The importance of training for organizational success cannot be overstated. Employees and employers both benefit from it. With the proper training, an employee will become more productive and efficient. 

In addition to increasing employee competency, it prepares them for more significant roles and responsibilities. Furthermore, it enhances their knowledge and skills to manage competitive challenges more effectively and efficiently. Training is generally categorized into two forms: Document-Based Training and Instructor-Led Training. 

Though Instructor-Led Training is the primary form of learning for many organizations, it has certain limitations that compel organizations to find new and innovative training management solutions.  

Related Article: 3 Benefits of Training Management Solution

In this post, we will dig deeper into the advantages and disadvantages of instructor-led training.  

To begin with, what is Instructor-Led Training ? 

It refers to classes led by an instructor rather than self-paced, on-demand ones. Integrated learning with technology is an example of synchronous learning, in which learning takes place in real-time.  

Different types of ILT are available, including:  

• Face to face training delivered in person 
• Virtual live training conducted online using webinar applications or other virtual facilities 
• Private classes tailored to fit the needs of the customer 
• Public courses open to any interested individuals 

Is ILT a good fit for my company? 

An instructor-led training course can significantly benefit companies that wish to customize their customer and employee training based on the quality and compliance requirements. 

What Are the Advantages of ILT? 

Instructor-led training has several advantages: 

1. It provides an opportunity for open dialogue 

ILT facilitates open dialogue. An ILT provides learners with opportunities for collaboration through open discussions and engagement activities that enrich learning.  
Furthermore, instructors can read the body language of the class and alter direction according to the learners’ needs at the moment. 

2. It connects people to learn 

Students will build organic relationships in the classroom by attending the training for a few minutes or several days.  
Participants can rely on these relationships that form before, during, or after their training to build a learning network.  

3. It offers flexibility 

A great advantage of ILT is its flexibility. Instructors can provide additional clarification on the participants’ requests. 
Also, the instructors can observe whether learners understand a concept or struggle with it during a session.  

4. It has no distractions 

In general, 49% of learners are distracted by digital tools for reasons other than learning.  
Thanks to ILT, learners can concentrate more easily. In addition, participants will retain more information if instructors create an engaging learning environment.  

5. A fun and interactive experience 

The activities that participants can complete with ILT make the course engaging and interactive.  
It is best to learn from others to help participants retain information over time and build stronger relationships with colleagues. 

What Are the Disadvantages of ILT? 

Instructor-led training has several disadvantages: 

1. It Costs a lot

ILT has the disadvantage of being expensive. Consider these factors before planning an ILT: 

• Booking a rental space 
• Instructor Fee 
• The cost of travel (flights, gas, accommodations, meals, etc.) 
• The cost of equipment 

2. It requires you to take time off from work

It takes time away from work regardless of whether you are traveling across the country or staying local. ILT Programs may have sessions that range from a few hours to a few days or even weeks.  

3. It trains fewer people at once

It is ideal to have a smaller number of participants for ILT sessions so that they can be engaging and interactive. It will probably take an instructor multiple sessions to cover all learners.
Moreover, maintaining training consistency becomes a challenge when instructors try to recreate the same session a number of times. 

Related Article: Employee Training Management System: 7 Critical Features you Should Look for

But what if you could escape the disadvantages of Instructor Led Training and can still leverage all its benefits to train your teams especially when they are working remotely? 

Yes, that is possible! 

How? 

You just need to find the right Cloud-based Training Management Software that can fit your business and compliance training needs. 

One of the most reliable training solutions is Qualityze Training Management. 

Qualityze training management is a cloud-based, intuitive, and comprehensive solution designed to manage, execute, and maintain your organization’s training programs. It allows you to organize all the training essentials your company’s training team requires, including certifications, qualifications, and training records in a central repository, to remain compliant with internal and external requirements.  

You can create specific training requirements by setting up relevant job functions for a department, business unit, process, location, site, and individual. Qualityze Training Management is seamlessly integrated with Document Management System to define training requirements of SOPs, procedures further, and work instructions. In addition, utilize refresher training options and define pre-requisites to enhance training requirements.  

Qualityze Training Management comes with two types of training processes, document-based training, or instructor-led training. The Document-based training can be Read and Sign off or have employees go through a Read and Sign Off with Assessments. Additionally, employees can be added individually or through Job functions.  

After all, managing and maintaining employee training records is one of the key parts of quality programs of any company – big or small. 

Still Thinking? 

Do you want to start building your ILT? Would you like to know more about other functionalities a cloud-based training management solution can offer? Please contact our customer success team directly at +1-877-207-8616 or email us at info@qualityze.com, and we will be there for you. 

Regardless of its size and industry type, every business has one struggle in common, i.e., Document Management. Even when there is advanced document management software to manage all the document-related tasks, some companies still rely on the paperwork. It is the reason their processes are inefficient. 

Hence, it is significant for businesses, especially those that belong to highly regulated industries, to realize the significance of a cloud-based document management solution. Once implemented, it can help them manage all the document-related activities in a compliant and streamlined manner. Even FDA recommends the use of electronic documentation and electronic signature for secure data exchange. 

Here are seven document management challenges that cloud-based document management solutions help overcome: 

1. Reduces Document Process Cycle Time 

One of the biggest concerns with managing a paper-based document system is time. Creating a document to editing it, getting it approved, and sharing it across all the departments takes a lot of time. If streamlined well, you can invest the administrative time in the more productive tasks. It is where a cloud-based document management software has the advantage. It significantly reduces the process cycle time for all the document-related activities, including document creation, review, editing, approval, archiving, and many more. 

Therefore, upgrade your paper-based document management system to a cloud-based solution and leverage all the time-saving capabilities that the cloud platform offers. 

2. Flexibility to Share Documents 

Using a paper-based document management system can make sharing documents time-consuming, especially if you have to reach out to people individually. On the other hand, a cloud-based document management solution comes with a centralized database that allows your team to access critical documents from anywhere. All you have to do is add your document to the database and notify your team members. With the cloud-based document management solution, you and your team members can leverage unmatched flexibility to access and share documents. 

Do not let the paper-based document management system harm your staff’s productivity. Instead, provide them better control over critical information, regardless of their geographical location. 

3. Traceability of the Controlled Documents 

You may need a document to verify the details regarding a recent complaint or a CAPA investigation. Think of the amount of time you would need to spend on finding the relevant documents in a paper-based document management system, especially if the record is 60-90 days old. On the contrary, a cloud-based document management solution makes it super-easy for you to find an old record by simply entering a unique reference number. As a result, finding documents will become a matter of minutes. Most importantly, the unique reference number ensures that you track down the correct record at the right time. 

Do you still believe that the paper-based document management system is worth investing in? 

4. Version Control 

Version control is yet another challenge that organizations face with paper-based document management systems. It can be tedious to track all the document versions until it gets finalized, authors of different changes, and rollbacks. But a cloud-based document management solution can be of great help. It automatically maintains all the versions of documents in the sequence of changes made and details like author, date, and time. Thus, it gives you and your quality teams better control for managing document changes. 

Though there are different version control software available, you may face integration issues. Therefore, it would be best to invest in a cloud-based document management solution with in-built version control functionality like Qualityze Document Management. 

