Quality is an important value for us Finns. When we speak of quality, we speak with pride. The idea that one can always trust the Finnish quality and that it is worth paying for has been instilled in all of us.
Quality is an important value for us Finns. When we speak of quality, we speak with pride. The idea that one can always trust the Finnish quality and that it is worth paying for has been instilled in all of us.
A significant proportion of Finnish companies state that they make great efforts to ensure the reliability, security and quality of products. For many, it is also an important competitive advantage particularly on the global market. But what does the practical implementation of the quality promise require? Is it sufficient to believe that everyone performs their work diligently every day and every hour? In other words, how are the promises kept in practical terms? Unfortunately, in many manufacturing organizations, quality is not adequately measured or ensured, yet there are simple technological solutions to solve the problem.
Customer expectations for products and their quality are continuously increasing and we should quite simply be able to ensure the quality perceived by the customer if we want to successfully deal with competition. In many manufacturing companies, however, the validity of customer promises is measured and verified with varying success. Testing and ensuring quality are not necessarily included in the daily procedures or management agendas, or no process owners, let alone an appropriate system, have been assigned for these tasks. Everyone who gives a quality promise or is responsible for delivering on it should personally assess how the production quality would pass a scan if one would take place today.
Claims are one of the most common quality problems faced by manufacturing companies. Awareness of claims is usually very good, they are even considered as expected, and a lot of time, effort and money are used for subsequent work. Why then, instead of processing claims, would we not invest directly in their prevention and customer relationship management? This would already be the right road, a path towards growth.
Some of the most common quality problems and their consequences are:
Most of these problems could be largely prevented with the right technology.
It is rarely simple or easy to give a quality promise to the customer and then deliver on this promise. However, where we can simplify things, for example, is to promise that each product has been tested in a way that it withstands close examination. We have already come a long way if we can promise that the number of human errors within Quality Assurance has been minimized using technological means.
An automated test application takes care of the management of the entire test process as well as the production of reports to various stakeholders.
Quality assurance is not so demanding and expensive as people often tend to believe. For example, a quality and test system pays itself back, at best, through a single low-quality product batch thanks to avoidance of claims and associated costs.
When a test system is taken into use together with a professional and the process is well planned, the new operating procedure will benefit the entire organization. Then data is collected from different places and process stages of the production line, and data is produced not only for the tester, but also for others.
By integrating intelligent technology into the test system, it is possible to create an environment that increases the efficiency of many functions. An automated test application takes care of the management of the entire test process as well as the production of reports to various stakeholders. Testing can be carried out on several different lines for a number of different product groups even simultaneously, in accordance with the requirements set to each product, and all data is merged and stored in one and the same system.
With various interfaces, data produced by the test system can be made available, in addition to the product owner and testers, to Quality Monitoring, Product Development, Work Supervision and Customers. Entire production chains including subsuppliers can also be linked to one and the same test and quality management system. In this way, quality can be monitored constantly and developed systematically and automatically.