Unite Quality and Production
Reduce the cost of quality & see real-time trends
Chasing Manufacturing Quality Issues
Numerous factors can contribute to quality issues on the line, but as manufacturers react to reoccurring issues each day, they risk putting more strain on existing resources, driving up costs for rework or recalls, and causing long product hold times. Plants with more visibility and control over their production quality can detect and act on quality issues quickly, allowing resources to be utilized for revenue-generating operations. These issues increase the cost of quality and erode margins.
Key Issues Impacting Quality
Labor Shortage: Without a reliable and properly trained workforce supporting each line, manufacturers are struggling to meet production requirements on time.
In an effort to keep lines moving, companies are asking non-line workers (such as a Production Manager) to work on the line in order to back-fill manual line tasks and avoid having to shut the line down. Other companies are hiring unskilled workers, who require more time training, and are more prone to making errors. Line supervisors are often pulled away from other duties to correct these errors, or if there is high turnover, hire and train more inexperienced workers.
Non-Compliance Happens: How you handle them can be the difference between a line slow-down, shut-down, or worse – catching the problem late and scrapping a batch.
Give your teams a tool that alerts a supervisor when a NC occurs, and a simple digital review and sign-off that keeps auditors happy and the line running smoothly.
Overfill / Overweight / High-Yield: Many plants do not have a way to validate the accuracy of their manual ingredient application processes, which could result in a product defect.
Poor product quality control can cause havoc on you ability to hit production numbers and keep customers happy. It can cause rework, added expenses for labor, reduce margins and worse – jeopardize a customer relationship. Give QA and QC teams the right tools to keep customers happy.
Gain More Visibility and Control Over Production Quality
Replacing manual processes for automated ones will deliver far more control over the quality and speed of production lines. By connecting machine data and using digital forms on mobile devices, manufacturers can detect and address potential quality issues before they get worse. For example:
- Labor Shortage: Time savings from improved new-hire training, and in the validation of process accuracy, allows supervisors more time to focus on other critical issues.
- Digitizing training materials through digital forms can help extend training materials across the plant, enforce training processes, and provide regular reports and real-time visibility to training progress.
- Non-Compliance: Digitizing all process steps that are mapped to compliance regulations saves time in submitting and validating the accuracy of compliance-related documentation.
- These digital records are automatically stored in the cloud creating a “digital binder” for easier, faster audits. You’ll know that 100% of the records are in order without having to double and triple check work already done.
- Overfill / Overweight / High-Yield: Digitally documenting process steps/measurements allows QA leaders to see where there are gaps in accuracy and quickly correct the issue before it turns into a rework or waste situation.
- QA and QC teams are often thought of as a cost center but can drive productivity with better tools. Adding in-process checks through the use of digital forms will ensure operators enter the accurate measurements by validating the information, before allowing the operator to proceed to the next process step. In addition, having real-time access to in-process quality checks will show how high or low an attribute may be heading based on historical trends.
“SafetyChain is helping us eliminate the time-consuming, manual processes associated with our rigorous SQF program – and more efficiently manage our overall FSQA plans.”
– Bob B. | Operations Manager | Ipswich Shellfish Group