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Things to Consider when Implementing a QMS System

Chirag Panjwani on June 3, 2022

QMS implementation

Manufacturing companies use Quality Management Systems to identify faults in their processes and fix them by optimizing and standardizing them. This blog will guide you in comprehending the concept of quality management as well as the important things to consider for the implementation of QMS system.

Table of Contents:

  • Overview
  • Defining Quality Management System
  • Result of a successful QMS implementation
  • Things to consider when implementing a QMS System
  • Summarizing thoughts

Overview

Businesses all around the globe are mounting their confidence in QMS systems to produce high-end quality products.  They have recognized the need for an inclusive QMS software and are deploying it with the objective of enhancing the quality of their business processes, staying compliant with the stringent rules, and satisfying the customer demands. They, these days, are proactively assessing and investing in QMS solutions to ensure that quality standards are maintained at every stage of the product lifecycle.

Defining Quality Management System –

Before diving into the subject, here’ a quick brush-up on what a QMS essentially is-

Quality Management System (QMS) is a system that documents processes, procedures, and responsibilities for achieving quality policies and objectives. A QMS helps coordinate and direct an organization’s quality-related  activities to meet customer and regulatory requirements and improve its effectiveness and efficiency on a continuous basis. Quality control systems are used by businesses to assess the quality of all factors involved in manufacturing and to ensure that the products or services meet their technical standards.

The implementation of a QMS system results in process improvement and standardization, as well as ensuring product and service quality.

QMS overview

Why a QMS implementation?

  • Achieves organizational goals.
  • Reduces costly errors.
  • Improves customer satisfaction.
  • Improves documentation.
  • Identifies issues and rectifies them.
  • Creates a culture of quality.
  • Better internal communications.
  • Consistent products quality.
  • Improves compliance.

Things to consider when implementing a QMS System –

Implementing a quality management system is not child’s play. It requires a huge amount of effort to put in. Companies need to take inputs from their staff members at all levels, right from the top management (the decision-maker) to the lower management. Once everyone gets on the same page, the aforementioned step should be followed for a QMS Implementation in manufacturing:

Need Analysis:  A thorough analysis or an internal audit should be conducted. Companies should gather all the key business requirements and determine the software’s true need. They should calculate the anticipated risks and break down the important areas that will give significant consumer satisfaction. It will give businesses a good understanding of where the current procedures are lagging and what the new system will do.

Planning: Make a list of the gaps in the current processes based on the analysis of the quality management processes. It will enable companies to go on to the next step of gathering resources and establishing an effective implementation strategy. Divide the project into sub projects and assign a deadline for each. Put up a team that monitors if the implementation progress takes place in the specified time frames or not. Any delays should be brought to the notice of top management and should be accounted for.

Bringing team & stakeholders on the same page: Ensure that all the employees from the top to the bottom are involved in the project. They should know about the new system. Furthermore, all stakeholders should be trained on using the new system.

Teamwork: Form a team to deal with the issues related to the software. It should be composed of people from several departments, with someone in charge, ideally from the quality or IT departments.

Selecting the system: Select the appropriate solution after articulating the needs, and search for key business-critical variables. Know about frequent updates, vendor support in terms of training and maintenance, etc.

Deployment phase: Deploy the system and validate that it is compatible with all existing business systems and that it has been configured to meet specific needs. Collecting and migrating existing data to the software’s database is also done at this stage.

Control & Measure: Set some benchmarks for evaluating the new system’s performance. Define the procedures for controlling, measuring, and monitoring outputs to verify that they satisfy quality standards.

Review process for continuous improvement: Schedule product or process audits to ensure that policies and requirements are met. Companies should continue to audit and assess the procedures on a regular basis to ensure that they are evolving.

Summarizing thoughts:

By following the steps mentioned above, businesses can implement an effective QMS system. Contact us to know about an expert partner who can assist you with the implementation of quality management system in manufacturing. Our in-house quality experts at QualityPro will be pleased to help you.

What is Document Management System (DMS)?

Chirag Panjwani on June 1, 2022

Document Management System

Do you know what all companies have in common? It doesn’t matter if it’s the IT industry, healthcare, manufacturing, automobiles, cosmetics, finance, or any other industry, they all rely heavily on documentation.

