In November 2008, John Cachat quietly exited IQS, the quality management company he founded 20 years earlier. His colleagues issued a brief statement explaining that he had left “to pursue other interests,” which he denied in a statement issued a year later, stating that he did not abandon customers and leave on his own volition, but was terminated.
Now, with his non-compete clause lifted, Cachat is back and trailblazing in the area of quality management.
In November 2009, he started a consulting firm that has morphed into a new business. Silico Corp., announced in February, transitions quality management from software that relies on databases, menus, and screens into an infrastructure that can support the ERP, MES, and PLM applications that are building quality into their own core capabilities.
“The space that was a vacuum 20 years ago is now compressed by other systems trying to have more functionality,” Cachat said in an interview. Silico’s focus is on business process management, not technology. “Here’s the mantra of the new company: People, processes, and then technology,” Cachat said.