EQMS Implementations: Need vs. Speed

It’s fairly obvious to anyone with their eye on industrial operations that manufacturing has increased in speed tremendously over the past few decades due to several factors like automation, increased collaboration across departments, analytics that allow greater agility and responsiveness, and others. This is true in virtually all industry verticals.

But what about quality?

What may be less obvious to the onlooker but is no less true is the parallel pressure that’s been placed on quality organizations to elevate their systems and processes to deliver ever-higher quality and consistency in products. Spurred on by factors like increasingly global and disparate suppliers, tightening regulations and compliance initiatives, and immediate potential for brand and reputation damage via social media, the writing is on the wall that the processes and systems of yesteryear are no longer cutting it. Today, with increasing frequency, this is taking the shape of Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS) implementations. But aren’t these a major undertaking. Yes, mostly—but not out of pure necessity.

Companies are faced with two intersecting imperatives: Implement the right processes and technology (an onerous and challenging task under any timetable), and do it quickly to head off these above issues before they cause a disastrous recall, non-compliance event, or otherwise. Below I’ll give three considerations for getting your company on the track for rapid and successful EQMS deployments that drive speedy ROI.

Rapid EQMS Deployment Scoping: A Key Building Block

It’s important to have the right mindset from the get-go with your EQMS plans, and part of this is not having overly starry eyes. Be sure that you have an agreed upon scope from all stakeholders before beginning anything. Settling on a well-defined and narrow initial scope typically aids in delivering that sought after ROI speed. Another way to quickly get on the road to success is to seek out and providers that offer out-of-the-box configurations, and use these as much as possible according to your goals.

Using Standard Libraries and Dashboards for Rapid Information

An EQMS provider with a high degree of maturity and capability will have a core set of reports and capabilities housed within the solution. Making use of a platform’s standard reports library is important for rapid deployment and ROI. When this is done, intelligence is quickly gathered and insight extends as the organization grows into the fully functional deployment. Predefined analytics and dashboards provide immediate visibility and free up your organization’s time and resources to focus on interrogating data in different ways to gain further strategic insight and maintain compliance.

Training and Support for Continuous Improvement

When quick deployment and ROI is a critical goal with EQMS, training and support must be compressed and focused efforts that outline crystal clear responsibilities and channels to facilitate fast response. It is a best practice for a cross-functional selection and implementation team to take responsibility for ongoing organizational readiness for the EQMS module roll-out. As regional and plant level champions, these individuals must be fast tracked in their understanding of the scope and should become the level one support personnel internally with an easy escalation path available to them.

Join the Webinar Thursday June 18 at 11:00 am EDT

From well before an initial list of potential providers is made to the last keystroke is made, your chances of success are greatly enhanced if everything is planned out in advance with the right responsibilities and empowerment delegated.

Be sure to join me for a free informative webinar this coming Thursday at 11:00 am EDT. I will be getting deeper into the specifics of correctly preparing and organizing your company to align its people, streamline its processes, and carefully select and precision implement technology that will allow your organization to quickly and successfully derive speedy and targeted ROI, helping to counteract quality imperatives, both internal and external.