Documents are the foundation of any company. Documents play a critical part in the smooth operations and ultimate success of it.

There isn’t a single business on the planet that can get through a day without reading and sharing papers. This comprises of, among other things, marketing brochures, project proposals, technical documentation, training materials, etc.

Yep. Documents in the workplace are essential!

The difficulty is that the more documents we create and rely on for work, the more important it is to have processes in place to manage them across the organization. And, a Document Management System can be a best bet for this.

But, first thing first-

What is actually a Document Management System or DMS?

As the name implies, a Document Management System (DMS) is a system or software that makes it easier to create, store, manage, index, protect, and retrieve digital documents. Although the majority of Document Management Solutions store all of your digital documents on the cloud, they are much more. In a true sense, it is a framework that allows vital information to flow freely throughout a company.

A competent Document Management System may help you organize all of your files and data in one place, maintain track of all of your key papers, increase accuracy, and enable 24/7 access to documents from anywhere in the globe. As a result, using it allows you to stay ahead of the competition by providing all of the information your staff requires to complete their tasks effectively.

What’s more? Document Management System is totally off the charts!

Apart from helping make all of the tasks associated with document management easier, faster, and more efficient, DMS offers numerous reasons why a company should use it right away. Here are a few examples:

1. Reduced Storage Space

Any business can benefit from a software-based DMS that eliminates the need for file cabinets, boxes, and storage bins, freeing up valuable office space.

2. Enhanced Security

To protect sensitive data, document security is crucial for enterprises of all sizes. Access to sensitive information can be regulated at the folder level for different groups or individuals. In addition, a DMS keeps a track of who has viewed a document, when it was accessed, and how it was altered. Documents that are managed are highly traceable and can be labelled to trigger automated alerts.

3. Improved Regulatory Compliance

Meeting certain compliance standards manually in document management can be rather complicated. At the same time, non-compliance can result in fines, license suspension, and, in some situations, criminal liability. Sarbanes Oxley and HIPAA, for example, are federal and state regulations that require tight security and privacy guidelines. However, non-compliance is less likely with a Document Management Solutions.

4. Easier Document Retrieval

Finding and recovering papers can take a long time, and we all know that is ultimately taking money out of our pockets. The average office worker spends 30 to 40% [Source: Forbes] of their day looking for printed documents, while businesses spend $20 on labor to file a document, $120 on labor to find a misfiled document, and $220 on labor to reproduce a lost document [Source: Konica Minolta]. These excessive document management expenditures chew into a company’s budget, hinder productivity, and limit its potential for growth.

A Document Management System can be a time-saving and powerful tool. A DMS can retrieve files based on a word or phrase in a document, depending on the solution used.  It also allows users to access documents from afar. Documents can be accessed from anywhere at any time as long as there is an internet connection.

5. Better Collaboration

Acting as a central repository, an advanced Document Management System Software substantially simplifies the ability to access documents and collaborate. It gives more visibility into business processes and allows for improved workflow monitoring. 

6. Better Disaster Recovery and Backup

A data backup and disaster recovery plan are included in a well-designed Document Management Solution. Documents are protected from fire, flood, and other disasters with digital archiving as a back-up. Documents are also easily traceable and may be tracked using a variety of criteria using a DMS. Thus, it lessens the possibility of papers being misfiled or lost after they have been seen.

7. Productivity Improvements

With all the data and documents just a click away, the team can put all its efforts in just working rendering higher productivity, every single day. Staff morale and client satisfaction can both benefit from faster and more efficient document retrieval.

So, what are you waiting for? Turn over a new leaf with QualityPro’s DMS and stop putting your files into a closet no less than a well.

QualityPro’s Enterprise Document Management System is a feature-rich desktop and DMS that allows you to save, create, track, retrieve, and manage all types of documents. It supports the complete document lifecycle for an organization, from content generation through distribution to archiving and, finally, secure content retention and deletion.

In a nutshell, it unifies your document management requirements into a single, cost-effective system. Furthermore, it is simple to use, has a simple interface, and provides a high level of flexibility, allowing businesses of all types and sizes to use it to suit their document management needs.

As a result,  Cloud-based Document Management System is getting popular in businesses that want to become paperless. Want to be in same boat? If yes, ask for a demo now!

