Vote for Your "Champions for Quality"! 
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April, 2018
Creating a culture of quality is crucial for any manufacturing plant, so it is especially surprising that the people who help to implement it are usually overlooked and underappreciated. Beacon Quality is proud to announce our first annual Champions for Quality awards, which works to recognize those in the quality profession who have advocated for exceptional quality at their plant(s).
We invited you to nominate yourself, team members, suppliers you work with, or anyone else you know that has an inspiring story about making a positive impact on quality in manufacturing. Entries were open to all, and could be anything from a single project, to driving a plant-wide turnaround. In March we launched requested for nominees and we received over 20 submissions, which we narrowed down to the top 12 with three categories. We then opened it up to voting, and with over 1,000 votes we have our winners!
Nominees, finalists, and winners helped:
Our winners are:
Ambassador : Deborah Klafter of Okamoto Sandusky
Manufacturing LLC
The Ambassador winner took the reigns of implementing a strong culture of quality at their plant. Below is Deborah's nominating submission:
Deb has developed awareness at our company for quality. She strives to improve our corrective actions and is developing our quality department into a productive continuous improvement team. I have witnessed a dramatic difference in our company, as to her involvement in creating an effective manufacturing organization. She has implemented QMS tools that were neglected previously.
Influencer : Sheronda Jeffries of Cisco
The Influencer winner dedicate their lives to training, educating, and influencing quality on a global scale. Below is Sheaonda's nominating submission:
Sheronda works in a global capacity for Cisco wherein she influences quality at the plant and contract manufacturer level in all she does. Moreover, through her work on global and national committees for Accreditation Bodies and international standards, she has had a profound voice into the standards, and certification to those standards, that affect plants all over the world. She takes that responsibility seriously and draws on over 30 years of experience as a quality engineer, CB auditor, consultant, global industry committee member / liaison, and corporate employee. What follows is a bio that explains much of the above: Sheronda is an engaged industry advocate. As a Technical Leader with Cisco, her impact upon quality is not only within Cisco but also globally. As Cisco’s representative, Sheronda participates at TIA/QuEST Forum. Sheronda represents TIA/QuEST Forum at the IAF, where she serves as the IAF Liaison to ISO/TC 176, was elected current IAF Director representing End-users and Industry and was elected the IAF User Advisory Committee (UAC) Chair. Sheronda has encouraged other industry representatives to join and engage with the IAF and under her leadership, the UAC has grown to 15 members, with 3 new association members joining after the April 2017 meeting. Sheronda has increased the influence of end-users and industry within the IAF. As a direct result of her efforts, a key resolution was approved at the IAF 31st General Assembly in Vancouver, Canada in October 2017.
Catalyst : Thomas Sholty of Girtz Industries
The Catalyst winner is a 'catalysts for change' within their company by starting programs, implementing change, and creating real results. Below is Thomas' nominating submission:
Thomas has many roles and responsibilities here at Girtz Industries. His leadership in the area of Quality is outstanding. Tom was instrumental in getting our company registered to ISO 9001:2015. We were the 1st company in our area to obtain this certification. Tom gave great effort and leadership during the certification process. In 2017, our Warranty rate was .26% of sales dollars and Nonconformance rate was .89% of sales dollars. These were record lows for our company. Tom is also an active member ASQ Local # 0917 Lafayette chapter with a leadership role as the Vice President. As with most leaders, Tom is a life-long learner. Most recently, our company was named in Quality Magazine’s 2018 Quality Leadership 100 list. There were a few other companies listed from the state of Indiana. Girtz Industries was awarded the 2nd highest listing among those in the state. This is due, in large part, to Thomas Sholty’s leadership. He is a Champion of Quality.
We hope that you'll join us and our Champions for Quality award winners at our Beacon User Summit! #ChampionsWanted!
