66 | The Fisher Story
1987 Acquired EXAC Corporation, a flowmeter
manufacturer in California.
Project Wildcat becomes the Remote Automation
Systems (RAS) group.
The first Remote
Operations
Controller (ROC) is
introduced.
North America sales meeting
utilizes the theme
“The Competitive Edge.”
5,000 people attend the
Zero Defects Day family
celebration in Marshalltown.
Austin celebrates first Zero
Defects Day.
Control valve
diagnostics, Type
3660 positioner
and Type 3661
positioner are
introduced.
Visor with “Q” for
quality logo
438 McKinney plant employees attend a Zero
Defects Day celebration, 1986
A Quality Culture
B
ill Fisher was fond of saying
“Quality people, quality
products and quality profits.”
That philosophy became a
guiding principle of Fisher
management.
In the 1980s amid industry
restructuring and increased
global competition, Fisher
Controls took a hard look at its
processes and performance.
Doing business in 47 different
countries was not easy. The
company needed to be sensitive
to the local marketplace, but at
the same time, develop and
share a common, global vision.
Then-president Jim
Teegarden investigated and
introduced a quality
improvement process (QIP) that
was designed to improve
consistency, efficiency and
conformance to requirements.
The quality improvement
process was based on seven
principles that defined a
company’s values: leadership;
information; strategic planning;
resource utilization; quality
assurance of products and
services; results; and customer
satisfaction. Fisher Controls set
out to measure its performance
in these areas, identify and
implement improvements and
establish quality partnership
alliances with key customers.
Jim Teegarden led
Fisher-Marshalltown employees
through the QIP training and
implementation. Subsequent