Copeland meets document control challenge with Quality Workbench

With sites throughout the world including the U.S., Copeland Corporation, a division of Emerson Electric headquartered in St. Louis, MO—like other multinational, multi-site organizations—faced a unique challenge in its management of critical business systems, particularly with respect to document management in the Engineering Change Control portion of its business. Copeland met that challenge with the help of Quality Workbench, from PQ Systems. It is currently moving toward a totally paperless system on three of its lines.

Global facilities share data and documents for standards compliance

Copeland is a manufacturer of advanced compressors for commercial and residential A/C and refrigeration with its headquarters in Sidney, Ohio. Facilities are located in North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Alabama, and Louisiana as well as China, India, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Germany, and Thailand. All of these facilities must “talk” to each other electronically, since they share data and documents that support their compliance to standards. Currently, nine of the thirteen Copeland facilities are actively using Quality Workbench to control Plant Process Documentation as well as Engineering Change activities.

All of Copeland's 4,000 employees in its 13 facilities and 800 wholesaler branches take part in quality and compliance management. Copeland's unique scroll manufacturing processes were developed in Sidney. The Sidney facility also boasts the world's largest compressor research and development center. Copeland has earned many awards, including Outstanding Engineering Achievement from the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Global facilities share data and documents for standards compliance

Copeland leads its industry in R&D, testing, and application engineering for integral horsepower compressors and condensing units. One of the keys to its success lies in its adherence to strict manufacturing practices. Due to the sensitive nature of scroll technology, accuracy in work instructions and procedures is critical.

In 1997 Copeland decided to globally manage the methods it uses to control manufacturing documentation.

Quality Workbench has helped the large organization to maintain control over their manufacturing and administrative documents and to spread them correctly throughout their facilities. "With ongoing support from PQ Systems, we've made Quality Workbench an integral part of our system," says Steve Condon, Global A/C Engineering Change Manager. Condon began using Quality Workbench Professional to manage Engineering Change Notices in 1998. Quality Workbench has allowed key personnel in remote facilities to approve changes to engineering documents controlled in Sidney, Ohio. The use of Quality Workbench Professional is expanding to include audit and maintenance documentation, and to simplify document access via an intranet.

The company's Lebanon, Missouri facility was the first plant to implement the use of Quality Workbench Professional in 1997. It provided feedback to the software development process that led to improvements in its interface to e-mail systems. A rollout to five other facilities, including three international plants, began in September, 1997. Via Copeland's wide-area network (WAN), users at any location can access documents at other Copeland facilities with Quality Workbench Professional.

Quality Workbench helps standardize processes and manage work flow

Copeland's use of the product has helped the large organization to standardize processes and manage work flow. The Sidney headquarters has led the way for the entire organization to move ahead with sophisticated document control and information management programs.

Copeland was registered as ISO 9000 compliant in 1998, after a one-year effort to bring processes and documents into compliance. Quality Workbench Professional, says Condon, provides a way for the company to maintain engineering change control and concentrate on quality improvement throughout the organization.