Manufacturing Process Automation: Best in Class

When it comes to quality assurance don’t you want to do what’s best? Best for you, best for your organization, and most importantly, what’s best for your customers! It makes complete sense to us! There are so many things to evaluate, consider and decide when it comes to quality systems. It’s nice when there is a framework that helps define this. In that spirit, our team has developed a series of industry-specific workflows that come preloaded into your system at the time of install. They are referred to as our “Best in Class” (or BIC) workflows.

One person on our team very familiar with these workflows and their value is Product Consultant (aka “Storyteller & Training Guru”), Patrick Hatcher. “These Best in Class workflows are what best represent what our customers need based on our 25 years of experience,” Patrick shared. After seeing commonalities across customer industry segments we vetted them internally and then also discussed them with customers. The end result is workflows that are industry-specific and preloaded into your system at the time of install.

What should more people know about BIC?

“There is no additional charge to use these workflows because we want to provide relevant solutions to our customers,” said Patrick. While we sometimes find that these workflows require no modifications from customers, they have the added bonus of being easily customizable. The knowledge needed is shared during the implementation phase and on site training, so you are equipped to make those modifications. Patrick affirmed, “We give you everything you need to put these workflows into action and easily modify as needed.”

Another awesome aspect of our workflows is that they come configured with “launching” capabilities. Meaning, during one of the workflows you could launch another workflow in response to the output of the first. For example, if your internal audit results in a finding, a corrective action is launched. The two instances are then tied for reporting purposes, giving you the ability to see the relationship between the internal audit results and the corrective actions. Paper processes do not have this same cohesive functionality that also creates process traceability.

We developed these best in class workflows to get you one step closer to deploying your system to your team. You have the choice to use them as is or make changes to match your processes. Either way, it is a great option to reducing your implementation timeline plus helping you to meet your compliance standards. Here are the five best-in-class workflows we feel confident bring tremendous value to our manufacturer customers!

1. Corrective Action Request (CAR)

The Corrective Action Request workflow tracks progress from reporting possible nonconforming work to verification, implementation, and effectiveness verification. This workflow is automatically launched based off of the findings of an Internal Audit.

Regulatory standards require a corrective action process and this one makes it easy for manufacturers.

High visibility and accountability are key to ensuring these processes are completed in a timely manner. If an auditor has a finding then a corrective action is almost always going to occur after, because you have to demonstrate how you plan to fix the problem. This workflow makes capturing that information straightforward and adds  safeguards to create conditions for success and continuous improvement.

2. Internal Audit

The Internal Audit process captures the assigning, auditing, and reviewing of subsequent findings which launch the Corrective Action Request (CAR) workflow.  It is also another requirement from regulatory compliance bodies. It helps you both schedule and perform the audit, which can be a bottleneck for many people. It also helps get feedback from the right people and creates visibility around the process.

With this workflow you are able to streamline your internal audit process, increase accountability across audit teams, and ease audit scheduling. We know it is important to receive all assessor notes and supporting documentation in a single location and gain consistency year over year.

3. Management Review

Management Review processes tend to have a great degree of variability from one manufacturing organization to another. With this process, you can simplify the collection of evidence files for management review.

This workflow encompasses scheduling of the annual review of the management system to include identifying areas to be examined and subsequent feedback from involved parties. It also maintains meeting documentation and necessary follow-up actions.

4. Supplier and Vendor Evaluation and Approval

The Supplier/Vendor Evaluation & Approval workflow manages requests for the evaluation of suppliers or vendors of critical consumables, supplies, and services which affect the quality of manufacturing processes and operations.

Maintaining supplier and vendor evaluation and approval is another requirement from regulatory bodies. This workflow allows you to evaluate new suppliers but also provides a list of currently approved suppliers and vendors. The benefit is that there is traceability within the blockchain, which essentially means you’re able to trace all the pieces and parts that ultimately resulted in the finished product.

This workflow is also living and breathing. Sure, there will be new vendors that will be vetted but existing vendors can be reevaluated as problems arise. That establishes a centralized system for ensuring only the best vendors are being used and sub-par vendors are moved to an unapproved list.

5. Customer Complaints

The  Customer Complaints workflow tracks customer complaints from receipt through review, root cause analysis, response, and if necessary, corrective action. Maintain and improve your customer satisfaction through consistent customer feedback collection and reporting. Not only does our workflow capture all of that data but more importantly, it creates the ability to report on that data and track trending over a period of time. Better understanding sources of customer complaints is within reach, thanks to this workflow.

Why are Best in Class workflows helpful?

Patrick shared, “Some of our new customers don’t have a process in place and lean on industry best-practices to form their foundation.”  Let’s take a manufacturing corrective action process as an example. If this process is not yet in place our Best in Class workflow can be used as-is, to quickly implement and advance.  

Not only are they great as-is, they can be modified with ease, as needed. For example, BIC workflows are crucial for those who have a corrective process that lacks efficiency. Customers who find themselves in this situation can take our best in class workflows and update them to match their current process, while still gaining the efficiency that Qualtrax provides.

Another major value add is how these workflows give our customers the one thing they simply can’t get more of: time. The time required to implement and get a customer up and running in Qualtrax is reduced greatly by BIC workflows, because they are intentionally crafted to minimize set-up and training time.

A lot of our customers just don’t have the time or manpower to implement a whole new solution and create new workflow content, while still maintaining daily quality operations.  Having pre-made workflows available gets them up and running, and saves valuable time doing so.

What’s Next?

Right now we have five core best-in-class workflows for manufacturers because we know these are critical processes that are expected by regulatory bodies. However, just as our customers must pursue continuous improvement, so must we. Our teams are already evaluating other key compliance workflows to share–so stay tuned!

 

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