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Lakeside Quality Mission:
 
"To consistently meet or exceed the quality requirements of our customers."

In today's competitive marketplace, companies must be efficient to survive. The quality bar is constantly being raised and forces us to reconsider how we do business on a daily basis. This constant re-engineering of our organization requires a thorough understanding of our customers' needs. Our Quality Team's responsibility is to ensure the end products we ship meet the customers' needs amidst our ever-changing industry.

With "ZERO DEFECTS" as our goal, the Quality Department drives the culture of our company. Each discipline within our Quality department has a clear focus on achieving this result. Several of the Quality philosophies and methods responsible for our success have been included on this page.
 
APQP


The first area of focus in obtaining, "ZERO DEFECTS" is, "Advanced Product Quality Planning". We are committed to the philosophy that, "Part quality will only be as good as the planning and forethought that went into developing it". Time spent fixing quality problems that should have been addressed during part development is pure waste and impedes our ability to remain competitive.

Successful quality planning in the automotive industry requires a combination of competent resources, disciplined systems and exceptional organizational skills. Our hand picked Engineering team has experience in Japanese, European and North American production environments. Our strict adherence to checklists, open issues lists, follow-up documentation and standardized filing systems are key to our success. An example of this is our colour coded database/ binder system which puts the details of an entire program at our fingertips from supplier PPAP's to Customer SQAM's to our own APQP activities. This is just one of the simple and effective solutions we utilize to manage the myriads of information in our industry.
 


 Our quality system is accredited to one of the most demanding quality certifications in our industry. Starting with our QS9000 in September 1997, we have refined our systems to the point where we achieved our TS16949 accreditation in October of 2005.
 
 
Quality Control
 
Quality at Lakeside is owned by everyone. Our jobs depend on it. Living the belief that, "Defects will not be tolerated", it is common to see dozens of opportunities for product and process improvements published in our daily newsletter. These comments come predominantly from our Production Associates and stand as a daily reminder that waste will not be tolerated. Our quality performance is directly related to how efficiently and effectively these opportunities get resolved (Holds true from Advanced Quality Planning through to Warranty and Service ). Our approach is simple: keep reporting channels short, serve your internal customer as you would your external customer and accept no less than 100% performance from any colleague.

Utilization of statistical controls, vision systems, advanced automation, error proofing, robotics and other forms of technology helps us achieve "Zero Defects". We recognize, however, that "systems" will never replace the need for a trained and dedicated workforce. This is where the Lakeside advantage lies. We have a closed feedback loop between our training programs and our day to day operations. We can literally mold a new hire into a professional molder with our internal training programs (which have been benchmarked by a number of our customers).
 
 
You, The Customer


As liaison to our customers we are committed to being responsive and effective. Our Quality Department is structured into Specialist roles. This allows us to process engineering changes and PPAP's with exceptional speed. Typical PPAP requirements such as metrology, lab work, control documentation, sub-supplier approval, capability studies, gauge R&R and final PPAP submission compilation are performed simultaneously by all members of our Quality department.

When on-site support is required our Quality department is ready to serve. We have competent technical field support to contain, manage and resolve all matters. We utilize cross-functional problem solving teams to identify true root causes and drive them back through the organization to FMEA and APQP levels. We will be honest about our mistakes and we expect the same from our business partners. We communicate our performance on a daily basis to the entire organization via our daily Q.C. memo.
 
 
Accreditation
 
“In a ceremony held on Wednesday, [October 1st] in Plymouth, Michigan, Lakeside Plastics Limited in Oldcastle received a Gold Award for Performance Excellence from Johnson Controls, Inc. Lakeside was one of only 24 suppliers out of 600 from around the world who were honoured with this prestigious award. Lakeside achieved a score of 102 out of a possible 100 based on bonus marks for lean manufacturing initiatives.


Approximately 200 people attended for the day along with Executive leadership from the Johnson Controls Purchasing and Supply Chain Logistics Group. Glenn Coates, President and Joe Luckino, Director of Sales and Engineering accepted the award on behalf of Lakeside. Coates gave credit to the dedicated team of Lakeside employees that made the award possible.

Lakeside supplies automotive assemblies, moulded components and other injection moulded automotive parts to General Motors, Johnson Controls, Delphi, Inteva, CAMI and other customers.”

Click here for a copy of the Lakeside Newsletter from the day of the ceremony.
   
 
As a past winner of the General Motors Supplier of the Year Award, our team was proud to be recognized by Delphi Corporation as winner of the Delphi Pinnacle Award.
 
This is a statement from the April 2005 press release:

"In a ceremony held on Friday at Delphi World Headquarters, Lakeside Plastics Limited of Oldcastle received the Delphi Pinnacle Award for Manufacturing Excellence. Lakeside was one of only 5 Canadian suppliers out of 77 suppliers from around the world who were honoured with this prestigious award. The 77 attendees represented the top 2% of Delphi’s 1,200 suppliers world wide. J.T. Battenberg III, Chairman and CEO of Delphi Corporation, praised the recipients for consistent and outstanding performance in their fields. Glenn Coates, President, and Ryan Bentley, Quality Manager accepted the award on behalf of Lakeside. Coates gave credit to the dedicated team of Lakeside employees who made the award possible. Lakeside supplies gear shift levers, door handle assemblies, interior trim, and other injection moulded automotive component systems to General Motors, Delphi, Johnson Controls, and CAMI."