Caramon Ives
I was brought in to help with the OneQMS project, which became my gateway to understanding our operations. Today, I actively shape our global quality systems and collaborate with teams around the world to ensure we deliver cutting-edge innovation to our customers. As a Quality Engineer at Trelleborg Medical Solutions, I am proud to have grown within such a dynamic and truly global company.
What is the most rewarding part of your career so far?
The most rewarding part of my time with Trelleborg is my interactions with people. We make some really great products in really incredible ways, but at the end of it is a person. Knowing that my work helps a customer find a solution that ultimately benefits a patient feels wonderful. Our customers expect a lot from us, and we work as a unified team to make it happen. We collaborate within our site, across Trelleborg Medical Solutions and alongside our customers.
How has your role developed over time?
I started as a technician helping to implement our quality processes at the Menomonie, Wisconsin site. Shortly after that, I became a quality engineer. This role shift meant I moved from learning about our processes to actively creating and executing them. As I spend more time here, I also help drive global procedures through platforms like Dot Compliance, JDE and 1factory. I find it exciting to see how my career contributes directly to our worldwide impact.
Can you share a specific project that makes you proud?
I enjoy being on the receiving end of audits. Audits give us a chance to showcase our system and our processes. Through collaboration, the entire team gets to tell the story of how we work as a facility and as a global company. We go through records to show how much the team accomplished over the year and how we reinvented ourselves to build a more robust system. Everyone involved performs at their best, from the auditor to those pulling up the records. We know it is time to give our best effort, recognizing that sharing the truth and the context behind it is crucial for a successful future.
What makes the culture at Trelleborg special?
Our teams work exceptionally well together because they are highly interconnected. In practice, the corporate structure listens to the local teams, unifying everyone to learn best practices and ensure compliance. At the local level, we fine-tune things under actual production conditions. We then cycle our questions and feedback back to the global teams. We implement procedures, discover improvements and share feedback across all locations to update those procedures continuously.
What opportunities have you discovered for your own development?
There is never a shortage of projects moving through the pipeline. When you sit on the front end and either guide a project's development or test its practical application before full implementation, you truly expand your understanding of how people will use a system. Helping other locations also shows me how different manufacturing practices offer unique strengths. This keeps my approach flexible and focused, as I can see exactly how changes fix problems and cascade through a facility.