Benefits of a Functioning Nonconformance Management System

Chirag Panjwani on May 5, 2022

non conformance management

“You are into a business of manufacturing glass studs of size 50 mm. But an inspection revealed that a particular lot of the studs measures 45 mm.”

“A product you recently delivered to a customer didn’t match their specification, and was of a different color. More so, it was delivered to a wrong address initially. You came to know this when a customer complaint was received in this regard.”

“Crucial details such as temperature information, and the supervisor’s signature, are missing from your batch records.”

“A reduction of quality at your plant floor has been experienced due to a certain manufacturing procedure.”

What do you make of these statements?

These are all examples of nonconformance, or nonconformity, which essentially means that something has went wrong somewhere; either in a product, a service, a process, material from a supplier, or in the management system itself. It basically is an activity or a process which doesn’t fulfil its intended purpose.

A nonconformance in quality management generally occurs when something some way does not meet the specifications or requirements that could be defined either by a customer, or a regulatory body, or by an organization. It is ubiquitous, can happen anywhere, and at any time in a business, and is usually identified externally by customers, or auditors, and internally by testers or staff from other departments.

Any nonconformity or nonconformance in quality management can result in bad customer experiences, rework, product recall, and may even impact the organizations in terms of cost, reputation, productivity, and efficiency. It is important for the businesses to identify and address them in a timely manner through corrective actions and preventive actions (CAPA).

Non-Conformance In Terms of ISO

The international standard that highlights the requirements for a quality management system (QMS), ISO 9001 ensures that a business organization consistently offers quality products and operates appropriately under its regulatory measures. And if it doesn’t operate up to the set standards, it’s called non-conformance.

ISO 9001 defines nonconformance in quality management as the failure to meet one or more of the existing requirements. When an organization goes outside the regulatory boundaries, it must control and fix the problem before continuing business. Failure to do so may lead to the company’s downfall, as these standards mean everyone needs to play by the same rules.

Satisfying their customer base is one of the biggest objectives of organizations, and the ISO 9001 standards have been put in place to ensure that this objective is met, along with the other objectives such as quality and safety for the employees as well as the customers, high employee morale, etc. If not for these standards, the organizations wouldn’t be held responsible for their business practices and actions.

Nonconformance Management System- The Secret to Efficiently Managing Non-conformances

No wonder, managing the nonconformances is of great significance for business organizations; especially the ones that put great value on quality of their products, services, and processes. For all such organizations, nonconformance management is a very handy quality tool which can quickly determine systemic issues within the business.

Nonconformance management is fundamentally the process whereby the business organizations manage nonconformances in a way that they are promptly identified, properly documented, thoroughly investigated, and appropriately segregated and dispositioned on the basis of applicable regulations and standards.

And for effective as well as efficient nonconformance management, organizations rely on a nonconformance management software. The investment made in a nonconformance management system is a massive decision, and can potentially make or break an organization. That’s why the businesses need to invest in the right software, which can offer a number of benefits.

Here’s What a Functioning Nonconformance Management System Can Offer

Nonconformance in quality management requires a robust tool that provides features and support to identify and manage product conformance. The features mentioned here include the steps required to recognize and resolve the nonconformance issues from all sources, including identification, remedial action, root cause determination, CAPA, etc.

A functioning nonconformance management system allows users to:

  • Identify and register any nonconforming materials, and keep a track of them.
  • Set processes, due dates, escalations, and even notifications to ensure the materials are managed quickly and in a timely way.
  • Link deviations to any nonconformance records, and initiate corrective actions.
  • Create a history of risk within a product, process, supplier, or production line.
  • Close the loop on nonconformances by initiating change management, so that improvements can be made organization-wide, and risk of recurrence could be mitigated.

