Quality Management Systems Software Advantage
With all of the software packages out there today, it is hard to believe that there are any companies who still design their quality systems on paper. I grew up on the manual paper version of a quality management system, back when there was a whole department dedicated to document control and everyone had a three ring binder full of documented procedures on their desk. So here we are today with ISO 9001:2008, AS 9100 C and various other international standards which do not require reams of paper to be compliant. When a company decides to implement a new quality management system, I don’t believe anyone sets out to create the quality system from hell, but all too often that is exactly what happens.
Why put yourself through all of that pain and unnecessary cost? There are so many software solutions available today that make getting and maintaining your certification effortless. As a management representative for a small company in Arizona, I was able to manage the quality system and carry out the responsibilities of a supply chain manager without adding one more person to the company for the sake of our quality system. How you may ask is this possible? The answer is a fully customizable software application that put all of our processes and documentation in one place. This software is SaaS based and therefore it is accessible from anywhere internet access is provided. All of our employees, key customers and suppliers were able to view and make entries as need and management decisions where determined through the analysis of the data collected by the system. What was most impressive about the implementation process was how easy it was to train everyone to use the system.
As I said before there are literally thousands of software applications for quality management system implementation. The range of products goes from supper high upfront and maintenance costs, to low upfront and maintenance costs. Complicated canned systems with little customization possibilities to easy fully customizable systems are also available. If your company is use to complicated and costly to believe you are getting a good product, then that’s the road for you. If on the other hand you are a small to midsize company with limited resources, (People and Finances), you may be interested in the latter. Do your research well and you can find a system that will work for you and actually deliver a cost savings benefit. Some items to consider:
Costs
- Upfront Cost
- Monthly Support Costs: or
- Yearly Support Costs:
- Does your system include Unlimited Users and Storage and support and revisions and new features.
- Education & Safety Costs
- Cost for Additional Modules
Applications
- Communication System
- Document Management
- Reports and Graphs
- Master Calendar
- Work Orders
- User Preferences
- Nonconformance
- Corrective Action
- Customer Feedback
- Preventive Action
- Near Miss
- Customer Supplied Product
- Inspection
- Management Review
- Internal Audits
- Calibration Control
- Quality Objectives
- Supplier Approval and Evaluation
- Competency, Training and Awareness
- Purchasing
- Job Management
- Special requirements
