A quality management strategy requires certain details. Here are a few of the ways ERP can gather that information.
Get the Right Data to Analyze
An effective quality management strategy relies on results and insights culled from good data. While most managers realize this, only 3% of companies collect data that is up to acceptable quality standards. This means that a lot of the quality control happening in factories around the world amounts to little more than guesswork. Before procurement of raw materials even begins, your company should have a quality baseline it is required to meet, and should regularly refer to data to ensure that standard is met.
Data quality and collection is a key area where ERP can help. Using the latest technologies, ERP logs data instantaneously in a user-friendly interface. This saves you the time and trouble of collecting data across various partners, customers, and suppliers, empowering you to instead focus your efforts on growing your business.
The ability to access real-time data is also essential. You wouldn’t base supply orders on market demand from 2015, so why should your quality management strategy be based around old, irrelevant information? ERP ensures that decision-makers have the most up-to-date data at their fingertips.
Ensure Standardization
Standardizing materials, products, and procedures is key to running a successful business and producing a consistent product. Regardless of your industry, most manufacturers have raw or semi-processed materials coming in from an outside source. To ensure everything that passes through your doors is of the same high standard, quality assurance can’t come down to mere trust. ERP automates a system of inspections, allowing you and your managers to create a quality checklist that raw materials must pass before they are approved and sent to the production line. Every step of your supply chain should reach a common set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and ERP will track this information and present it in a user-friendly dashboard.
If any issue does occur, ERP data can help you track the origins of that product batch, sort quality control issues using the information, and take steps to pull remaining product off the shelf. A single ERP solution across your company will break down any silos that exist and ensure all departments and locations are meeting the same standards.
Finally, standardization will also ensure that all workers, past and present, have the right “recipe” to manufacture your products. This legacy is key to maintaining quality over decades.
Be Compliant, Every Time
Quality management and compliance go hand-in-hand. Every industry has its own quality standards that manufacturers adhere to, and many industries face strict regulatory requirements. A robust ERP solution is built with compliance in mind, so meeting the desired benchmarks is not an afterthought — it’s built into the process. If there is ever a problem, you can turn to your ERP solution for the information you need to amend your process.
With ERP, quality assurance becomes an integrated, streamlined part of your company’s operations. Remember that a quality management strategy means the production of a higher quality product and, ultimately, a happier customer down the line.
Addressing the first requirement of every customer – Quality
Quality management includes customer-driven quality, top management leadership and commitment, continuous improvement, fast response, actions based on facts, employee participation and above all a quality management culture. Each part of the company is involved in total quality, operating as a customer or supplier to one another.
Ultimately whatever be the industry in which you’re present or the size, to survive and succeed in the present scenario, it is imperative that you maintain a very high quality at all stages of manufacturing and distribution
Quality Management module in ERP on Cloud addresses:
- Procurement & Subcontract process (for Goods or Services): During the Goods receipt or on completion of Services, the quality parameters and attributes can be captured. This serves as the basis for clearance, usage and supplier payment
- Inventory & Storage: During the storage of materials, a periodic quality check can be done to assess the quality
- Production: During the start of a batch or a new product, or periodically – it would be required to check and record the Quality at different stages based on which action pertaining to re-work, recalibration, tool setting, etc would be undertaken
- Sales & Dispatch: Quality inspection can also be carried out before dispatch of goods
- Project Tasks: Quality check could be done for tasks being executed as part of a project
Some of the specific features pertaining to quality include:
- Facility for In-process Inspection and Quality Clearance
- Ability to define control points based on control factors like Warehouse, Master Recipe, Supplier, Customer, etc
- Ability to define inspection plan for each control point
- Ability to have attribute / non-attribute based (check list) inspection plan
- Facility to define standard operating procedures
- Ability to capture Analysis methods for attributes
- Ability to specify attribute values for each inspection plan
- Ability to override sample result status
- Ability to suggest lot change / item change based on Quality Clearance Feedback
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