An investment in an industrial measurement, testing and quality assurance system is simultaneously an investment in quality and brand reliability. It enables delivery of high-quality and long-life products to customers and frees up valuable resources for more productive tasks. In fact, verified and tested quality is an excellent way to set apart from competitors and achieve a remarkable competitive edge.
However, a new system alone does not solve challenges or bring competitive advantage as such. In order that the system can genuinely benefit operations and help manage and control quality, it must be successfully implemented and put into practice as part of daily operating models and processes.
Six steps of the implementation project for a quality assurance system
Implementation of a measurement, testing and quality assurance system always depends on each particular case. This process is dependent, among other things, on existing systems and the level of earlier measurement and testing. Nevertheless, the implementation process most often proceeds via the following six steps:
- Predesign and needs analysis
- System configuration and design
- System implementation
- Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) of the system
- System deployment and Site Acceptance Test (SAT)
- System maintenance and updating
While all these six steps are important and support each other, the predesign step and needs analysis play the most important role in the entire implementation project.
Predesign defines the needs, wants and restrictions
The most important step of a successful and cost-effective project is a comprehensive predesign step carried out together with a competent partner. Investments made during the predesign step will be recouped many times during the project.
First, it is important to define the role of the system in the plant operations: what kind of benefits are sought and how is the system integrated into the other systems used by the organization. Modern measurement, testing and quality assurance systems are not independent units but linked to the other production systems via interfaces.
The predesign step consists of a jointly defined preliminary list of wants, expected benefits and challenges that the system needs to deal with. Important elements of the needs analysis include:
- What are the wants and needs of the employees that actually use the system?
- What kind of restrictions do the current production and system package set?
- What information is needed from production for reporting, for example?
On the other hand, it is also advisable to differentiate between needs and wants. Which are the aspects or features that the system should absolutely have and which are desired but not necessary characteristics? A list of important and desired features helps the system provider evaluate what is essential and worth of concentrating on in the final implementation.
It is the system supplier’s responsibility to perform a careful background analysis and predesign step to identify the customer’s wants and needs with a sufficient accuracy. An experienced system partner can also give guidance and advice in making selections: it is good to jointly reflect upon what is worth testing and measuring and why – while at the same time paying attention to system restrictions.
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