5. Collaboration for Significant Document Changes 

When you work with paper-based document management systems, it can be challenging to collaborate with all your team members at the same time to discuss the significant changes required in the document. On the other hand, a cloud-based document management solution improves collaboration and communication with the team. It gives you a centralized platform to collaborate with your team to review, finalize, and approve document changes in lesser time. 

Related Article: Document Change Control : A Must-Have Process to meet Compliance

Improved collaboration and communication will also help improve the overall decision-making ability of your team. Unfortunately, you may not find the collaboration feature in every document management solution. However, you can take a free product demo before making a final purchase. 

6. Security of the Critical Documents 

 Security is another critical challenge in managing business-critical documents using a paper-based document management system, especially for managing your customers’ sensitive data. You can escape all the data-security threats using a highly secure cloud-based document management system. You can easily find the solutions that come with advanced security controls like password authentication, role-based access, and more, even making sharing data across different geographical locations safe and secure. In addition, the cloud platform keeps your critical documents safe from accidental damages like hard-drive crashes, virus attacks, etc. 

With cloud-based document management solutions, you will be sure of one thing that your data is never completely lost. All you need is a good internet connection, and you can access all your files back. 

7. Integration with Other Business Applications 

One of the limitations of the paper-based document management system is integrated with other business applications. It holds you back from getting control of data being shared, analyzed, and distributed across the organization. At the same time, you can easily find a cloud-based solution that can be seamlessly integrated with your existing business applications. It will give you better control over the data and improve your decision-making ability. 

So, are you ready to knock-out all the document management challenges with a cloud-based document management system? 

Related Article: Different Types of Document Management Software

Key Takeaways 

A cloud-based document management solution can help you avoid these problematic and tiring tasks. An effective solution can simplify how the staff manages documents, resulting in a better workplace. In addition, these systems lower costs by replacing physical documents with digital ones. 

Please talk to our customer success team on 1-877-207-8616 or write to us at info@qualityze.com to know the best way to upgrade to a cloud-based document management solution, and we will be right there for you. 

Every business involves some risks – and most of which are related to product and process quality.

Addressing these risks appropriately and timely can save your business from more considerable consequences, including compliance actions.

Managing risks can get challenging if you do not understand the different types of risks that could arise, their occurrence’s likeliness, and their impact on the continuous functions. Only then will you be able to prepare a strategic plan to address those risks efficiently and effectively.

So, what is the best way to evaluate and categorize risks?

Risk Assessment Matrix is the best approach for it.

It was developed to analyze risk. It generally utilizes data to analyze, identify, and prioritize risks. It also helps to estimate the probability of risk occurrence.

What is a Risk Assessment Matrix?

A Risk Matrix, also known as Probability Matrix or Impact Matrix, assists in evaluating risks by focusing on probable risks.

Using a risk assessment matrix, you can quickly calculate project risk. It identifies the possibilities for failure and weighs the damage to estimates the potential threats. Prioritizing issues becomes more accessible with this. But there will undoubtedly be action required to keep a project running and safe.

Managing potential risks is the key to avoiding risk events. It may sound challenging to manage uncertainty, but there are now several risk calculations tools that can help and reduces your effort. It would be best if you utilize your risk assessment matrix as often as you like.

Related Article: Risk Assessment Vs Risk Management: How Are they Different?

Why Use Risk Assessment Matrix?

Generally, organizations of all sizes use a risk assessment matrix for three reasons:

• To determine the extent and size of the risk
• Assessing their capability to reduce risk
• To create a list of risks and prioritize them using a legible matrix that is easy to understand

Risk assessment matrixes can help organizations identify risks at different levels, including enterprise-level, business process, or individual process.

What are the benefits of creating a risk matrix?

Making a risk matrix can offer you the following benefits:

• The severity level will help you to prioritize risks.
• You can manage risks in a simplified manner.
• It helps you discover threats quickly and efficiently.
• Maintains and audits records.
• Demonstrates an organization’s ability to manage risks.
• It neutralizes any adverse effects.

How does Risk Matrix work?

Using a risk matrix, you can:

• Focus on the most significant risks

By identifying and prioritizing your company’s most severe risks through a risk assessment matrix, you can reduce the actual risk. In the absence of such an analysis, you may not see clearly what factors may affect your operations and what risks you are facing.

• Implement a plan to manage identified risks

You will be better able to respond to threats when you identify the most significant threats. In the context of cybersecurity, each risk is unique. It is, therefore, more valuable to focus your efforts on specific risks instead of simply assuming that all risks have the same impact.

• Make sure you are constantly monitoring your risk environment.

• When you know how to handle emergent and recurring risks, it is easier to address them. It will also help you identify the type of risk, its severity, and its probability.

Maintaining real-time assessment of risks and how they are likely to change allows you to anticipate future requirements.

A. Analyzing the Likelihood of the Risk Occurring

You can estimate the probability of occurrence of each risk through the risk data. This information will help you categorize the risk.

Companies assess risk by categorizing it into the following five categories:

1. Very likely
Your chances of experiencing this risk are very high. Therefore, risk factors with an 80% or higher probability of occurring should be categorized here.

2. Likely
Systematic risks need regular attention. According to estimates, 60 to 80% of these will negatively impact your business.

3. Possible
If it comes to probability, a potential risk is similar to a coin toss. Therefore, such threats will likely occur, and they will require specific attention.

4. Unlikely
There is a low probability that these risks will occur (less than 50%).

5. Very Unlikely
The chances of these risks are often lower than 10%.

B. Evaluating the Consequences

It would be best to determine the impact of each risk within the probability groups you’ve created after you have categorized and grouped your risks according to those categories.

Following the severity of the damage that might occur, you can rank the risks into one of five categories:

1. Insignificant
Insignificant risks are unlikely to harm your business (or a specific project). Negligible risk will likely lead to too little to no data loss, while the data is likely to be openly available.

2. Minor
Although a minimal risk may cause damage, it will not significantly affect your operations.

3. Moderate
Risks of moderate severity may cause noticeable damage but will not significantly impact your operations.

4. Critical
You risk significant losses and possible business disruptions when you face the critical risk.

5. Disastrous/Catastrophic
If there is a catastrophic event, your company will be unable to operate.

C. Categorizing Risks Appropriately

Then, you can compare the likelihood and impact of each risk and place the risk in a logical orientation.

Within the matrix, there are the following groups of “zones”:

1. Extreme
In the red zone of your matrix (i.e., top right corner), you’ll find extreme risks that need attention right away.

2. High Risk
In addition to extreme risks, there are still risks of high importance you should handle promptly. As a result, they tend to fall between the extremes of the matrix.

3. Medium
There are medium risks near the bottom left of the matrix – and they may require risk management strategies to prevent any potential damage.

4. Low Risk
As part of your operations, it is possible to overlook or pay minimal attention to most of these risks.

Following all these steps can be challenging and time-consuming if you employ the traditional tools and methodologies to prepare a risk matrix.

It would be best to implement an advanced CAPA management software like Qualityze to analyze, access, and address quality risks more efficiently than ever.

Qualityze CAPA Management enables organizations to develop a risk-based, compliance-driven process for addressing systemic issues to prevent a recurrence. It guides the user with a comprehensive approach to mitigate quality issues while meeting compliance and fostering a culture of continuous improvements.

