A Passion for Centralizing and Improving Quality Systems Across the Globe
Kenny Woods holds a B.S. in Mechanical Polymer Engineering from the University of Akron, and an MBA from Kent State. He began his career at Bridgestone Firestone, followed by Yokohama Industries Americas, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and ultimately joined Gulf Engineered Rubber and Plastics in 2017.
Woods is passionate about customer satisfaction and serves clients by constantly looking for ways to improve quality, reduce costs, and increase speed to market. He guides and supports a quality culture at Gulf by focusing on continuous process improvements.
When he joined Gulf, the company was using a paper and premises-based quality management system (QMS), and one of his goals as Director of Quality was to move the company to a modern, cloud-based EQMS. In 2021, ComplianceQuest was brought on board to assist in the transition to a fully-automated quality management system. “I wanted to centralize our QMS to an easily accessible platform so I could improve quality at our global manufacturing locations.”
Since the implementation was completed, there has been greater team engagement in the new system. “In the past, if a salesman needed information about a particular product, they either couldn’t access it remotely or couldn’t find what they needed,” said Woods. “They would send me an email request and I’d provide the information as soon as possible, but this wasted valuable time and resources.”
Proud of the work they’ve completed, Woods believes much of their success was due to engaging with his team up-front. “It’s important to engage everyone when the system is being set up, even if they’re not rooted in the EQMS. This allows you to configure things in a way that benefits all who will use it.”
Today, Woods has more time to focus on products and process improvements because data is readily available. He is thrilled with the new solution and the impact it will make on Gulf Rubber’s ability to pivot quickly and develop new products.
