

Swagelok Portland selected QT9 QMS after observing its effectiveness at a customer’s facility. QT9 QMS offers quality management software with virtually unlimited scalability.

Results

Today, Swagelok corporate has standardized on QT9 QMS for their distributors. Over 19 Swagelok sales and service centers globally utilize the QT9 QMS platform.

About Swagelok

Swagelok is a privately held developer of fluid system products, assemblies, and services for various industries including oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, semiconductor, transportation industries, pharmaceuticals, and medical. Headquartered in the U.S., they have over 200 sales and service centers across 70 countries, transitioning from a variety of manual quality processes.

"QT9 has become an integral part of the company, not only for me, but also everyone else."
5 Jason Yamamoto, Operations & Service Manager

How Swagelok Centralized Quality Management with QT9 QMS

Hear how Lou Sapic utilizes QT9 QMS to link every quality module together, replacing scattered documents with one integrated system the team relies on daily.

How Swagelok Improved Quality Management with QT9 QMS | Customer Success Story

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