In addition to streamlining your CAPA process, it also allows you to perform risk assessment using the in-built risk matrix to determine the visibility of the risk and assist in developing the appropriate action plans. 

If you want to know more about Qualityze CAPA Management Software and its capabilities, please contact our customer success team directly at +1-877-207-8616 or email us at info@qualityze.com, and we will be there for you.

Managing change is one of the critical activities for years, yet businesses find it challenging. The primary reason for the struggle with change implementation lies in the change management principles that organizations miss. They need to realize the importance of these principles for successful change implementation, or this challenge will remain forever.

It is an agreeable fact that no single methodology or principle will work for every business; a mix of tools, technologies, best practices, and guides will be required for different situations. However, a holistic approach will help your team members understand the need for change, manage it efficiently, and engage in every relevant activity.

In this blog post, we will look at the change management principles that can help organizations attain operational excellence while managing change implementations successfully.

Related Article: 3 Steps for a Smoother Change Control and Implementation Process

The Principles of Change Management You Must Know

1. Identify the Need for Change

If you want to leverage the fullest potential of change to gain an organization’s operational excellence, you must understand the change. For instance – what triggered the change? Is it actually required? What are the objectives you want to fulfill by implementing the change? It is critical to do this groundwork before you proceed to avoid meaningless change. It will only cost you productive time, money, and resources with no actual returns on all the investment done. Make sure you understand the need for change. Only then will you be able to approach it confidently.

2. Plan the Change to Prevent Productivity Curbs

Once you understand the need for change, the next step is planning. Change is not something that just happens. Your plan should fit the needs of the organization you are trying to change. Different organizations handle change projects differently. Some companies follow a rigid framework, while some are more open and flexible to implement change successfully. Planning plays a critical role in aligning change with goals without making any significant impact on the overall productivity and efficiency. You must never forget, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

3. Keep Culture into the Consideration

Make sure you consider the existing culture. The culture reflects how people communicate with each other, look at new opportunities, and work together to attain success. Understanding the culture will also help you tackle resistance more efficiently and effectively.

4. Involve the Top Management

Before you introduce any change to the lower-level employees, make sure to unite with top management. It would be best if you address their concerns to communicate with their respective departments and teams accordingly. It will reduce your efforts and provide you with some more insights about the availability of the team members, limitations you may face, and more.

5. Engage Every Department and Business Unit

Although rolling out change begins at the top, you must engage middle employees and frontline employees for a smoother transition. Due to their position, they will raise any logistical or technical issues that top-level executives are unaware of. Alternatively, they may provide perspective on the impact of change on customers and their own teams or how you may proceed with the transition efficiently. If anyone knows how this will impact the frontline, it is these employees and leaders, so their input will smooth out most glitches.

6. Consider Change as a Teamwork

Bringing a change can be a lot more comfortable when considered as teamwork. Everyone involved should spread the message about the transition to avoid resistance from the people who believe change a challenging activity. You can also help your team members understand – what value they can bring to the table? It will encourage your team to put more effort into making the change implementation successful.

7. Be Clear and Concise with Instructions

Change is not going to be easy. This is why top-level employees need to provide clear and concise instructions to lower-level employees to make the transition smoother. A leader should work with the team to make the change familiar. Change should be explained clearly and logically to employees, coupled with easy-to-follow instructions for carrying it out. You can arrange smaller meetings, training sessions, and awareness campaigns to address change requirements efficiently and effectively.

8. Communication is the Key

It is essential to communicate appropriately when implementing a change. Business leaders need to remain transparent with all internal stakeholders in the early stages of enterprise-wide changes and implementation meetings. Not being involved in the specific decisions may create panic and resistance from employees for the change. Therefore, communication is crucial for successful change implementation.

9. Provide Appropriate Training

Providing appropriate training is as vital as proper communication among the teams. It would be best to prepare your staff for the competitive challenges they might face during change implementation. The managers should identify the training needs to make the transition smoother for their employees without impacting their overall productivity and efficiency. You can utilize the Cloud-based Training Management Software solution to provide your teams flexible training environment anywhere across the globe. It will foster employee engagement as well.

10. Address Every Concern of Your Team

It would help if you addressed all the concerns of your team that can, later, create confusion. For a successful change implementation, each member of your team must be well aware of the change, its requirements, and its consequences. It will help them plan their tasks accordingly. Questions and concerns are positive signs that your team members are showing their involvement in the change initiative. So, always welcome and resolve your team’s concerns before implementing a change.

11. Let Ownership Motivate Your Team

Let your team become more responsible for their contribution to the change implementation by allowing them to own the tasks. Make sure you set clear expectations and goals for them. It will give your employees a sense of ownership, making them more involved in the entire process. You might get surprised by their potential to complete the assigned tasks successfully.

12. Appreciate and Acknowledge the Team Efforts

Change is challenging and can get tedious for your team members. Make sure you keep motivating them by acknowledging and appreciating their efforts. It will make them even more invested. It is rightly said that “The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees do not feel valued, neither will your customers.”

13. Implement Change and Perform Effectiveness Review

Bring all the resources together to implement the change as you have planned. But that does not mean your job is over. It actually starts here. Once implemented, you must perform the effectiveness review of the change to evaluate its impact on your business operations. You should always keep your plan B ready if the change implemented does not work as intended.

14. Analyze Enterprise-Wide Data to Make Informed Decisions

Before making any decisions related to change implementation or to revoke a change, you must analyze the enterprise data. Therefore, you should have all the quality systems connected to easily trace data from any/all the business units to make informed decisions.

15. Make Use of Technology

In the era of technological revolutions, you must leverage technology to make change implementation smoother and efficient than ever. Forget about the time-consuming and labor-intensive means of implementing change when automating and streamlining all the activities using an advanced change management solution.

Whether the product is manufactured in batches or not, it is always necessary to ensure that the manufacturers meet the essential standards. Manufacturing companies typically produce batches of goods. Trying to go through all of the products one by one would be very time-consuming and exhausting. Sometimes it is not even possible. In light of this, the AQL was introduced.

What is AQL?

AQL is also known as “Acceptable Quality Limit.” It is generally defined as the number of faults per sample acceptable for the batch. A batch is rejected if it has more faults than the acceptable quality level.

“The acceptable quality limit (AQL) is the worst tolerable process average (mean) in percentage or ratio that is still considered acceptable; that is, it is at an acceptable quality level,” according to Wikipedia.

What is the importance of acceptable quality limits?

AQL standards provide valuable information to your inspection teams and you:

• How many units should be inspected in an individual shipment, and
• how many defects will trigger a failure?

The number of units you inspect is known as an “inspection sample.”

You can determine these parameters using the AQL tables. You can see a sample AQL chart below:

In testing and inspection, an acceptable quality level serves as a standard that describes the acceptable range of defects of components during a random sample during the inspection. A physical (mechanical) inspection or an electronic or electrical test may identify defects of three levels: critical, major, and minor.

• Critical defects: defects that breach mandatory regulations and compromise the safety of consumers/end users.
• Major defects: defects that severely reduce the usability or saleability of the product.
• Minor defects: defects that fall short of quality standards but do not significantly affect a product’s usability or saleability.

Knowing the Difference Between General and Special Sampling

There are two types of sampling levels in the AQL: General sampling and Special sampling. As its name suggests, the latter is used in a variety of special cases, such as damage assessment.

