Meet ISDI's Quality Dream Team: Moresche Bartley and Audrey Looi
Moresche Bartley and Audrey Looi
As we have recently passed our ISO9001 Surveillance Audit – it seems like a good moment to recognise and celebrate our Quality Team.
As a company we recognise the importance of governance in contributing to the company’s sustainability. We acknowledge that all staff are expected to contribute and participate in our ISO Quality System through regular audits and review – but it is important to acknowledge the leadership and guidance that Audrey Looi (Quality Manager) and Moresche Bartley (Quality Engineer) provide, to keep us on track for building a top-quality product and to keep our certifications in place.
Q: So how did you get into the world of Quality Engineering?
Audrey: I graduated with a Bachelor Science degree in Chemistry and in Malaysia, a lot of chemistry graduates go on to work in Quality Control (QC) labs so the first company I joined was Thermoplastic Compound Products Manufacturer. Next, I moved to a semiconductor wafer fab where I worked as a quality engineer. Initially with incoming foundry quality inspection, then I moved to Quality Systems and was put in charge of document control for change management, internal and external quality audits.
Q: We are so lucky we found you with all that relevant experience!
Audrey: It was a challenging time working in the wafer fab, as the corporate team decided to close the wafer fab in Arizona, so they had to transfer all the projects from Arizona over to Malaysia. As a result, the wafer fab in Malaysia was regularly audited by customers. This really helped to build out my audit experience. The auditing process gives you a good opportunity to understand all the processes - incoming, supply chain, production, reliability, etc within a business. Next, I moved on to a more global role as a Customer Quality Engineer and I took care of specific customer accounts for Customer Returns. This gave me the exposure to managing customers directly and built up my problem-solving skills from failure analysis to root cause identification. Working with distribution centres and customer service in Philippines, Singapore and Shanghai I had visibility of the whole supply chain. I was in customer quality for seven years.
Q: How did you end up at ISDI?
Audrey: I moved to the UK to do a master’s degree in medical ultrasound as I wanted to do something different. When I finished my course, I started to look for a job and my experience with quality and medical imaging led me to work for ISDI.
Q: Is this a very different experience as ISDI is a much smaller company than a wafer fab?
Audrey: In the companies I previously worked for we all had specific roles whereas at ISDI it is more challenging – there is a lot more to understand and then we need to decide what systems to set up and decide what will fit as the company moves forwards. Basically, we have set up a quality system from the ground up.
Q: Have you enjoyed the experience?
Audrey: Yes, we have a really good team. I enjoy working with production like Jason Morehen (Principle Mechanical Engineer), Will Heeley (Production Manager) and Yannis Stamatis (Senior Test Engineer). We get together to resolve problems – it is the best attitude towards problem solving. We have good relationships with our suppliers as well – this gives us a strong foundation for resolving issues. The customer base is different, we are in a niche industry. In the past, the components I worked on were generic, produced in bulk and we had a lot of competitors. Now what we produce, we ship directly to the applications we have designed and customised products for - so it is more interesting.
Q: Moresche, how did you get into the whole world of quality?
Moresche: From a young age, I've always enjoyed investigating, problem solving, and making things better. So, after university I found a job within product investigations, complaints and product returns. My role was to receive the products, open them up, inspect what might have caused the issues and to report back to the customer about what had happened. That was my first job after university and after that I have stayed within quality. Initially I worked on Abbott Diabetes Glucose Monitors Freestyle Libre. I was working on the actual medical device you put onto the patch to read the information. I dealt with the customer returns and investigated issues caused by water damage or software for example.
Q: What as your degree in?
Moresche: Biomedical Science.
Q: Coming to ISDI must have been a change from Abbot. Could you describe your role at ISDI?
Moresche: Working in Quality here at ISDI we are involved in a lot of the issues with suppliers, customers and production. It is our role is to ensure that all problems are documented, then we do investigations into the root causes of those problems and from that we drive improvement in this process is to reduce the reoccurrence of those issues.
So, we are involved in really a bit of everything, we collaborate a lot with different teams. You really get visibility of everything in the business.
Q: Yes, having spoken to you both, I can now see if I ever want to know what was going on within the company I should come and talk to you and Audrey.
Moresche: Yes, we are customer facing and also work with finance, if it is about customer returns and invoicing. Also we work software engineers work in relation to testing.
Q: Was it a big change coming from a big company like Abbot to a smaller start-up?
Moresche: Yes definitely, I think that ISDI is growing but what comes with a smaller company is that you are involved in a lot of things – which I like. I have been able to develop my skills in the space of around11 months, whereas in a larger company like Abbott I think it would have taken a couple years. The advantage is that you are exposed to a lot of different issues, and you can use it as an opportunity to learn more about what Quality is really all about.
Q: Going forward do you think your role will change?
Moresche: Yes, for example, at the moment my role has transitioned more into data analysis, for example tracking bonding and packaging yield and driving improvement through data analysis statistics which I enjoy. Getting involved in the numbers is very insightful for my manager and enables us to make better informed decisions. I think it is always good to have data to back up decisions and to understand the problems we are facing.
Q: Finally tell us a little bit more about the Surveillance audit we have recently passed?
Audrey: In this audit the auditor does not deep dive into manufacturing but in next year’s audit she will like look into manufacturing records and basically she will look to see if we have the situational management systems in place and then see if we are compliant in our supplier management and supplier control, trainings and change control directions. The auditor will look to see if we have the system in place to manage all these processes. So, the next audit she will look into production – to see if we really have proper process control.
Q: Do we?
Audrey (Laughs): Yes, we do – I have to make sure we do!
ISDI Quality certifications are here: ISDI QUALITY