Hurry Up! It is Time to Modernize Quality Processes in the Manufacturing Industry

The convergence of digital technologies is now playing a key role in driving the competitive advantages of a manufacturing company. As a result of Industry 4.0, which includes technologies such as advanced analytics, digital processes, artificial intelligence, and automation — the digitalization of manufacturing has had a transformative effect on the operations, processes, and even energy footprint of factories and supply chains.

However, a Grand View Research report from May 2021 on digital transformation states that the manufacturing sector in emerging economies has a slower adoption rate of advanced technologies.

Although cutting-edge companies embraced the digital transformation journey, other manufacturing companies were slower to transform. Since the onset of the pandemic, increased production timelines, the need for greater supply chain resilience, lack of materials, and increased costs have had a strong impact on the manufacturing industry, compelling them to accelerate digitization. Additionally, those looking to change the face of their organizations through digital transformation initiatives must adopt and implement best practices and assess the impact of an electronic quality management system.

As part of our Manufacturing Spotlight Webinar Series, we presented a webinar titled: The Drive to Modernize Quality. Watch it here and learn about best practices to accelerate the digital transformation of quality processes.

Common Challenges in the Manufacturing Industry from a Quality Management Perspective

The challenges in the manufacturing industry can be classified into four areas of concern — suppliers, production, customer excellence, and quality. As data is not available across the board, using only a “system of record” creates several bottlenecks for decision-making.

Businesses currently using an on-premise legacy system find that their process-driven, waterfall approach creates disconnected systems and silos. This restricts innovation and governance, creating a reactive system that leads to several challenges such as:

• Inability to respond in a timely manner to various demands and fluctuating market conditions while maintaining high quality and safety
• Improper course correction due to lack of real-time or timely visibility on performance data from across business units
• Incapacity to keep pace with technology shifts that demand new models of engagement and participation across customer, employee, and supplier value streams
• Constrained continuous improvement (CI) due to lack of process harmonization across business units
• Difficulty in adhering to regulatory compliance due to the geopolitical situations

Quality and safety management has become increasingly complex and has implications in six main areas of an enterprise’s value chain. They are —

• Design – Introduce quality and safety into the product right from the design stage
• Supply chain – Ensure suppliers are sensitized on the vitality of meeting quality parameters and receipt of high-quality goods from best-performing suppliers
• Manufacturing – Embed quality and safety into each step of the manufacturing and assembly process
• Logistics – Ensure safe delivery of quality goods to distributors and customers
• Sales – Sell the product at its best quality possible
• Customer – Gather feedback on the experience, quality, and performance and act upon the feedback as part of organizational continual improvement process

Embracing Modern Technology to Enhance Quality Metrics

Automation solutions throughout the organization will have a cascading effect on areas such as quality that require businesses to rethink their current approach and help improve quality throughout the organization using these modern technologies.

• Create a system for automated management overview that includes
  • Dashboards for a seamless management review
  • Reports and predictive analytics using data
• A unified system consisting of best practices, integrated, and highly configurable workflows for
  • Document, Training, Change Management
  • Operational Risk Management
  • Regulatory Reporting
  • Supplier Engagement
  • Complaints Management
  • Nonconformance and CAPA with a tie-in to ERP
• Adopt advanced AI capabilities such as
  • Chat Bots
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Vision/Image Processing
  • Intelligent Searches
  • AI-based Trends and Automated Actions

A cloud-based solution such as the Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS) from ComplianceQuest built on the Salesforce.com platform — is designed to optimize and automate all key quality-related processes in the manufacturing sector. Prioritizing closed-loop processes, operational flexibility, and quality-compliant products, the ComplianceQuest EQMS helps manufacturing clients create and execute a compliance strategy to help them stay competitive in a constantly changing world. The cloud-based system also addresses the regulatory needs of the manufacturing industry, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OSHAS 18001/ISO 45001, ISO 31000, and GHGRP (greenhouse gas reporting program).

Guiding Principles of ComplianceQuest’s Next-Generation EQMS

Businesses considering moving from legacy quality management systems must explore emerging technologies, including AI and predictive intelligence. ComplianceQuest’s next-generation EQMS relies on five core principles that prioritize innovation:

1. The core promise of quality and safety makes life easier and more efficient for leaders and decision-makers.
2. A seamless and intuitive user experience makes the overall product and solution simple, easily scalable, and accessible.
3. Built for seamless collaboration, reuse, and integration with data at its core approach.
4. The ComplianceQuest solution is built for both standardization and flexibility – and can work, both off-the-shelf and with customizations as per customer requirements.
5. An agile platform that supports proactive change and continuous improvement (CI) across quality, design, systems, business processes, and people.

Benefits of Using ComplianceQuest EQMS to Modernize Quality Workflows

CQ Quality Management Solution allows companies to evolve from reacting to quality events to adopting a more predictive and proactive quality management approach while continuously improving effectiveness and efficiency.

Our solution has significantly helped businesses across the enterprise value chain, including customer complaint management, employee engagement, cost of quality, employee onboarding and training time, customer satisfaction, and more.

This blog is based on the Manufacturing Spotlight Series webinar ‘The Drive to Modernize Quality.’ To know more about the solution, request a demo, and we can share more insights on CQ’s integrated EQMS: https://www.compliancequest.com/online-demo