The company was scalingproduction to meet increased OEM demand, but its quality management processesweren't keeping pace. Each of the 30+ sites had developed its own way ofhandling non-conformances — a patchwork of paper forms, Excel logs, and homegrowntools.

Headquarters had no real-time visibility into shop-floor quality issues. When leadership needed a consolidated view — for management reviews or audit prep — it took weeks of chasing information across sites. Data existed, but it lived in silos: some in the ERP, some in spreadsheets, some buried in email threads. Fragmented NC tracking and slow manual workflows were becoming a liability.

Inconsistent NC processes. Every plant recorded non-conformances differently — Excel, paper forms, email. No way to get a consolidated view or share learnings.

Slow issue resolution. NCs took 5-7 days to close. By the time one site resolved an issue, the same defect might have occurred elsewhere.

Corrective actions that didn't stick. Roughly 30% of CAPAs were reopened or delayed because root causes weren't properly addressed. No systematic verification.

Audit prep was a scramble. No clear link from defect to root cause to action. Engineers assembled documentation after the fact from disparate files.

Operators had stopped trusting the process. Filing an NC felt like sending info into a blackhole. This led to underreporting and reactive firefighting.

Rather than a big-bang rollout, the team started with a single pilot at a production site in France, focused on the QRQC process for shop-floor quality issues.

> Cross-functional from day one. Site quality leads, the continuous improvement manager, and corporate IT partnered — critically involving operators and a skeptical production supervisor in design workshops.

> First iteration live in weeks. Using C-981's low-code platform, the team had a working NC reporting process in operators' hands within two weeks. From there, they iterated based on real usage.

> Built on existing systems. The solution pulled reference data from ERP but sat as a layer on top — no heavy customization. Task assignments flowed into Microsoft 365, keeping adoption friction minimal.

> 9 months from kickoff to full deployment. Phased rollout: one production cell, then department by department. The first site was fully live by late 2025 with a playbook ready to replicate.

The pilot site has seen measurable improvements, with more gains expected as the solution scales.

> Targeting 50% faster NC closure. NCs that took 5-7 days are now closing in 2-3 days. Many issues contained within 48 hours.

> 100% traceability, audit-ready by default. Every NC has a complete digital trail. During a recent internal audit, the quality manager pulled up records instantly — no missing signatures, no scrambling.

> Corrective actions that don't slip. In the pilot phase, not a single corrective action was forgotten or left overdue without escalation. Previously, ~30% of CAPAs slipped past due dates.

> Less firefighting, more prevention. Monthly cross-functional reviews use live dashboards to spot trends. In one case, the team traced a sealing defect spike to a material batch and triggered a supplier corrective action — before it became a bigger problem.

> Time back for the team. Engineers estimate 1-2 hours per week reclaimed from administrative work. The quality admin who spent half a day merging Excel files now focuses on facilitating QRQC meetings.

> Operators trust the process again. NC reports went up in the first month — a positive sign. One supervisor said the tool "turned on the lights" in areas that were previously dark.

Rollout to additional sites. At least three more production sites planned for 2026 in France and North America.A quality issue at one plant will be visible and searchable by engineers atanother.

Building toward a singlesource of truth. Over the next 12-18 months, unified NC visibility acrossthe entire aerospace division.

Expanding beyond NC/CAPA. The team has already begun digitizing in-process quality checks and prototyping digital shipping inspections. The platform is proving adaptable to multiple workflows.

Executive-level visibility on the roadmap. Future phases include dashboards for VPs to monitor quality KPIs across all sites in real time, plus deeper ERP integration.

A distributed manufacturer with 30+ sites proved that when everyone— from operators to leadership — can see quality issues in real time, problemsget solved before they become audit findings. No ERP overhaul required.