ABF Freight System announced that its service centers in Vancouver, British Columbia; Altoona, Penn.; Laredo, Texas; and Salt Lake City are recipients of the President’s Quality Award, which recognizes service centers most exemplifying the ABF Quality Process, which are considered the “Best of the Best.” Each facility is presented with a plaque that resides permanently at their location and a Quality Cup that resides only as long as a facility maintains the distinction.
“The employees at these four service centers have shown what can be achieved when the principles of the ABF Quality Process are put into practice,” says Wes Kemp, president and chief executive officer of the Fort Smith Ark.-based company. “ABF continues to prosper because of our dedication to serving internal and external customers in a helpful, efficient, innovative and error-free manner. In this context, these four facilities have earned the right to be called the Best of the Best.”
All ABF service centers annually undergo extensive evaluations, including a nomination process, a quality awareness survey, an onsite validation audit and scrutiny by the ABF Quality Implementation Committee. The process gauges resource management, damage/loss prevention, customer satisfaction and other key performance indicators for the previous year.
The ABF Quality Process uses a five-step problem elimination process: 1) define the problem; 2) fix the problem; 3) identify the root cause; 4) take corrective action; 5) evaluate and follow up. The process emphasizes ongoing prevention rather than end-of-line inspection, and stresses that identifying and eliminating the causes of problems improves service and requires no additional expenditure.