Investing in the right nonconformance management system has immense benefits for the businesses. Check out the benefits of an effective, and functioning nonconformance management software:

  • It helps businesses streamline their conformance processes
  • It allows businesses Identify any materials that don’t conform, and also the areas that require action
  • It helps avoid the risks of escalated nonconformance costs, including the internal/external failure costs, regulatory fines, etc., and also in terms of reputation and resources
  • It improves quality processes by facilitating efficient use of resources
  • It allows businesses to easily see where their procedures aren’t working as planned, thus giving them an opportunity to address this and improve the effectiveness of their system
  • It provides the businesses with an opportunity to drive continual improvement by consistently addressing their nonconformity.
  • It brings down the quality costs substantially
  • It facilitates stronger collaboration and a better risk response

To sum up

Nonconformances, as we mentioned above, are ubiquitous. In addition, they are inevitable, and can adversely affect the businesses in more ways than one. It is essential for businesses to identify and address them in the most effective as well as timely manner. For the same, they turn to a nonconformance management software.

A functioning nonconformance management system could be a standalone solution, or a part of a QMS software. Regardless of how it comes into the system, it should address risks and allow the internal/external stakeholders to browse reminders, conformance notifications, and the escalated issues related to quality.

It makes sense for businesses to invest in a fit-for-purpose nonconformance management system that delivers these benefits. If your existing system is not good enough, it would be prudent to explore other options such as QualityPro, a best-in-class QMS with a potent nonconformance management functionality, to quickly see these benefits. Write to us for more information, or to schedule a demo.

What is Quality Management System in Manufacturing Industry?

Chirag Panjwani on April 10, 2022

Manufacturing businesses encounter various challenges, stemming from internal and external factors, often impeding operational control. A robust Quality Management System (QMS) proves instrumental in tackling these challenges, providing enhanced control over every manufacturing process. This blog elucidates how a QMS serves as a solution.

QMS for manufacturing industry

Overview 

In the manufacturing sector, businesses share the common goals of cost reduction, waste minimization, and maximizing profitability. While some achieve these objectives, others fall short. Ever wondered what sets them apart?

Among many factors, one crucial determinant is the presence of a quality culture. Successful manufacturing businesses understand that quality management plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals. Also, read: Difference between Quality Management and Quality Control.

Quality management holds particular significance in manufacturing due to heavy regulations and high stakes involving costs and brand reputation. With various challenges emerging from internal and external factors, the need for effective quality management is evident.

Manufacturing businesses require a quality management software tailored to their needs. Such software fosters a culture of quality within operations, aiding in achieving business objectives. But before diving deeper, let’s establish the basics of QMS. Also, read: What is the difference between Quality Control and Quality Assurance?

What is a Manufacturing Quality Management System?

A Quality Management System in manufacturing aligns with the broader concept of quality management. Essentially, quality management refers to the methodology enabling businesses to design and deliver products or services that meet specific quality and compliance standards. It ensures the efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of quality processes.

A QMS functions as a tool that harmonizes people, processes, and documentation within an organization. Serving as quality control software for manufacturing, it fosters interaction among these elements.

Primarily, a QMS in manufacturing involves establishing and implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs), business policies, corrective processes, and functions. Its core purpose is to consistently meet customer quality expectations.

At its core, a QMS ensures that products, processes, or systems consistently perform according to their intended functions without deviation.

What are the Challenges in Manufacturing Industry?

The manufacturing industry grapples with numerous challenges including heightened competition, globalizing operations, reducing cycle times for product launches, and maintaining top-notch quality standards. However, among these, the most critical hurdles are meeting regulatory requirements, managing costs, and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Remaining compliant poses a significant challenge for manufacturing businesses. They require a robust system to ensure their products and manufacturing processes comply with regulatory standards.

Cost management is equally daunting, as overlooking quality control can result in substantial losses due to increased manufacturing faults.

Additionally, enhancing customer satisfaction is a perpetual challenge. Businesses must continually improve their products, services, processes, and organizational culture to deliver the highest quality products and services, ensuring customer satisfaction.

In essence, addressing quality-related challenges in manufacturing necessitates effective coordination among people, processes, and technology. This is precisely the purpose of a QMS software!”

QMS system

Importance of Quality Management Software for Manufacturing

A quality management software tailored for manufacturing plays a pivotal role in addressing the array of challenges mentioned earlier. By offering a streamlined, paperless system, a QMS enables centralized monitoring and management of quality across operations. Consequently, it aids in faster and more efficient production of higher-quality products right from the initial stages.