Under the General Sampling Level, there are three sub-levels, namely GI, GII, and GIII, which represent ‘Reduced’, ‘Normal’, and ‘Tightened’ sampling. As you advance from GI to GIII level, the sampling size to lot size ratio rises. Mass consumer products are typically inspected using GI and GII.

What if your product fails to meet AQL?

An inferior quality product might result in a failed inspection, so if your supplier finds that your order is disappointing, you can ask them to hold the shipment. Quality issues can typically be dealt with in several ways, including:

• If the rework is realistic and unlikely to cause further problems, ask your supplier to fix the affected units,
• Having your supplier replace the damaged units,
• Returning unsellable goods, or
• destroying any unsellable units so that suppliers cannot sell them to competitors or the black market.

Related Articles: Inspection Management and Quality : Understanding the Core Metrics

In the case of a failed inspection, your approach will largely be influenced by

1. the strength of your relationship with your manufacturer/supplier,
2. the severity of the defect,
3. the value of your order, and
4. the urgency of your shipment.

Understanding the Terms Acceptance and Rejection Point in AQL

ACCEPTANCE POINT

Acceptance points typically appear in the AQL table as “Ac” and indicate the maximum number of defects that can be accepted within a given sample size. The acceptance point of each defect class varies since many importers assign different AQLs to them. Generally, importers define AQL values for minor and major defects as higher than those for critical defects, indicating their preference for this range. 

An AQL is considered passed if the sample finds the same number of defects or fewer than your acceptance points for the class of defects.

REJECTION POINT

In the AQL table, the rejection point, commonly referred to as Re, indicates the minimum number of defects required to reject an order based on given sample size and AQL. The acceptance point and the rejection point are closely related. In a single sampling plan, you will always find your rejection point one value higher than your acceptance point.

When a sample has more defects than the tolerance level, it cannot be considered compliant. When an importer detects the presence of enough defects, they will typically reject the order or ask their supplier to hold it until the defects are fixed.

Therefore, the sample size will affect how transparent and accurate your results are, just like all sampling plans. Whenever you make shipping decisions based on the results of acceptance sampling, there is the risk of rejecting “good” lots or accepting “bad” lots.

On the other hand, AQL ensures that you do not inspect more goods than required, saving time and money by avoiding unnecessary inspections. A sample check is by far the most cost-effective way for importers to confirm their goods are as described before shipment.

How Does AQL Make a Better Choice Than A 100% Inspection?

Customer questions like this are common. Some of you may think, “If I had a 100% inspection, my products would be safe.”

This is acceptable if you are purchasing small quantities. Nevertheless, as you increase your order quantities, it becomes less viable. Inspecting a facility takes significantly more time and costs more money.

AQL is a statistical model that has been successful for years. For this reason, it has become an industry standard.

Although AQL inspections will prevent defects, they will not guarantee a defect-free inspection. It is not intended to do that.

Managing AQL Using a Powerful Inspection Management Software

With a traditional approach to AQL and inspections, you may run into risks of delivering average quality goods to your customers. It may impact your brand reputation in the long term. Instead, you should automate the entire process of inspections – from specifying AQL to defining sample size for consistent quality products and services.

It can be challenging to find the right inspection management software, but here is a quick recommendation to your escape from the research and selection efforts. You can count on Qualityze Inspection Management Software.

Using Qualityze Inspection Management, you can set up a schedule for stringent inspections based on severity. Using customizable workflows and forms makes customizing sampling plans easier to comply with regulatory requirements. With this solution, you can specify AQL/LTPD, the Acceptable Quality Level, and the Lot Tolerance Percent Defective to efficiently perform stringent inspections.

Establishing a severe-based sampling plan assures the incoming materials comply with quality requirements and compliance requirements.

With Qualityze Inspection Management, you can use standardize processes to: Setup Sampling Plans, Inspection standards, Inspection Types and Purchase Orders, Perform Inspections, Verify Samples’ Variables and Attributes, Use Severity based sampling plan for more stringent inspection, Generate a NC for samples that failed inspection criteria, Evaluate Material Reinspection requirements, and Integrate with ERP systems for Purchase Order information.

Is your quality management system limiting you from making informed business decisions? You have enough of quality data, but cannot access and manage it all from a distant location? Centralized database will work just fine to give you more control and confidence in managing your quality records from anywhere across the globe.

What is Centralized Database?

In centralized databases, all information is stored in one central location. Maintaining and modifying the site requires access to the internet through a LAN or WAN connection. The businesses that need to manage enormous volumes of data across multiple locations use a centralized database.

How Centralized Database Helps?

A centralized database helps you to:

Break Down Data Silos

Data sharing helps organizations make more informed decisions and achieve better results. However, it is not in the company’s best interest to create data silos since they hinder free-flowing information. A data silo is a remote repository of fixed data that remains within the authority of one department while being left to grow in isolation from the rest of the company. Usually, silos form when each department’s priorities, responsibilities, and benchmarks within an organization differ. The proliferation of different data points caused by data silos can often pose a problem for organizations. The more departments work together, the less clear it becomes about which data is most accurate. A company fragmented by siloed information caches is forced to run without a clear focus on the bigger picture because different divisions cannot see it all together.

Using centralizing entity data, all information is consolidated into one shareable source, removing data silos. Managing competing data sets in this way minimizes reconciliation times while reducing the impact of incomplete or inaccurate data on user efficiency. A centralized database also improves collaboration across divisions and increased opportunities to share information for problem-solving since all divisions had access to the same foundation of knowledge.

Clean Up Your Data

Companies endure high costs due to inadequate data. An analysis by Gartner found that problems with inadequate data occur at the expense of $14 million per year on average. A separate survey conducted by LeadJen estimated that companies could lose up to $20,000 per sales rep per year due to inadequate data. Multiple users interacting with various data sources often lead to incomplete data accumulation in business environments. The result is inaccuracies and duplications. The problems affecting these operations are incorrect customer profiles, inefficient billing and processing processes, or inaccurate manufacturing requirements.

Related Article: Digital Records helping Manufacturing Companies to reduce the Quality Costs to Halves

By establishing a single, centralized data source across your organization, you can reduce the risk of insufficient data negatively impacting your business. Having centralized data sources allows you to maintain and clean them more efficiently while keeping accurate and verified data. The cleaning process involves removing obsolete entries and removing duplicate copies, allowing you to arrange data into valuable indexes. The purpose of data cleansing is to streamline business processes and uncover integration opportunities. The most important aspect is that you can count on the data you use for your day-to-day decisions. You can also rely on a next-generation Quality Management Software for Manufacturing with centralized database to make most of your business data.

Ensure Better Data Governance

With the growth of business data, data governance is becoming increasingly essential. Data governance aims to create, evaluate, and use data at all levels within an organization while ensuring data security. The increased importance of data governance policy is about the safe use of personal data has also been emphasized by tighter regulations, and, increasingly, businesses use data governance policies to comply with regulatory demands.

Companies using decentralized data sources face tremendous challenges in integrating and protecting company data. The consolidation of data into a centralized database can help organizations improve their data governance capabilities. Data centralized in a single location enables your quality teams to access information quickly, clarify the security process, and minimize the risks of mishandling sensitive data.

