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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.

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.

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!”

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:

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

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.

What is the Difference between Quality Control and Quality Assurance?

Chirag Panjwani on March 20, 2022

What do you make of the terms Quality Assurance and Quality Control? Are they two sides of the same coin, or do we unnecessarily mix them up? And if they indeed are different, what points do they differ on, and why is it important to know about those differences? Let’s find out.

Overview

It goes without saying that the most important objective for every organization has to be designing and delivering products as well as services of the highest quality. To help achieve this goal, quality management plays an extremely crucial role. Also Read: Difference between Quality Management and Quality Control

Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA), the two focus areas of this blog, constitute an integral part of quality management. And hence, it becomes essential for every stakeholder to understand what QC and QA are, what their intricacies are, and how the two are different.

It is particularly important to understand the concepts of Quality Control and Quality Assurance, because there is a lot of ambiguity around the two terms, with quite a few people using them interchangeably. Even though the two are aspects of quality management, they are different in their focus. Also Read: What is the difference between Project management and Quality Management?

Through this blog, let’s understand what their definitions are, before proceeding to see the differences between them.

What is Quality Assurance?

The ISO (International Standardization Organization) defines Quality Assurance as, “Part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled.”

Quality Assurance can be defined as a set of activities that are performed to ensure quality in the processes by which organizations develop their products or services in such a way that they satisfy the customer expectations.

Quality Assurance focuses on preventing defects, apart from planning, documenting, and implementing guidelines essential to assure quality output. It also includes monitoring and verifying whether the due processes have been followed, or not.

What is Quality Control?

ISO 9000 describes Quality Control as, “part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements.”

Another crucial component of quality management, Quality Control can be defined as a set of activities that are performed to ensure the quality of the products or services that have been delivered.

That way, it is a strategy that’s being executed when the product has passed the development stage, and has entered into the manufacturing stage. It includes all the activities that are designed to determine the level of quality of delivered products and services.

Being reactive in nature, Quality Control focuses on identifying the defects, and can be performed only after Quality Assurance has been done. It also includes monitoring and verifying whether the project deliverables met the desired quality standards or not.

How are the two different?

Prudent organizations realize that it is important for the success of their different projects that they understand the difference between Quality Control and Quality Assurance. While we saw above what the two concepts mean, let’s take a look at three major differences between the two.

Focus: An important point the two approaches differ on happens to be the focus. Quality Assurance — being proactive in nature — focuses on preventing the defects before they occur, and also on steps to design processes like documenting standard operating procedures (SOPs). It ensures that the processes are followed effectively so that safe products of desired quality are delivered.

On the other hand, Quality Control, which is reactive in nature, identifies defects once they occur. It also ensures that the processes are duly followed to deliver products of highest quality, besides testing the products post production to check whether all the safety measures are met or not.

Orientation: Another point where Quality Assurance and Quality Control differ is their orientation. Quality Assurance is essentially process-oriented. It focuses on preventing quality issues, with an emphasis on designing processes such as documentations, audits, training, change management, etc. in such way that any defects are avoided.

Quality Control, on the other hand, is product-oriented. As mentioned earlier, it identifies the quality issues in the products that have already been manufactured. So where the two approaches essentially differ is the fact that while QA involves the processes that create the product, QC focuses on the finished product through processes such as batch monitoring, inspection, validation, and testing, etc.

Responsibility: Lastly, responsibility is another point where the two differ from each other. The Quality Assurance activities are predominantly the responsibility of the entire quality management team. Every single team member is responsible for ensuring that the SOPs are being followed, and contributing towards designing the quality procedures.

Quality Control, on the other hand, happens to be the responsibility of the testing team within the quality management team, which is supposed to follow the SOPs. The QC team is also supposed to document the results of product testing based on the standard procedures for product validation.

To sum up

Both Quality Assurance and Quality Control constitute an integral part of the quality management process for any organization. Understanding the two concepts, and the differences between them in a better manner, will help the quality management professionals to design, assess, and execute their plans efficiently so as to ensure the final output is of highest quality.

A Quality management software such as QualityPro covers both the quality assurance as well as control aspects, while handling the broader concept of quality management. Want to know how this quality control system can help you manage Quality Assurance and Quality Control processes in particular, and quality in general? Get in touch for a free demo of this best-in-class QMS software.

What is the Difference between Risk Management and Quality Management?

Chirag Panjwani on March 14, 2022

These days, quality has become paramount for all the business organizations. Regardless of the industry they operate in, or the scale of their operations, quality is at the forefront of everything they do. In fact, more and more businesses are taking steps for continuous quality improvement in their products and services, so as to meet the customer requirements as well as the stringent compliance standards.

