Guarantee the quality of our products
Our Quality Division employs 35 people covering four areas of expertise.
Those areas are product quality, supplier quality, production quality, and distribution quality.
A group-wide team is responsible for managing certifications and laboratories, and digitising our quality data.
Organising quality
Quality is not a given. It must be incorporated into every stage of the process, from designing our products through to fitting our solutions in the customer’s property, and even through to the end of the product lifecycle, since all our units come with a 10-year guarantee as well as a 25‑year guarantee for metal parts.
Every division has a clear set of responsibilities in its individual area of operations, i.e. ensure product compliance and performance, guarantee reliable supply chains, make sure that production standards are strictly applied, ensure quality all the way to the customer, and report any nonconformities detected within the network.
- Product quality ensures product compliance and performance, from development through to production.
- Supplier quality ensures reliable supply chains and manages quality crises with suppliers.
- Production quality ensures that quality standards are strictly applied in the manufacturing processes.
- Distribution quality ensures that quality continues after production and all the way to the end customer, while reporting any quality issues detected in the network.
- Excellence quality manages certifications, laboratories, quality data and digitisation.
Certifying our processes and products
Our systems and products have been certified. Certification serves as evidence that our processes and products meet stringent standards, which are regularly audited by third-party bodies.
Testing durability
Our laboratories consistently test our units for strength, durability and compliance. At Schmidt Groupe, drawers are subjected to 125,000 opening-closing cycles (compared to 60,000 cycles under the NF Ameublement standard). Worktops are tested to determine their resistance to heat, humidity and scratches. Fronts are tested for their resistance to UV light, humidity and temperature variations.
The finished products laboratory tests the product’s performance in its final configuration, i.e. exactly how it will be used by the customer. Tests focus on the joints, long-term durability, and compliance with safety and performance standards.
The components laboratory tests individual components, including handles, fronts and worktops.
These tests confirm that our products deliver on their promised durability, which is why we offer a 10-year guarantee on our units and worktops, and a 25-year guarantee on our metal parts and hinges.
Staying ahead with digital technology
We are also improving quality through the use of digital technology, whether analysing remedials data, creating quality KPIs (key performance indicators), monitoring digitisation projects, and mapping nonconformities.
These tools allow us to anticipate any deviations, identify recurring issues and take corrective action before a problem becomes widespread. Analysing feedback from the field is invaluable for continually improving our design, manufacturing and distribution processes.
But once again, data are only used to support the decision-making process. People are ultimately the ones who make the decisions. The indicators may guide our choices, but the quality teams are responsible for personally analysing, troubleshooting and deciding what action should be taken.
Letting people take the final decision
Even though checks and inspections are increasingly performed by automated systems (machine vision cameras, dimensional measurement algorithms, automatic control systems, etc.), people are still responsible for taking the final decision.
Before parts are dispatched to a customer, an employee checks whether they meet the required standards. This requirement ensures that no anomalies make it past the final quality control stage.
Technology is useful for detecting, measuring and comparing, but it is the employee’s eyes and experience that confirm whether a product can be sent to the customer. This requirement does not hinder productivity. Instead, it guarantees reliability.
Our quality policy is based on the conviction that quality should not only be checked at the end of the chain, but incorporated into every stage. From selecting suppliers through to fitting products in the customer’s property, every link in the chain enables us to deliver on our promise of offering units that are designed to last and enhance everyday life.