Analyze and Optimize Quality

Businesses have realized the importance of data to their business. When data is treated correctly, it can earn revenue and offer growth potential. In business analytics, the understanding and manipulation of data are vital to getting actionable insights. But, as we’ve learned from various aspects of data management, the success of a data analytics initiative is directly associated with the integrity and quality of the data.

By consolidating all data sources, you can make better business decisions based on the same set of trustworthy data points. In addition, it allows you to target new products and services based on industry trends and changes. This lets your sales team better target your most desirable markets, maximize cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, and further improve customer relationships. In the end, the analytics that a streamlined data source delivers make your company more agile by making it more predictive and proactive to maintain its competitive edge.

Centralized Database: Role in Quality Management

Quality management requires enterprises to collect, analyze and share ample of data globally. Decentralized data sources can make it difficult for them to track quality trends, make informed decisions, and share critical business data securely, especially for highly regulated industries like lifesciences.

It is where it becomes important for companies to have a centralized database for all kinds of quality records be it nonconformance records, CAPA records, Audit records, and much more. However, security should be your topmost priority.

Nowadays, you can easily find a quality management software that comes with centralized database, allowing you to manage all your quality data on a single location. One such software solution is Qualityze EQMS Suite. It ensures:

1. Data Security

It’s perhaps the best reason to use centralized data management. With our transition process, your data will be secured with documentation and will only be accessible to users who are granted privileges. A central repository provides the security to store business-related data, so you don’t have to keep it on multiple devices and platforms, prone to lose during and after the study.

2. Data Integrity

Centralizing data management leads to the most significant level of data integrity. Any expert in data management will tell you that your database should contain no redundant data. Your system is compromised when you add multiple databases and files. Centralized data management ensures that your company has access to the most up-to-date data. Any employee can update information vital to your company through this system.

3. Data Consistency

A central repository allows an organization to manage data feeds consistently throughout its internal system and global office. You can utilize a document management software solution with centralized repository to clean, validate, and prepare data files for distribution.

4. Operational Efficiency

If a single business unit controls an organization’s data, resources used to manage data can be redirected to core business functions. In addition, this eliminates the need to process data, thereby limiting the chances of companies making uninformed business decisions manually.

5. Reduced Costs

Businesses can reduce costs by centralized data management. It is significantly less expensive to maintain one central system than numerous systems, especially if it runs multiple locations. Moreover, a centralized database requires lesser for storing and processing data, which eventually helps reduce costs.

Conclusion

Your organization is capturing data every day. But how is this information being stored, analyzed, and utilized for making better business decisions? A quality management system with centralized database may help you overcome data management issues and prepare your organization for the competitive challenges.

Are you among the organizations that still use Excel to record, manage, and track calibration results?

You might have to face the following challenges with the traditional approach:

• Errors during the data entry process
• Irregular Calibrations
• Risk of Non-Compliance Due to Traceability
• Transfers and Collaboration Issues

For this reason, you need a dedicated calibration management software solution. The new-age solutions are designed to meet ever-growing and changing business requirements.

An effective solution makes the calibration management process much simpler. The software provides automated management and storage of all equipment details and calibration-related data. It involves scheduling calibration activities, analyzing and optimizing calibration frequencies, generating reports, certificates, and labels which help reduce errors and costs while improving overall organizational performance.

Related Articles: Calibration Management Software: Benefits of Being Cloud-Based

Before discussing equipment calibration management software, the features, and the benefits, it is important to understand the typical calibration management tasks businesses have to perform. In general, a calibrating process involves the following steps:

1. Identify and Categorize

In the first step, businesses should list all their equipment and measurement devices. Further, they can be categorized as critical and non-critical based on their calibration range and tolerance limit.

Also, the current calibration status should be identified for all the listed equipment.

2. Train Your Staff

You must keep your calibration team prepared. In addition, they must be trained on how to use the tools and perform the calibration tasks accordingly.

3. Fix Calibration Schedules

Calibrations are usually performed as follows:

• During and after a large-scale measuring project
• After the equipment stops functioning well
• As necessary for the job at hand
• As regularly as possible, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually

You must decide on the calibration schedules for different equipment, based on their criticality in the functions.

4. Execute Calibration Activities

The calibration staff is then responsible for performing the calibrations and ensuring all safety procedures are followed.

5. Document the Calibration Records

It is important to record and document the calibration process and process results regularly. Maintaining a calibration record is necessary to accurately track activities.

6. Analyze the Calibration Records

Equipment managers will then analyze the data collected from the documented calibration results to determine whether any corrective measures need to be taken.

Calibration Management Software: What Is the Need?

Businesses require more equipment as they grow. Consequently, increases in business equipment also increase manual documentation.

One recent survey found that equipment managers spend almost half of their time documenting and processing paperwork. Instead, they can use this time to do something more productive.

The calibration management software (CMS) is a computer program used to plan and track equipment calibrations. It ensures that calibrating, adjusting, or replacing equipment are done on a timely basis by maintaining schedules, keeping track of history, and communicating with concerned authorities.

Monitoring equipment calibration helps managers ensure that processing equipment works at its best. To accomplish this, all moving parts are greased and all consumable products are replaced ahead of time. Moreover, equipment managers can automate planning to decrease management and administrative workloads.

Calibration Management Software: Core Features

You might not know where to begin when deciding on the right software types for your organization. Start it by taking your business goals and objectives are the first thing to consider. After that, you would want to create a strategy for achieving those goals. You should remember one thing that calibration requirements for different businesses vary.

Calibration Management Software: Seven Key Benefits

Businesses can benefit from calibration management software in a variety of ways. The benefits of this include reduced maintenance costs, higher efficiency, and greater control over equipment maintenance. Below is a list of some of the most prominent advantages of a calibration management solution.

1. Streamlined and Automated Workflows

A cloud-based CMS tool can simplify administrative and managerial tasks. It streamlines workflow and aids calibration managers in keeping track of calibration intervals. The goal of these reports is to make an informed and qualified recommendation. In addition, the software’s ‘Audit Trail’ function allows equipment engineers to optimize calibration intervals.

In addition, automated and validated processes replace manual procedures. Equipment managers no longer invest time in paperwork. Instead, engineers are guided through the calibration process by a well-defined workflow. It ensures consistent best practices for the equipment calibration process.

2. Increased efficiency

By streamlining and automating the whole calibration process, plant efficiency is also improved. Automation allows businesses to streamline labor-intensive calibration procedures by replacing manual processes. Moreover, engineers can spend the time saved on strategic analysis or other core-business tasks.

3. Lowered Costs

Businesses can save money by using software for calibration management. It is the result of eliminating paper documentation procedures. Moreover, Calibration Management Solutions are more accurate, faster, and easier to use, so you can use them to track the previous trends and make informed decisions to optimize equipment calibration schedules and save costs.

4. Effective performance management

By monitoring the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), equipment managers can have a real-time view of the operations while tracking the Key Performance Indicators in real-time. As a result, an organization can analyze how effectively its installed equipment and resources are performing.

5. Standardization and Compliance

Calibration records must meet the demands of regulatory organizations and industry standards, like the FDA and ISO. A calibration management software comes with handy functions that help in meeting these requirements. Also, the FDA and ISO recommend a CMS solution to track compliance with calibration timeliness.