This focus on continual improvement helps the organizations drive operational excellence, which also has two fundamental aspects as pre-requisites: Quality Management and Risk Management. Both these aspects go a long way in helping businesses achieve their quality objectives, and in fact are often considered as the two sides of the same coin.

But can they actually be referred to as the two sides of a coin, or are they different? And if yes, then how does risk management differ from quality management? What is it about risk management vs quality management system? Let’s try and answer the questions for you all through this blog. But before starting, let’s take a look at the concept of risk management and quality management through their definitions.

Quality Management

Quality Management can be thought of as a tool or a mechanism that allows organizations to design and deliver products or services while taking care of the quality and compliance requirements. It ensures that the products and/or services delivered are of consistent quality, every single time, and the quality processes are:

Effective, as in they help create products/services that meet or exceed the customer’s expectations
Efficient in a way that they allow creation of products and services without wasting any resources
Economical in the sense that they allow generation of requisite revenues so that the organization can be sustained

Quality Management basically has four key components namely: Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Quality Improvement, and Quality Planning. Its objective is not just to focus on the quality of products/services, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality is all about the product, process, or system performing as per its planned or desired function.

Quality Management involves the development, implementation, and application of standard operating procedures (SOPs), tests, policies, and corrective processes, etc. to ensure that the organizations deliver intended results on the quality front from the end customer’s perspective.

Risk Management

As far as risk management is concerned, it is a tool to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and address potential risks in order to monitor, control, and even eliminate the possibilities of unfortunate events happening, and thus help the organization achieve its objectives. It’s an approach that can be termed as proactive, predictive, preventive, and preemptive.

Application of risk management allows organizations to make informed decisions based on the identified risks, and consequently keep the quality of the products intact by maintaining a strong relationship with different stakeholders including customers, suppliers, and the employees. The process, which may be lengthy and tedious, is worthy enough as it helps prevent costly reworks, recalls, and non-conformances.

It is an extremely important function for organizations because in the absence of risk management, an organization cannot possibly define its future business objectives in an effective manner. Any business objective that’s being defined without taking the risks into account is bound to miss its mark, with the organization losing its direction once the risks hit the business.

Quality Management & Risk Management in modern context

Not till too long ago, organizations used to operate smoothly on the back of some sound forecasting. However, the uncertain economic times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the organizations to change their ways. Now the same organizations refrain from making business predictions, and instead have shifted focus towards managing risk.

Organizations nowadays realize risk is the prime cause of uncertainty for them, and hence focus their energies on identifying risks and managing them proactively before they become a potential problem and affect business. Though they can’t control the external risks such as political issues, interest rates, and so on, they definitely can manage the internal risks like non-compliance, among several others.

The whole idea behind risk management is to ensure that the organizations keep the risks under control so that they can achieve their primary objectives of continuous improvement and designing & delivering quality products and services. Needless to say, at the core remains the objective of delivering quality to the end consumer.

Two distinct functional areas with same end objective

Even as Quality Management and Risk Management work as two distinct functional areas, they are actually intricately linked with each other. While quality is an end objective organizations keep in mind during production of goods or delivery of service, risk is essentially the effect of uncertainty on that objective.

Risk management is about managing these effects of uncertainty on the end objective of quality, and a tool that can be used for managing these effects could be quality management. It is thus safe to say that at some level, risk management is inherent in a quality management approach.

We have discussed about Quality Management in detail in our previous blog (Also here). Talking about Risk Management in particular, it ensures that organizations meet compliance standards while having an effective decision-making structure in place. It also ensures organizations experience improvements in terms of efficiency as well as consistency of the quality, also the objectives of quality management.

Few other benefits of risk management include:

Helps establish a proactive culture that fosters improvement
Assures quality consistency
Facilitates improved customer satisfaction and loyalty
Provides opportunity to improve operational efficiency
Helps build greater confidence amongst stakeholders
Facilitates improved system performance

How the two are aligned

In the current scenario, businesses need a clear understanding of the risks involved in the product or process outputs while implementing a quality management system. They need an idea about potential severity and possibility of any unforeseen event happening. This information allows them to train their focus of efforts on the areas of greatest risk within the quality management system.

Facilitates improved customer satisfaction and loyalty Provides opportunity to improve operational efficiency Helps build greater confidence amongst stakeholders Facilitates improved system performance

Conclusion

To sum up, the quality management and risk management processes are inherently linked. From an organization’s perspective, it is important that both the processes are effectively implemented, and integrate with each other in a seamless manner.

