latha kalpala

Responsible for managing global quality for Health and Home Division that covers over 10 distinct consumer product categories from concept design to product end of life. Monitor key deliverables through each of the NPD phases to ensure that critical to quality activities are effective and product KPIs are met at each stage. Strong advocate for innovation and voice of consumer during NPD, improving product quality by focusing on proactive KPIs, critical APQP processes including design reviews, DFMEAs, component and supplier selection, design qualification, poke yoke, process capability etc for effectively building quality into the product vs. inspecting it in later. Lead supplier performance reviews and quality initiatives through training and effective use of tools like PPAP, 8D, kaizen, robust process controls that minimize variation, leveraging lessons learned and actionable cost of quality data to drive continuous improvements.

Mentor NPD teams with QFD analysis, design reviews, DFMEA to mitigate risk and drive development of robust designs that deliver high quality, value and are quick time to market. Ensure lessons learned are transferred and incorporated into new designs. Perform Cost of Poor Quality analysis and drive improvement projects to implement corrective actions to address known issues that impact the financial bottom line. Develop systems and tools to enable focused drill down into issues and drive quality improvements Establish and track metrics that are key to success of the business Measure and monitor product performance trends (Return rates, customer calls, time to failure, field returns analysis), process performance (CpK, first pass yields, DPPM etc.) to drive product quality improvements.

Manage and lead teams to drive product quality objectives from concept phase of new product development to product end of life. Lead QFD, VOC analysis and use of Six Sigma tools during NPD to ensure customer requirements are effectively incorporated into product design. Collaborate with Engineering and Marketing to translate customer needs into product requirements. Review field returns and perform lessons learned analysis using legacy products as the baseline. Lead teams to perform DFMEAs with engineering to identify potential failure modes, product safety and DFM issues to mitigate risk and drive development of robust mistake proof designs and processes. Key areas of focus were to ensure critical to customer needs are met, address lessons learned from legacy products, develop robust designs that are intuitive, easy for consumers to use and manufacture and drive continuous improvement initiatives to reduce defect drivers.

* Develop the quality budget, field failure rate prediction, identify known field failure issues on similar legacy products and re-design opportunities for engineering and product development teams to focus on for improving product quality. * Develop control plans and FMEA, coordinated cross functional assessment of critical components, product and process risks, test plans, mistake proofing of processes etc. * Participate in critical design, reliability and launch readiness reviews. * Active participation in design proto and pilot builds, perform build results analysis, follow through on corrective actions for identified opportunities for improvement. * Develop product audit and test plan for manufacturing plants to ensure all functional, cosmetic, regulatory and customer quality requirements are met consistently. * Closely monitor product launch issues from customer service calls, failure analysis of initial returns and drive issues to quick resolution in production. * Lead six sigma projects to drive process and / or product improvements.