6. Retain Calibration Records and Historical Data

Now that the planned procedures and calibration strategies are in place. This software keeps track of all calibration assets automatically. The program also maintains calibration database information for devices, and it automatically notifies the user when a calibration is due. Also, the software can generate automated reports and centralize calibration data.

7. Increase Lifetime of equipment

It takes a lot of time and effort to plan and keep track of equipment maintenance. Therefore, longevity is an important factor, both in time and money. By automating a calibration and maintenance due date calculation, a cloud-based CMS solution can help keep track of maintenance intervals.

The calibration management software allows equipment managers to set a calibration frequency and define how to calculate the due dat. Your business will also save time and money because your equipment will be calibrated and maintained on time, decreasing downtime.

Related Articles: How Equipment Calibration Contributes to Quality Management

Calibration Management Software: How to Implement It

With a Calibration Management software in hand, you will want to incorporate it into your business in a way that fully benefits your company. The software needs to be able to fit seamlessly into your existing workflows for a successful implementation. The following are some key tips for implementing a calibration management solution.

• Outline your objectives

Identifying business goals and identifying calibration requirements is essential before adopting a cloud-based CMS solution. First, you should clearly define objectives, whatever they might be. Following this, choose the calibration management solution that suits your needs. Software implementation cannot be successful without clearly defined goals.

• Analyze Current State of Equipment

An organization’s self-assessment helps them determine its current state and develop an improvement strategy. An evaluation provides information to businesses on how much, what kind, and what kind of equipment they own, and the condition of that equipment. By analyzing the company’s current situation, you can also use this as a benchmark for judging future performance following the implementation of the software.

• Specify the calibration requirements

Specifying your calibration requirements is essential to deploying a calibration management system. It is crucial to know how much and what types of equipment you own and require when selecting cloud-based CMS solutions for your organization.

• Selecting the Right Software

Then, after defining your goals and calibration needs, you can find the software that best helps you meet those requirements and achieve your goals.

• Follow-up, review, and update

When you deploy a calibration management solution, you need to keep track of some key performance indicators to measure its success.

Regularly capturing and analyzing asset data indicates whether the system is performing as planned. To reduce downtime, you can, for example, generate reports regarding your equipment’s maintenance schedules and life cycles. Moreover, you can collect regular feedback and generate reports about the performance of your team. Finally, you can use this information to update calibration management programs to be as efficient as possible.

Conclusion

A calibration management system is beneficial for all manufacturing environments, regardless of their size and sector. With a dedicated cloud-based CMS, you can improve quality, increase productivity, and reduce costs associated with the calibration process. By doing this, businesses can save time and money and increase their productivity.

Click here for more details about Qualityze Calibration Management Software.

Qualityze Calibration Management Software is a cloud-based CMS Solution that allows companies worldwide to manage equipment and tools calibrations, conduct maintenance events, and cut costs. We offer a free demo to demonstrate product features and insights.

If you want to learn more about Qualityze products, please contact our customer success team directly at +1-877-207-8616 or email us at info@qualityze.com, and we will be there for you.

Quality is different for everyone, regardless of their industry and product type. It is about meeting compliance requirements for some people, while some consider it an opportunity to bring a difference. The ultimate objective remains the same, i.e., customer satisfaction and retention.

After all, the customer is king.

We all understand that ensuring quality products and services requires building a culture of quality wherein every team member genuinely cares about quality and contributes to informed decision-making for achieving quality objectives.

How to Determine a Culture of Quality?

A Culture of Quality clearly reflects through the people and processes in the organization.

When the team members actually care about the quality of work they are doing every day and make informed decisions to achieve the highest quality standards.

What really differentiates a quality culture is achieving quality standards to meet customer expectations, not just for the sake of achieving regulatory compliance.

How to Build a Culture of Quality?

To build a culture of quality, you will need seven critical elements in place, namely:

1.     Define Quality Objectives and Values Clearly

Whether you want to refine the existing quality culture or wish to create one, make sure you define the quality objectives and company values clearly.  You must think about the values whether they reflect your brand? Do they help achieve quality? Can these be improved with time and growing customer needs?

Also, take a systematic approach to define processes, aligning them with the culture of quality you want. It would be best if you also encourage employee involvement because they will actually use those processes. Such an approach will improve your businesses’ aspects – right from supply chain to marketing strategies.

But be sure to keep your focus on customers when you define the values and quality objectives. Some companies may already have best practices in place and have a quality culture in place. Those companies can consider the root cause analysis to identify inconsistencies in the existing culture to keep improving.

2.     Provide Appropriate and Timely Training to Employees

Training is a valuable investment that pays off in the long run for a business. It plays a crucial role in building adept teams, such as activities that reinforce a company’s quality culture. Unfortunately, corporate training is ineffective many times. Research shows that 90% of what we all learn in any given month is forgotten! The cost of external training makes this statistic especially worrisome.

This might be due to trainee mindsets, which is not a criticism.

They must understand how it will enhance their personal growth and add value. Although training is sometimes required to comply with regulatory requirements or results from an audit or inspection, it should not be seen as a checkbox activity. Training lets teams gain new skills they can use to improve their products and processes.

One major problem with training is that there is not always a straightforward way to measure its effectiveness. After all, a person may receive a certificate, but the certification means nothing if that person does not retain the information. However, you can implement an integrated Training Management Software that will help you track the training your employees have already received. You can further review their performance and productivity for the tasks they have been trained on. It will demonstrate the effectiveness of the training programs initiated.

3.     Achieve Quality First Then Compliance

While compliance can seem to be a daunting process to businesses, quality and compliance go together. Getting into compliance does not mean your product is of high quality. There are companies that, on paper, comply with all the regulations, but their products and services lack quality.

It is common to see that such companies consider a culture of quality as a responsibility of the quality department, which should be everyone’s responsibility. Giving ownership of quality to a person or group can lead to unnecessary hassles and process halts because they assume that they have the authority to inspect things and request rework at any time. On the contrary, it is essential to streamline processes to create a quality culture.

It is not the proper way to view Quality staff members, and it is certainly a mindset that needs correction within your organization if it appears to exist. Quality should be a priority in every aspect of your organization and every interaction between departments.

Developing and producing quality products is something that every member of your team is doing that matters, and you need to make sure that they fully understand their roles for them to feel positive about their work. The result of embracing quality in all aspects of a business is a better product and fewer headwinds.

4.     Have Proper Document Controls for Everything

The goal of document control is to ensure that records and other data are held accountable by the organization. A company’s success depends on its document control procedures. In this way, quality can be scaled and made repeatable. You do this to demonstrate that your documentation complies with all regulations.

Organizations establish document controls as early as possible to facilitate the quality culture. Early document control can often find errors and faults to be corrected before they become a significant problem. And it offers greater traceability too.

Implementing a quality management system (QMS) can significantly simplify document control. As a result, we built Qualityze Cloud-Based Document Management Software to address and solve problems in processes like document control, where it’s effortless for documents to get lost in paper-based systems or applications. You can track each document’s approval status with full traceability across the most recent versions for easy implementation and management.

5.     Improve Communication and Collaboration Among Teams

Improper communication and collaboration are yet another common reason that companies fail to develop a quality culture. You must provide your team with a platform to collaborate and communicate for essential tasks such as reviews, approvals, and critical decision-making. It will reduce the process cycle time and improve overall organizational productivity.

