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# Sample: Cutting customer PPM by two thirds at a Tier-1
- URL: https://redhillsqc.up.railway.app/customer-quality-engineering/sample-cutting-customer-ppm-by-two-thirds/
- Published: 2026-09-09T16:24:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T16:25:00.000Z
- Description: A twelve-month programme that took a Tier-1 from a customer watch list to a preferred supplier rating.
- Author: Daanish
- Tags: Customer Quality Engineering

## Problem

A Tier-1 supplier was running at roughly 900 PPM against a customer target of 300, and had been on a watch list for two quarters. Eight of the top ten complaints were being closed as "operator error", so nothing in the process was changing.

## Approach

We rebuilt the complaint process so that closing a complaint needed evidence instead of someone to blame.

- Every complaint got a containment decision within four hours and a verified root cause within twenty days, or it escalated.
- We reviewed each 8D for whether it identified the escape point as well as the cause point.
- Recurring complaints were grouped by failure mode across part numbers, which surfaced two process problems hidden behind eleven separate reports.

> If the process allowed an operator to make the error, the complaint closes as a process problem.

## Outcome

PPM fell to 280 over twelve months. Complaint closure time dropped from a median of fifty-one days to eighteen. The watch list rating was lifted at the following customer audit.

*This is a sample post. It shows how a Case Study is laid out. Delete it or replace it once there is real material to publish.*