Top 10 Quality Event Management Goals for the New Year

If you want to start the year off right and reduce the number of quality events that you have to deal with, then it’s time to sit down and outline your quality event management (QEM) system resolutions!

Start by asking yourself:

• How are you currently handling your quality events?
• How often are they occurring?
• Where do you find the most success in your QEM processes?
• Where do you or your end users experience the most frustration?
• What areas for improvement do you see?
• What solutions are available to help you make continuous improvements over time?

The Top 10 QEM System Goals

When thinking about QEM system goals, start with a big picture. Thorough and compliant quality management is essential for all companies doing business in regulated environments. A complete, end-to-end digital quality management system makes quality at the source possible – and compliance issues a thing of the past. The tighter and more seamless the integrations between your quality processes and data become, the closer you get to a comprehensive, truly closed-loop quality management system (QMS).

Remember to make goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to ensure clarity and accountability. Regularly review and adjust these goals based on progress and changing business environments. The following list of goals also includes recommended actions to help you achieve these objectives.

Goal #1: Decrease the number of defects or nonconformities in products or services.

Actions: Improve reporting to monitor defect rates over time, conduct root cause analyses, and implement best-practice corrective actions as part of a closed-loop QEM system.

Goal #2: Improve the overall quality of products or services.

Actions: Refine quality standards, conduct regular quality inspections, update your quality event forms and processes, and implement measures to ensure consistency in meeting quality requirements.

Goal #3: Increase the percentage of products or services that meet quality standards on the first attempt.

Actions: Analyze rework and rejection data, identify common quality events, and improve processes to address them during the initial production/service stages.

Goal #4: Strengthen quality control processes.

Actions: Review and update quality control procedures, implement additional inspection points, and provide additional training to personnel involved in quality control. Identify and fill gaps in your current quality event processes. Reduce redundant processes.

Goal #5: Reduce the time and rate of customer complaints related to quality issues.

Actions: Establish an efficient process for handling customer complaints, conduct trend analysis to identify recurring issues, and implement preventive measures.

Goal #6: Enhance the stability and predictability of production/service processes.

Actions: Implement statistical process control, monitor quality event management process variables, and infuse automated processes with robust data captures and enforce data thresholds to reduce process variability.

Goal #7: Improve the quality of materials and components from suppliers.

Actions: Collaborate with suppliers to set and meet quality standards, conduct regular supplier audits, and provide feedback for improvement. Seek to establish supplier redundancies.

Goal #8: Minimize errors through error-proofing measures.

Actions: Identify error-prone steps in QEM system processes, implement mistake-proofing devices or techniques such as a digital quality management system, and train employees on error prevention.

Goal #9: Implement continuous monitoring and analysis of key quality indicators.

Actions: Set up real-time monitoring systems with robust data captures, analyze QEM system data for deviations, and implement prompt corrective actions to prevent quality events.

Goal #10: Foster a culture of quality throughout the organization.

Actions: Connect your quality personnel with collaborative and simultaneous workflows available via cloud technology. Promote timely awareness of quality events, provide training on quality principles, foster collaboration and innovative problem solving, and recognize and reward employees who contribute.

Adopt Digital Solutions To Effectively Manage Quality Events

Perhaps the number one goal should be to adopt a digital QEM system to automate and streamline most of your quality event processes.

Extending your digital capabilities can enable your company to make the shift from reactive to predictive quality event management and convert your quality events toward continuous improvement efforts – always with the intention of reducing the number of quality events you have to deal with in the first place.

An effective digital solution should help you to:

• Reduce the amount of time it takes to identify and resolve a quality event.
• Reduce the number of quality events that occur with effective corrective/preventive actions.
• Develop more efficient quality event processes, forms, and overarching workflows to optimize human resources.

What features and functionality should your digital QEM system include? Here is where we get into some of the functional nitty-gritty that will make it possible to improve your QEM system over time and target critical quality problems when they threaten your QMS.

• No-code, user-friendly interface that gives quality professionals control to design and iterate QEM processes.
• Form templates and best-practice workflows for standard quality events, including corrective action/preventive action (CAPA), deviation, nonconformance, and out of specification (OOS).
• Advanced functionality for building and connecting custom workflows and forms.
• Form-to-form launching.
• Data sharing across related processes.
• Automated routing and approval of tasks and documents.
• Automated data threshold alerts and analytics.
• Closed-loop case management.
• Advanced reporting capabilities.
• Integration with electronic batch records for in-line quality control.

Conclusion

Setting quality event management goals for the new year is crucial for continuous improvement and achieving organizational excellence. Your specific goals may vary depending on the nature of your business, industry, and existing quality management systems. However, no matter what your goals are you can benefit from adopting a unified digital QEM system to help you automatically track and manage quality events that do occur to achieve closed-loop quality management.

As your company embraces advanced digital quality management solutions, your processes and data interact in more meaningful ways across your organization, your people become more connected, and together they generate more value for your company. That’s a goal that everyone in your organization can get behind.