A robust manufacturing industry quality management software is purpose-built to support continuous improvement and compliance initiatives. Aligned with guidelines like the Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) and other regulatory standards, it ensures the manufacturing of high-quality, risk-free products.

Furthermore, a quality software for manufacturing empowers businesses to exert proper control over manufacturing processes and costs. Its functionalities encompass:

  • Document Management: Centralizes and manages documents related to quality procedures, policies, and standards.
  • Change Management: Handles controlled changes to processes, documents, or systems while ensuring compliance and minimizing disruptions.
  • Nonconformance Management: Tracks and manages instances where a product, service, or process doesn’t meet specified requirements or standards.
  • CAPA Management (Corrective and Preventive Action): Addresses deviations and takes corrective measures to rectify issues while also implementing preventive actions to avoid recurrence.
  • Audit Management: Facilitates planning, scheduling, conducting, and tracking of internal and external audits to ensure compliance.
  • Training Management: Manages employee training related to quality procedures and standards.
  • Complaint Management: Handles customer complaints, tracks resolution processes, and identifies opportunities for improvement.
  • Risk Management: Identifies, assesses, and mitigates risks associated with quality processes, products, or systems.
  • Compliance Management: Ensures adherence to relevant regulatory requirements, industry standards, and internal policies.

These functionalities drive substantial value for manufacturing businesses, ensuring efficient operations and adherence to quality and compliance standards.

Advantages of Using Manufacturing QMS Software

The introduction of a manufacturing industry quality management software to any manufacturing business helps them leverage numerous benefits. Some of them are:

  1. Better Control: Enables comprehensive oversight and control across operations.
  2. Compliance with Industry Standards: Ensures adherence to industry-specific regulations and quality standards.
  3. Increased Production: Enhances efficiency, leading to improved production rates.
  4. Lesser Rework: Reduces the need for reworking or correcting errors, saving time and resources.
  5. Highest Quality Standards: Enables consistent delivery of high-quality goods.
  6. Cost Reduction: Minimizes costs linked to low-quality products or processes.
  7. Operational Excellence: Drives efficiency and effectiveness in operations.
  8. Exceed Customer Expectations: Improves customer satisfaction by meeting or exceeding their expectations.
  9. Continuous Improvement: Facilitates ongoing enhancements to product quality and processes.
  10. Improved Internal Communication: Fosters better communication and collaboration within the organization.

These advantages collectively empower manufacturing businesses to elevate their quality standards, streamline operations, and enhance overall performance.

Closing thoughts

A quality management software tailored for manufacturing encompasses a multitude of functionalities, addressing quality challenges while offering a plethora of benefits. This empowers manufacturing businesses to stay competitive and excel in their industry.

Among these solutions, QualityPro stands out as an exceptional QMS software. Its comprehensive features and value make it indispensable for any manufacturing business. Interested in exploring its capabilities?

Reach out to our in-house quality specialists today to schedule a demo or engage in a no-obligation discussion.

Importance of Total Quality Management in Production and Operations Management

Chirag Panjwani on April 1, 2022

importance of total quality management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is significant for all areas of a manufacturing business, including production and operations management. Whether it is about quality control in production management, or about any other functionality, TQM approach has proved its worth. Let’s find out how.

Overview

The manufacturing businesses around the globe pay great emphasis on quality. Or let us rephrase it a bit- excellent manufacturing businesses pay great emphasis on quality in business processes, all their operations, and basically pretty much in everything they do.

Such businesses, which include best of the best from different industrial sectors, allow a mere 3.4 defects per million parts in manufactured goods. In simple words, the best businesses allow just 3.4 mistakes per million activities in a service operation, making their processes 99.99966 percent perfect.

This is known as the six sigma approach to TQM. But this isn’t about the six sigma approach. This is about TQM, and its importance in production and operations management. So let’s get started with some important definitions first. Also Read: What is the difference between Quality Control and Quality Assurance?

First things first, what’s TQM?

Total Quality Management is a manufacturing philosophy which allows organizations to focus on improving the quality of their products or services at every level, the efficiency of their operations, and producing higher quality products with few defects.

With concepts such as customer satisfaction and continuous improvement at its core, TQM approach encourages all members of a manufacturing organization to participate in activities focused at continual improvement of the products, services, business processes, and the organizational culture, with the emphasis on delivering defect-free products/services to the customers.