To make things centrally accessible, you can rely on a cloud-based quality management solution. It will provide your teams with the required flexibility, reliability, and security to manage the business-critical functions from anywhere across the world.

It is something we offer with Qualityze EQMS to make quality management simplified for organizations. It gives your team more control and confidence in managing everyday processes without any hassles.

6.     Take User Complaints & Feedback as Improvement Opportunities

Another best way to ensure a quality culture within your organization is to seek user feedback. It can come in the form of customer complaints. You must analyze complaints to identify the opportunities to improve.

When you respond to the complaints promptly, it will also demonstrate your brand commitment to customer satisfaction and continuous improvements. Incorporating this best practice will also help meeting compliance requirements. As we have already discussed above, if you will chase quality, you need not make additional efforts to achieve compliance.

You can implement a standardized Complaints Management Software solution like Qualityze to transform your customer complaints into opportunities to improve and grow. It automatically documents every detail of the complaint, making it easier to track at the time of audits and inspections.

7.     Make Use of Right Quality Management Software

Developing a culture of quality also depends on the system you implement to manage quality. It is like having your groundwork done right. You must have a quality management solution that can help create a closed-loop quality system, bringing all your quality processes together for a complete solution to quality management challenges.

Also, it would be best to have a QMS that can be easily scaled with your growing business needs and changing compliance requirements. The solution’s scalability makes a world of difference as you cannot change the QMS every time.

We have built Qualityze EQMS Suite, keeping in mind the growing business needs. It facilitates flexibility, scalability, traceability, and security to manage quality data and processes from any location at any time.

CONCLUSION

Building a culture of quality is not always easy, but it’s the only way to make a product that has universal appeal. In addition, committing to quality brings you numerous benefits, including the increased market share and customer trust.

Implementing best practices to foster a culture of quality reflects your organization’s potential to grow exponentially with time and changing trends.

Hopefully, this comprehensive guide will help you create the right culture wherein your team members strive for the best quality outcomes, even if it means changing existing processes.

Do not worry about any hassles! Because Qualityze Enterprise Quality Management Solution simplifies the journey of change for you and your team members to maintain the “Culture of Quality” while aligning all the critical processes with quality objectives, compliance requirements, and customer needs.

To get more details about Qualityze EQMS Suite and schedule a free demo, please contact our customer success team today on 1-877-207-8616 or write to us at info@qualityze.com, and we will be right there for you.

Food and beverage products are susceptible in nature and are prone to contamination more than any other product. It becomes even more critical for food manufacturing and packaging companies to maintain the highest standards of quality.

Food and beverages are among those sectors where quality is much more valued than quantity. Even the customers will buy products from the company that they feel deliver the best quality food products. And a minor incident can change everything from tarnishing the brand image to downsize the profit margins. This is the reason food and beverage companies should have strict quality controls in place.

Importance of Quality Management in the Food and Beverages Industry

A single product that your customers deem substandard can drive them away from your product and indirectly bring down the level of trust of the brand.

A satisfied customer is an important asset for the company. He/She will not just buy your product repeatedly but also recommend it to other buyers within the network, which build the trust over the brand at a different magnitude.

Quality Management done right, ensures superior quality consistently, which puts you ahead of other competitors effortlessly. Quality is the only regular effort you need to put in for standing out from the rest.

A streamlined quality management process will also help achieve operational excellence by reducing the process cycle times, managing recalls effectively, and continuously improving the product and process quality.

Consistency is an art when it comes to food and beverages quality management. It could help retain customers, saving your marketing costs to attract new customers.

How to Streamline Quality Management Processes in the Food and Beverages Industry?

Streamlining the quality management processes in the food and beverage industry can be challenging, but here are some sure shot ways to address quality management challenges:

Make sure everyone takes responsibility for the quality

One of the common mistakes that businesses make is designating a particular department for quality. Instead, everyone in the organization should feel equally responsible for ensuring product and process quality. Only then it is possible to create a culture of quality in the organization.

Instilling a quality culture requires commitment from everyone in the team. Each team member should work in accordance with best practices, demonstrating professionalism and commitment to quality. Once the quality is considered as teamwork, maintaining consistency in product quality will be easier. Eventually, it helps minimizing product recalls and associated overhead expenses.

Redefine processes to drive continuous improvements

It is rightly said that “You cannot expect the different results from doing the same thing over and over again.” But businesses still feel resistant to change because it sounds unsettling. The only way to escape this resistance and drive continuous improvements is by standardizing the change process.

Food and beverage companies should emphasize changing their processes to tweak out the inefficiencies and improve the product and process quality.  To ensure that you are investing your time and resources on the right kind of changes, get your team involved since they manage the processes daily. And they can point out the right things with the best suggestions.

Furthermore, team involvement will encourage engagement.

Identify and leverage training opportunities for increased productivity

A food and beverage company must have strong leadership in place to achieve quality objectives and offer the right training opportunities to their teams. Good ideas can come from employees at all levels of the organization, but leaders must guide those ideas into actual quality policy. In addition, all employees need to be trained on the new processes and best practices they will be expected to use. Make sure your employees are trained on implementing the changes for a smoother transition.

You can effectively adopt new techniques and technologies for food quality control training. With this, you can provide a better product to your customers.

Related Articles: Workplace Productivity Depends on Employee’s Training and Development

The next-generation quality management solution, delivered on a cloud platform, is a one-stop solution to help you manage all the processes, as mentioned earlier.

The software can help you connect all the quality processes into a complete solution that will prepare your solution for all the competitive challenges with cloud platform benefits, including flexibility, security, and reliability.

Can a Cloud-Based QMS Help to Ensure Food and Beverage Quality?

The answer is simple Yes!

A cloud based EQMS is the most reliable solution to manage and maintain food and beverage quality. Unlike traditional quality management systems, you need not invest much of your time in organizing paper-based documentation. The new-age software comes with the integration capability to connect all the quality processes without any hassles.

Upgrading to software is the first step towards the more significant change you want to bring in food and beverage quality management. From managing material inspections to collaborating with your teams for informed decision-making, everything will become efficient with cloud-based enterprise quality management software. And you will not miss any compliance guidelines too. Isn’t that cool?

Next, we will look at the other benefits you can experience by using the software.

What are the Benefits of Using Cloud-Based EQMS Solution for the Food and Beverages Industry?

The food and beverage companies that have a quality management system in place generally have:

• Better Business Processes
• Culture of Continuous Improvements
• Improved Customer Satisfaction
• Better Decision-Making Process
• Increased Employee Engagement
• Improved Supplier Relationships
• Controlled Overhead Expenses
• Reduced Product Recalls and Waste
• Better Compliance Management

Do you want to attain the highest quality and compliance standards for food and beverages while maintaining production efficiency and profitability? Use Qualityze EQMS Suite for Food and Beverages industry to manage, track, and monitor the quality and safety of products anywhere in the supply chain and comply easily with FDA, USDA, HACCP, and other applicable regulatory standards.

Using the Qualityze Quality and Compliance Management System, organizations can manage product quality, safety, or compliance issues across all production processes. With this cloud-based system, you can better control materials’ quality while preventing possible recalls from turning into costly production problems.

