General Manufacturing Change Control Software Systems

General Manufacturing Change Control Software Systems Automate Manual Change Control Processes to Improve Product Quality and Conform to ISO Standards

In the ISO environment, the concept of change control is closely interwoven with conformance. ISO-certified manufacturers are expected to establish change control procedures as a way of improving overall product quality. ISO 9000 requires management to examine all changes that might affect the quality of the general manufacturing change control system. ISO 14000 requires correction of nonconformities, including modification of documents, and at the same time maintaining procedures to control documents.

Watch Videos How MasterControl Makes Your Job Easier (3:50) Creating a Paperless Process Using MasterControl (3:38) Saving Time with MasterControl (3:29)

How can MasterControl General Manufacturing Change Control Software Benefit You?

MasterControl's general manufacturing change control software is integrated with the MasterControl suite of quality management software solutions. It has been designed for manufacturers of all kinds to automate and effectively manage every step of the change control process, from submission through actual implementation, verification, and close of project. Here's how MasterControl can ease some of the major challenges in change control.

Manufacturing Change Control Challenges		MasterControl Change Control Solutions
Disconnected Processes Communication breakdown is likely to happen in companies that rely on disparate tools and processes to manage the manufacturing change control system. In the context of change control, this could mean lack of follow-up, late notifications, and tasks not completed by deadline. Suppliers could be making changes without proper and timely notification.		Connected MasterControl's general manufacturing change control software is an integrated solution that connects different departments with data and processes under a secure and centralized system. This connectivity vastly improves efficiency through automatic task assignment, routing, scheduling, notification, and escalation of incomplete tasks. MasterControl is Web-based, so even suppliers and others outside the company (off-site or traveling employees) who need to participate in change control can do so from virtually anywhere.
Poor Turn-Around Timeliness is essential in change control. A manual general manufacturing change control system that relies on paper-based documents to generate necessary data and old-fashioned legwork to route and track submissions and change orders is likely to have poor turn-around for change		Excellent Turn-Around MasterControl integrates and streamlines the entire change control procedure for faster turn-around. It offers a best-practice form that incorporates priority level (by identifying the change as routine or temporary or emergency), as well as escalations. Plus, reports provide real-time status for all change control tasks.
Training not Integrated with Change In a manual system, it is difficult for employees to keep up with all the changes in SOPs, policies, and other critical documentation because the training process is not connected to the rest of the quality system.		Integrates Training With MasterControl's general manufacturing change control software system, the change control process can be integrated with the training application. Any change to a document that warrants new training will automatically invoke training tasks. MasterControl can automate the process of distributing online exams with the training, and even includes automatic grading.

Features of General Manufacturing Change Control Software

Change control is a complex process, but MasterControl's general manufacturing change control software can help general manufacturers standardize and simplify change control procedures in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness. MasterControl Change Control includes:

Best-Practice Form A pre-configured, multi-page form helps collect and track data every step of the way in the change control process: submission, evaluation, approval/ rejection, implementation, verification, and close of project.

• A section in the change submission form captures such information as: description of change, justification, and impact. Both original and revised documents can be attached for easy comparison.
• An initiator can use one form for multiple changes, depending on how many documents/items are affected by a change. For example, the form for a change in a component used in making 10 products can have 10 attachments, greatly streamlining the process.
• The initiator is asked to evaluate the change in terms of training, validation, and regulatory requirements, prompting risk assessment within the general manufacturing change control software. It also asks for classification of the change as low, medium, and high. Any high-level change implies great impact on the product and is likely to require regulatory filing.
• The ability to prioritize is incorporated because the form asks the initiator to categorize the change submission as routine or temporary or emergency.
• Additional forms can be customized based on the company's special needs in the general manufacturing change control software.

Form-to-Form Launching A change submission form can be launched directly from a Corrective/Preventive Action (CAPA) form, connecting one process to the next. Not only does MasterControl streamline this process, but it also maintains the links so one can review a completed process and easily see what triggered the change. Relevant information from the CAPA form will be automatically entered into the change submission form, reducing data entry. A general manufacturing change control system also shows the history of the entire process.

Document Approval via Forms The change submission form and the documents linked to it can be approved all at once, avoiding repetitive steps.

Dependent Routing Completion of a task can be made dependent on another task to give managers more control and reduce cycle time by prompting users immediately to their next task. An innovative dependency tree illustrates the relationships between dependent processes.

Dynamic Organizers MasterControl's Organizer, similar to Windows Explorer, is an easy-to-use and dynamic tool for easy search and retrieval of documents. All SOPs and other documents related to a particular change can be grouped together. A general manufacturing change control system allows user to create virtual folders within Organizers that will automatically retrieve documents based on pre-defined queries.

Powerful Reporting Tool Data can be grouped together by a date interval and then charted over a date range. For example, the number of customer complaints that have led to a change can be totaled for each week and charted for the last year. Data can be summarized in multiple levels, so change orders can be reported by product, department, root cause, etc.