1. Luxury Lighting Manufacturer RMA and Production Process Area Project
Project Sponsor: President/CEO
Project Leader: Steve Lind Project Team: TBD
Project Deadline: 31 December 2012
Issue Statement:
The Returned Material Authorization (RMA) process is not repeatable or timely. To fix this
process the flow of material through the Production Dept. and information flow throughout
the process will be reviewed for improvement. The Production Dept. is responsible for
converting incoming material into saleable material that is returned to inventory or is
scrapped. The items coming into the Dept. may be from conversion requests from either
Visual Comfort (VC) request or Supplier error, Customer requested modifications, rewiring for
EC or other requirements or RMA material. A solution to the RMA and Production flow process
should maximize efficiency and minimize expense.
Goals of the Project:
1. RMA response time to the Customer will be within 48 hours and include the terms for
paying for freight.
2. RMA disposition by the Production Dept. will be within 48 hours of receipt of material,
including response to the Customer and rework. A plan of action for procurement of
missing replacement parts will be included in the disposition and the final disposition
will be within 60 days.
3. A communication and corrective action tracking tool will be implemented to provide
Supplier feedback and drive corrective action.
4. All other production work orders will be completed within 72 hours of all material
availability and PDO issued.
5. Production work on hold for parts or design work required will be completed within 60
days.
6. Current quality issues that drive RMAs and production work will be identified and an
approved plan of action put in place to resolve the majority of causes.
Results:
1. RMA response time consistently executed in under 48 hours with RMA volume
increasing related to shipment volume increase.
2. Parts ordering process for repair of defective returned and stock material developed
and linked to the RMA database.
3. RMA database developed in Access and linked to CRM, WMS and ERP systems.

2. 4. Quality feedback on internally discovered defects and Customer returned defectives
implemented.
5. Dashboard for all Production Dept. metrics developed and consistently executed.
6. Monthly meetings held with Chinese Suppliers to review all defects and drive
corrective actions.