This approach relies on the use of different tools such as strategy, data, and effective communication, so that its ultimate objective of doing things right the very first time, every time, so that the cost, time, and other resources required to correct poor work, and failed product/service implementations, can be saved, is achieved. Also Read: Benefits of a Functioning Nonconformance Management System

Production and operations management: An overview

Production management in a manufacturing organization is essentially about planning, scheduling, controlling, and executing all the activities related to the creation of products and services. These activities involve turning the inputs like raw materials and capital into outputs like products/services.

Managing this entire process of converting the inputs into final output is the role of operations management. Or in simpler words, operations management is all about managing production and delivery of products/services, and production management is a part of it.

At the core of both these approaches is customer satisfaction, which is an essential part of effective production and operations. Over the years, the manufacturing function has become more outwardly focused, as against the inwardly approach of the yesteryears. What it has done is that the focus on quality has now become a central component of effective production and operations management.

QMS software for production and operations

What’s Total Quality Management in production and operations management?

TQM helps all the customer-focused manufacturing organizations create an environment of continuous improvement through total involvement of all their internal resources, and consistently deliver high-quality output that delights customers.

All the organizations depend on their customers, who actually determine the level of quality, which is nothing but the fitness of a product or service for meeting or exceeding its intended use as required by them. As a matter of fact, quality begins with the design of a product in accordance with the customer specification.

With customers becoming more and more demanding in terms of expecting greater durability, reliability, and quality at the most economic price, manufacturers are forced to strictly follow quality procedures throughout, and provide a product or service at the most economical costs, thus ensuring full customer satisfaction. This can be achieved through TQM.

By applying the TQM approach, manufacturers get to understand their customers’ current and future needs, and work towards exceeding their expectations by continually improving the quality, processes, etc., which eventually results in increased customer loyalty, and revenue.

Importance of Total Quality Management in production and operations management

  • TQM ensures superior quality products and services. The single-most important objective of TQM is to deliver a high quality product, which not just meets the customers’ expectations, but exceeds it, delivering customer satisfaction. With it, the manufacturing organizations can check an important box in production and operations management, i.e., delivering customer satisfaction, and survive the cut-throat competition.
  • TQM is essential for customer loyalty. All the successful businesses thrive not only on new customers, but also on the loyal set of customers they are able to retain in the long run. And how do they retain them? The answer is by understanding their needs, meeting them, and also taking their constant feedback to understand the change in their preferences. Here the TQM approach comes in handy, ensuring high quality products/services by eliminating any chances of defects as well as incorporating continuous improvements in the system. This in turn leads to loyal and satisfied customers who bring ten new customers along with them. Tools such as a quality management system (QMS) can help organizations design and create products of exactly the customers’ choice.
  • TQM ensures increased revenues and higher productivity. With greater customer loyalty, comes repeat business, which in turn increases cash flow, creates better business opportunities, and also results in better pay for the employees, thus satisfying them and helping create a healthy workplace. In a nutshell, TQM processes make an organization a better place to work, and enable their employees to deliver more using less resources.

Benefits of Total Quality Management in production and operations management

  • Reduced product defects and product recalls 
  • Reduced costs in customer support, product replacements, and service 
  • Improved competitive position
  • Adaptability to changing market conditions 
  • Reduced risk in designing new products and processes 
  • Improved image in the market 

Quality management system for the TQM approach

Manufacturing organizations often turn to a TQM software, or a QMS software for the application of the TQM approach to their businesses. With functionalities such as non-conformance (NC) and Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) management, change management, complaint management, training management, and document management at its core, a QMS system can act as a TQM software, and help businesses by improving their quality processes.

It essentially does so by offering a structured platform which drives continuous improvement by capturing all documents, and interactions, related to quality improvement, by structuring the workflows and providing alerts and notifications to bridge the gaps between organizational levels and teams, and bringing everyone on the same page by providing with access to the information they require.

How we can help

If you’re interested in finding out more about how a TQM software, or a QMS software, can play a significant role in streamlining the production as well as operations management functions in your business, then you’re at the right place. Write to our in-house quality experts at QualityPro for scheduling a demo, or simply having a no-obligation discussion.