Manufacturers now realize that quality control no longer can be siloed in a single department but rather needs to be extended throughout the enterprise. This requires a technology-based enterprise quality management system (EQMS) that enables closed-loop quality, a strategy model in which quality data flows across the functional levels of a manufacturing enterprise.
At Ultra Machining Company (UMC), a Monticello, Minn.-based maker of precision parts and assemblies for the aerospace and medical markets, the caliper-and-clipboard approach yielded great results for many years, chiefly due to the efforts of one highly skilled quality manager. This manager developed an integrated paper-based quality system that brought together details and documents from across the company, which helped establish sound processes and a reputation for excellence for UMC.
However, when the veteran employee finally retired after 35 years, the company saw the need for a EQMS solution to replace that manual system. UMC implemented a combination enterprise resource planning and quality management system, as described in a case study by IQS, a quality management solutions vendor based in North Olmsted, Ohio.
UMC found that by centralizing data collection and implementing document control on the shop floor, quality processes could be standardized. Describing the results of the deployment, a business manager at the company said that because quality data flows through the plant in real time, UMC, through information, can react more quickly.
In addition, because it is an enterprise system, any revision, nonconformance, or decision to change a control plan or an inspection plan is immediately replicated throughout the system, so that everyone across multiple operations is working from the same data at all times. This translates to faster turnarounds and better decision-making, she said.
It is through improved visibility and effective metrics that enterprise quality systems can raise profitability for manufacturing organizations, says Michael Rapaport, CEO of IQS, speaking with ThomasNet News. “If we can help reduce or prevent failures from occurring,” he said, “we will improve the bottom line, increase customer satisfaction, reduce cost from scrap and extra labor, and enjoy a much better relationship with customers and suppliers.”
In many industries, such as life sciences and food manufacturing, federal regulations are pushing manufacturers toward closed-loop quality, said Walt Murray, director of quality and compliance consulting at MasterControl, a developer of quality management solutions headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Murray told ThomasNet News that companies in tight quality environments need “to take customer complaints or issues, formalize the lessons learned, and feed those back into the system.”
That can take place at the design or planning level or during management review, which leads to the creation of a closed-loop quality system where all elements become integrated, he says. This leads to an environment of continuous improvement.
“The number-one thing you need is a central repository of all the latest quality data in one place, so you have a single version of the truth,” Rapaport said of EQMS.
Rapaport adds that EQMS must integrate well with other enterprise solutions. He says 95 percent of IQS’s quality system installations involve integration with another enterprise-based system like enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution system, or manufacturing operations management system, in order to facilitate data interoperability.
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This article was originally published on ThomasNet News Industry Market Trends and is reprinted with permission from Thomas Industrial Network. For more stories like this please visit Industry Market Trends.