The two might be functionally divided in most of the organizations, but the key for the organizations lies in effectively linking both the quality and risk processes with continuous, clear, and transparent two-way communication flows.

We hope this blog could help you understand the concept of risk management and quality management. If you have any query on the subject, or want to know more about our quality management software, you may write to us to schedule a demo or a no-obligation discussion with our quality experts at QualityPro.

Quality Management Software Implementation Assessment Checklist

Chirag Panjwani on March 8, 2022

You’ve come to our blog because you recently purchased a new quality management software system, which is a tremendous step for the growth and success of your business.

The impact of implementing a Quality Management System (QMS) on your entire firm can be enormous. As per one study, the typical QMS deployment delivers a 300 percent return on investment. Additionally, according to empirical studies, organizations implementing QMS also achieve less easily measured rewards, such as a greater consciousness of quality, happier customers, enhanced brand valuation, and more consistent operations.

QMS deployment delivers a 300 percent return on investment.

However, putting it into action is a difficult task that many businesses, including yours, face. As for you, undoubtedly, it is hard to determine how extensive your implementation plan should be. The right implementation will optimize the value of QMS, allowing you to immediately reap the benefits of the software’s offerings.

That’s why we’ve put together a ten-step QMS implementation plan. Regardless of your industry, the following steps will ensure you have a successful implementation and get the most out of your QMS systems. So, read on!

Key steps to QMS implementation checklist

1. Define and communicate the flow of your main business process

Process maps are critical for determining accountability. The creation of process maps will compel the organizations to visualize and define its processes. During this time, you will also be able to determine the interaction sequence of those processes.

2. Establish a Quality Policy

Your Quality Policy defines the organization’s quality expectations. The objective could be exactly what customers require: a high-quality mission. Never forget the importance of being customer-centric (which may be Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Continuous Improvement) when selecting a quality management system.

3. Define your quality objectives

Objectives are required in all quality management systems. Each employee must be aware of the impact of the defined objectives on quality. Your quality policy defines your quality objectives. It’s measurable and implemented across the business.

The objective could be in the form of key success factors like Product Quality, Process Improvement, Financial Performance, Customer satisfaction, Share of the Market, etc. These performance-based indicators serve as a metric for ensuring if the organization is on track to achieve its objectives or not.

4. Create metrics for tracking and monitoring data.

The Metrics are essential to keep a track of progress once the essential success criteria are identified. Creating the metrics can be done with the use of the data reporting technique that gathers specific data. The analyzed information should be shared with the leaders at all stages. This method’s goal is to raise the customer satisfaction index score. There must be a goal and a metric for identifying whether or not the goal was accomplished.

5. Define defects every process

Non-conformance occur as a result of a product flaw or a process flaw. A flaw must be measured and remedied whenever it arises. So, determining the necessary corrective action is the key. When defining your flaws, keep the following in mind:

Determine the size of the operation.
Determine product and process flaws.
Establish a procedure for recording defects.
Define a procedure for reporting faults in the appropriate forms.

6. Create records and documents

Some documented information and formats are required by the QMS. Begin with the bare minimum of documents and expand as needed.

As per the business strategy, create mandatory document information.
Make quality policies, procedures, and forms a priority.
For each defined process, create documented information and formats (records).

7. Define the Quality Assurance Process

Internal audits, management reviews, corrective and preventative action processes, and communication processes are all part of your quality method.

8. Determine Your Training Requirements

Everyone must demonstrate competence in their job. Training is simply the beginning; it can be conducted on the job, in a classroom, or through e-learning. Internal auditor competency and Corrective Action training are two significant training areas. Also, it must include training on Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA).

9. Make use of the Quality Management System.

The use of a quality management system ensures that the best quality product is produced. During the procedure,

Collect and document non-conformance.
Examine the information in order to take corrective and preventative action.
As and when necessary, review FMEAs for risk and actions.
Conduct management reviews and internal audits.

10. Improve Performance by Measuring, Monitoring, and Implementing Activities

Using a quality management software includes gathering information. Analyze this data to see if it is suitable for usage and if the desired outcomes may be obtained from it or not. For this, you need to:

Keep a track of your Quality Objectives and how they’re performing.

Establish a few new performance benchmarks.
Recognize trends, patterns, or correlations in the data to determine the likelihood of improvement.

It’s time to take action if you’ve discovered trends in your data. The purpose is to improve things, which can be accomplished by:

Organizing your possibilities for improvement
Choosing prospects who make a difference is a difficult task.

Finish Up

Now is the time to implement a QMS system in your company following these steps and work toward preventing corporate failure. If you are interested in learning more about quality management, I highly recommend reaching our experts.