It automatically creates compliance audit trails and gathers the data into a centralized repository, which reduces regulatory compliance costs. The cloud platform enables you to track and access data up to the granular level and use that information to gain more visibility and control to protect your brand, market share, and reputation. It comes with electronic signature, audit trails, validation scripts, dashboards, alerts and notifications, superior reporting capabilities, and much more.

For more information, please get in touch with our customer success team at +1-877-207-8616 or email us at info@qualityze.com, and we will be there for you.

Automotive components manufacturers and suppliers may find it hard to expand their market share if their processes do not comply with IATF 16949 and other applicable regulatory requirements. In this post, we will look at the fundamentals of IATF 16949 and its benefits for organizations.

What is IATF 16949?

The IATF 16949 standard guides companies and enterprises to ensure consistent product quality and meet customer requirements. It also helps them continually improve their process approach for better quality and customer satisfaction. The IATF 16949 standard is generally used in conjunction with other ISO standards, including:

IATF 16949 – contains supplementary requirements specific to automotive quality management systems

ISO 9001 – specifies the requirements for a quality management system.

ISO 9000 – outlines the basic concepts of quality management

ISO 9004 – guides how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of quality management systems

ISO 19011 – guides on internal and external audits of quality management systems

ISO 31000 – outlines the principles and guidelines for risk management

IATF 16949 is specifically modified to escape automotive industry challenges in various models, complex designs, increasing competition, and stringent compliance requirements. It helps them focus on defect prevention and waste reduction in the global supply chain while complying with statuary and regulatory guidelines. Due to this, automotive companies witnessed a consistent growth from 56% to 82% within a few years.

Even for the customers expecting their vehicles to be safer, reliable, innovative, and better performing, automotive companies maintain a competitive edge with a comprehensive quality management system that can help

• Maintain defect-free supply chains.
• Assess internal processes for regular improvements
• Streamline and standardize change management processes
• Provide compliance training to employees and suppliers.
• Manage customer complaints more effectively and efficiently
• Inspect the incoming materials and components.
• Manage equipment calibration and maintenance schedules.
• Manage critical documents without compromising security.
• Demonstrate compliance with the regulatory requirements.

Let’s face it; the traditional quality management systems may not be effective and efficient to handle the modern automotive quality challenges. The disconnected quality systems can lead to traceability issues, thus impacting the organization’s decision-making ability.

It implies the need for implementing an IATF 16949 Quality Management Software that can help streamline all quality processes while complying with the applicable regulatory standards.

Benefits of implementing an IATF 16949 QMS Software:

Improved Brand Credibility and Image

It has become rather crucial for automotive companies to set up closed-loop quality management systems that use the internationally recognized standard IATF 16949. Even when business owners look for a service provider of QMS, they look for a solution based on IATF 16949 to attain a competitive edge without any restrictions.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Creating an IATF 16949 compliant quality management system requires proper planning and streamlining processes that increase customer satisfaction. Standard practices like these ensure that you strive to meet the customer’s expectations. Improved customer satisfaction will lead to higher retention rates, increasing the likelihood of repeat business for you. Always remember – maintaining a loyal customer base depends on keeping them happy.

Process-Based Approach and Continual Improvement

You can maintain the sequence and interactions of the processes in a way that promotes efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and improvement by implementing an IATF 16949 QMS Software. Implementing the IATF 16949 certified Quality Management System also streamlines the global supply chain processes, thereby reducing waste and recalls.

Increased Employee Engagement and Empowerment

Employees are more engaged when they are involved in the improvement processes. It also increases their productivity. Training is one of the necessary means to boost employee engagement and productivity. An effective EQMS helps you to;

• Define quality objectives for your team.
• Communicate with your team more effectively.
• Identify and organize the right training opportunities.
• Review performance trends and continuously improve.
• Collaborate and make better business decisions.
• Improved Decision-Making Processes

The quality management solution aligned with IATF 16949 evidence-based decision-making enhances the decision-making ability of automobile companies. From investing in the right suppliers to implementing action plans, a QMS helps establish best practice workflows for every process. The data insights can make a significant difference in terms of improving quality in making critical decisions.

Create a Culture of Continuous Improvements

Quality management principles under IATF 16949 emphasize continuous improvement. As you adopt this culture to improve your processes and organizational output, you will discover effective, efficient, and cost-savvy ways, along with the ability to reduce the impact of problems and speed up recovery. In making this a continual process and striving to improve it every year, the company can see endless benefits.

Waste Elimination and Cost Savings

Using the IATF 16949 process approach, you can improve the efficiency of the processes where interactions take place. And, streamlining the process will reduce waste and recalls, resulting in cost savings.

Which Companies Should Implement IATF 16949 QMS?

Companies that want to offer products to the automotive industry will find it beneficial and necessary to implement IATF 16949 QMS Software Solutions. It helps them to deliver consistent quality products while achieving compliance with IATF and ISO 9001 requirements.

Related Article: What is the difference between ISO 9001 and IATF 16949

How to Choose Best IATF 16949 QMS?

Choosing the right IATF 16949 Quality Management System can be tedious due to the variety of online options. Here’s are few steps to guide through IATF 16949 QMS selection:

• Know your requirements well.

Knowing your requirements will help you sort the suitable options for your business. An uninformed purchase could cost you more than expected.

• Determine the knowledge and expertise of your solution provider.

It is crucial to know whether your solution provider has enough knowledge and expertise in the domain. Only then will they be able to deliver the right solution for your business-specific needs.

• Ask for the platform and technology they use.

It is essential to ask your solution provider about the platform and technology used because it tells a lot about the reliability of the solution you are going to implement. Or you may end up risking your business-critical data to unauthorized users.

• Evaluate the cost-savings precisely.

You must evaluate the cost-savings precisely because a software solution could include implementation costs, maintenance costs, technical support, and upgrade expenses. Consider all these aspects before investing in an IATF 16949 Quality Management System.

• Cross-check their references.

It will help if you cross-check the references that your QMS provider shares. It demonstrates their credibility and trustworthiness.

• Ask for a demo for detailed insights.

You must ask for a product demo or trial to get more insights into the solution. Most importantly, its user interface. It will help you choose a quality management solution that your team can quickly learn and use.

• Stick to the compliance requirements.

Last but not least, it is all about meeting the compliance requirements. Ask your provider how the solution will help meeting compliance and quality requirements. Is the solution integration-enabled? When it comes to compliance, you must have your data stored and secured in one place for improved decision-making.

If the selection process looks time-consuming, we have a time-savvy recommendation for you. It is Qualityze EQMS Suite.

The Qualityze Enterprise Quality Management Solution helps meet your quality, compliance, and regulatory requirements by leveraging industry best practices with standardized, repeatable processes through easy-to-configure, predefined workflow templates. Our integrated design connects all the QMS processes for a complete solution.

Qualityze EQMS Suite is specifically designed to align its processes with quality objectives and strategic metrics. We aim to improve organizations’ maturity and prepare them for competitive changes with Smarter Quality Solutions.

Qualityze, built upon the world’s most secure and reliable platform, Salesforce.com, enables your quality teams to manage end-to-end quality processes from anywhere around the globe.

Are you ready to transform your business QMS into a quality decision-making engine?

Get in touch with our customer success team at info@qualityze.com or call us on 1-877-207-8616, and we will be right there for you.