Digital quality system, ICT or quality?

Quality management software, does it really add value to your organization? Can’t see the forest for the trees? With more than 30 years of experience in quality management we have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t. But quality management has also changed so it’s important that your digital quality system has grown with it.

 

Digital quality system, ICT or quality?

When you read about quality management software, it is almost always about the power of ICT. While it should actually be about quality and in addition how to organize that smartly with each other. The definition of quality was developed by our colleagues from LeanQuality already well articulated.

Because quality is what makes everyone happy. Your colleagues, but also your manager, your stakeholders, such as the government, and yes maybe also the quality manager. So it’s better to talk about a digital business management system.

 

The beginnings of quality systems

In the 1980s/90s, industry was flooded with the ISO 9001 standard. To standardize activities and operations within organizations, work instructions and procedures were written down. Employees were expected to know these and act exactly according to them. To avoid misunderstandings with “illegal” executions, stamps with “controlled document” were used. Even colored paper was also used.

 

Emergence of digital quality system

The 1990s saw the rise of the IT industry. This overwhelmed the quality world with the first digital quality management software. However, these were more document management systems. With flashy portals like intranets or digital quality manuals, paper flow was slowly reduced. But it also created unnecessary functions and complexity. The quality manager and secretariats even had to go on training for some packages.

 

Evolution of ISO9001

The new version of ISO9001:2015 includes a number of improvements. For document management, a number of obligations fall away. In addition, the quality manual is no longer mandatory. However, much more important is the shift from document management to process-oriented collaboration. Understanding your business processes, their interrelationships and the process is the most important requirement here. Document management becomes a tool instead of a goal and the quality system more of a business system. It also follows that documented information, proof and result of processes have a much more important role. A modern quality management software system should therefore be able to easily secure these aspects.

 

Summary: digital quality systems

Use the process-oriented approach as a basis when setting up your quality system.

One of the practical possibilities is to use the waterfall model with SQeME

• Clearly define the needs of your quality system, what do you want to achieve and who are your customers?
• Make sure you have flexibility to cater to everyone.
• Ensure scalability of your system, start simple and build out later.
• Also true here is modeling first and then possibly automating with digital web forms.
• Consider the maintenance and management of your system, this is often where there are hidden costs or unnecessary complexity
• Systems that build a shell around Microsoft Office products (Word/Visio/Excel) or Share Point often work with complicated subordinate protocols or hyperlinks. The influence on Microsoft when changes occur is small, so the dependency is high.

Applications of digital quality systems

With a digital quality system, you ensure that you can guarantee quality in an efficient way. This applies to the quality of your service or product as well as your processes. With a digital quality system you can easily share information between all layers within the company. You can also automate work processes by digitizing forms, for example by having quality checks completed automatically with the use of smart forms. LeanForms helps you with the software for digitizing you and advises on the use of your digital quality system.