Quality control, assurance, services.  Why Infor SyteLine can offer a helping hand.

You’re in the market for an ERP system and have considered  Infor SyteLine.  Or maybe you’ve already signed up but are wondering about the QCS module.  Or you already have SyteLine and are considering upgrading to include it.

Here’s why you should do it.

Whatever your business, nowadays, your customers are getting (or being forced to be) more and more demanding in what they expect from you as a supplier.  Much of this expectation covers how well you manage the quality in what you do day to day.

For industries such as Aerospace and Defence, these demands have been around for a long time and people pretty much know what is expected of them.  Other industries such as – for example – those in the Automotive sector, have evolved to expect suppliers to ‘up their game’ when it comes to quality control and assurance, traceability and compliance.  If you fail to meet any of these expectations, you’ll be an also-ran.

If you’re already using Infor SyteLine or are about to take it on as your ERP solution, the QCS module offers a broad range of functionality to help you to manage this critical aspect.  Broadly speaking, it allows a business to manage the ‘quality control’ of bought-in parts from your suppliers, parts that you manufacture in-house, parts off the shelf and – where required – parts about to be shipped.  Although these may sound like different parts of the process, they are all catered for similarly so that when you can manage one criterion, you can easily apply it to others.

How does this work in SyteLine?

Firstly, where it is identified that a part needs to have a level of quality control applied to it, we identify and add this part as a ‘QC Item’ record (in SyteLine-speak).  This then creates the existing part as one that can be subject to quality control rules and criteria applied by the business at the level required.  A simple example of this is for a part that is supplied regularly, but then you experience a period of quality issues that need to be addressed. A simple rule can be applied, whereby every receipt is inspected, maybe every third receipt, or a certain quantity of each receipt are inspected to check on the quality of the product.  If these issues persist, then a further conversation needs to be had with the supplier.  If they are resolved, the inspection rule can simply be toggled to ‘off’.

Should more detailed inspection be required, and let’s say we need some tests to be carried out, the rule can be amended to add a test, or tests, to the quality function to ensure your criteria are met and that the product is acceptable.  Test results can be recorded and will be saved against the record for the Lot/Batch received.  These same test results can be cross-referenced to a Certificate of Conformance, should this part be sold on.

Similarly, this methodology is used for manufactured parts.  The part is added as a QC Item, and at the relevant operation stage in the manufacturing routing an inspection or quality task can be added, again with an unlimited quantity of tests, as necessary.  Test results are saved against the relevant Job Order, against the relevant Lot, for subsequent retrieval whenever they are required.  There is no limit to the number of operations that can have a QC task added.

The same functionality exists for parts that are returned from a customer under an RMA (Return Material Authorisation), and each area of the system has a different trigger to launch the Quality function:  Purchase Order receipt; Job Order release; RMA material return transaction.  However, once any one of these triggers is transacted, the process is the same regardless of where in the process we are.

So what happens at these trigger points?

Where a QC item exists – and let’s take a supplied part as the example – the trigger creates a ‘Receiver’.  The Goods-In team complete a ‘PO receipt’ for a line on a Purchase Order. The item is a ‘QC Item’ and a receiver is created – this is the vehicle through which we ‘dispose of’ the quality task added.  Firstly, if tests are loaded, the results for these are added to the record and saved.  The receiver is then completed via ‘Disposition’, and parts are accepted or rejected, scrapped, reworked or returned to supplier.  If necessary, we can escalate via an MRR (Material Review Report) to record more detailed information.  Further, a CAR (Corrective Action Report) can be created for even more detail to be recorded – including actions and responsibilities – and all such data is linked back to the original tests.

Ultimately, the same process applies across all areas and offers control, detailed records and reported output to ensure you can prove to your customers that you have the right things in place to best serve them, and to continue to serve them in the future.

If you want to learn more or need help configuring your existing system, please get in touch.