MRP Enables Accurate QOS Reporting
MRP Enables Accurate QOS Reporting
Many manufacturing companies subscribe to quality systems, which are put in place to assure companies that want to do business with a firm, that the firm has an established quality system. These systems include ISO-9000, AS-9100 and TS-16949.One of these, TS-16949 has a requirement for what is known as a QOS or a quality operating system.
A quality operating system or QOS is a system of measures across the entire organization, which is put in place to monitor the effectiveness of the company and its ability to produce quality products and services. Quality measurements are technically a non-value added process since they don’t directly relate to the actual production of goods so it is important that the labor to collect and distribute these measurements is kept to a minimum.
The best way to keep QOS costs to a minimum is to implement manufacturing software, specifically ERP software. ERP software is best because like QOS it is enterprise, or company wide. We will take a look at QOS and where ERP software can be employed.
Common measures include PPM or percent of defects both internal and external and on time delivery percentage. Also measured is suppler quality based on PPM of reject raw materials received.
The measure of PPM or parts per million is often used, especially the automotive and electronics industries. Percentage reporting is generally not found in QOS systems. Without MRP or ERP software, calculating PPMs can be a time consuming procedure. It amounts to gathering data on total parts produced, total parts shipped, total internal defects, and total defects that reached the customer. These statistics are often gathered up in the first week of every month, for the previous month. This means that there is an effective lag in reporting and a lag in detecting issues.
On top of this is detailed analysis of the reject data. What the top offending issues are, what is the percentage of each? In fact you can be well on your way to the second month before you completely dissect the first month.
Using ERP software, parts or units can be counted as they ship. Defects are also entered in as they are produced, effectively giving real time internal PPM measurements. In fact most ERP software packages give quality amusements that can be customized so the PPM is effectively analyzed on a continual basis. By eliminating the lag in reporting quality can be improved by checking the data on a daily basis
For problems that manage to escape, the scenario is very similar. Using the ERP software, customer service enters customer complaints into the system as they are received. In most cases quality also has access to amend this data when returned parts are actually analyzed. As with the internal rejects, this data is analyzed as soon as it is entered into the system. The external PPM is displayed along with trend charts and other analysis tools available in the ERP software.
Finally, supplier issues are tracked in the same fashion. Total quantities are entered as the materials are received in the ERP system. The purchasing manager will enter in rejects as they occur and just like internal and external PPM, The ERP software will calculate PPM on a real time basis.
Similar functions exist in ERP software for on time delivery and a host of other customizable measurements. By using the quality module of ERP systems, quality can be improved on a real time basis. Compared to the cost, the results are priceless.
