Continuous improvement projects like introducing a new form, tightening up procedures and updating your policies will only get your business so far.
When you're a business owner, quality manager or procurement lead, you want to know:
What project is really going to move the needle?
These projects are often called 'operational excellence' initiatives. Operational excellence leads to business transformation. Examples include projects such as launching a new product, certifying to standards, or implementing a new electronic quality management system.
World-class organisations are often the most hungry for operational excellence initiatives. However, before committing any money, you want to know your chosen project will successfully:
- save your company time,
- save your company money
- produce a significant return on investment
This was the challenge Texecom faced around 18 months ago.
The business already had a mature quality management system and a COPQ well below industry average.
The quality team were tracking a range of performance metrics.
These metrics were helping the business to address risks and ensure they are always compliant.
But the team kept asking, "what else can be done to take the business to the next level?"
Lylian Cretin, Quality Manager at Texecom has described the transformation that implementing an electronic quality management system has had on the business so far.
He's also provided some examples of the time and money saved in the first year of adopting EQMS by Qualsys to provide some guidance for others trying to plan their quality management strategy for the next year.
1. How much time will I save with EQMS by Qualsys?
Time is money, the old saying goes, and it holds true now more than ever.
With EQMS, the amount of time you will save really does depend on the current state of your processes, information required, visibility issues, collaboration challenges etc.
Furthermore, when you implement EQMS your Service Implementation Manager will work with you to map out your processes. They will challenge the status quo, provide examples, and recommend best practices for an even healthier, more efficient management system.
Time savings typically range from 20% to 80% when using EQMS
Lylian listed five key ways EQMS has helped the business save time:
- Process audits used to take two to three hours. Now they take 30 to 45 minutes in total. All the evidence is captured. 'Desk work' is all completed in EQMS.
- I've not needed to employ an additional person to undertake administrative tasks. That's around 40 hours a week saved, or 640 hours so far.
- Post calibration days, i.e. the storage and record of external calibration visits has reduced from two days to six hours.
- Handling issues such as non-conformance and customer queries / issues is significantly faster. But most importantly, information relating to customer feedback is more thoroughly documented. That's around two hours a week saved collecting the information.
- My monthly report takes two hours instead of a day to produce. At least 50% of the saving can be attributed to EQMS (the rest to my Excel skills!)
Image: How organisations use EQMS by Qualsys to achieve more cost and time savings
2. How much money will I save with EQMS by Qualsys?
When investing in enterprise business management software, decision makers want to know the actual pounds and pence they'll save.
"By spending X, where can I save Y?"
There are of course a multitude of single use tools and software programmes out there, all designed to help you to enhance quality.
For example:
- SharePoint for documents and policies
- Auditing applications
- Supplier directory systems
- Excel spreadsheets for training records
- Complaint / NPS monitoring tools
Image: EQMS modules place your entire management system in a unified, central system
EQMS has a smorgasbord of features for you to take your pick of what you need now, and grow into the rest when your management system matures. Everything you need is under one roof. Training records, policy management, audits, equipment, issues, complaints, etc. Then there are all the reporting tools, new mobile applications, IoT integrations... the list goes on.
By having all your quality, health and safety, compliance, environment, information security etc. in a single integrated system you can unsubscribe to other software you might be unnecessarily paying for.
Lylian shared a number of ways EQMS has helped Texecom to save money:
- We've not needed to employ an additional member of staff to undertake administrative work.
- I would say there's an estimated saving of £48K in year one, that's while we were still implementing EQMS!
- I'm now able to get better insights into metrics, e.g. where there is scrap.
Try our interactive ROI calculator: roi.qualsys.co.uk
3. What return will I see with EQMS by Qualsys?
Exactly how much EQMS generates for your business depends on three things:
- Your business requirements
- Your goals
- How you choose to use the system
Most of our customers see a return on investment 8 weeks after the software has been fully implemented.
Lylian said
Our COPQ is well below the industry average, so any improvements were going to be a great achievement.
I set a target for EQMS to reduce COPQ 5% year-on-year. As the maturity of our quality management system will increase, I estimated in the fifth year, savings will be around 2.5%.
That's a 22.5% reduction achieved over five years. It's transformational for any business!
We're also working hard to further define all the different metrics COPQ encapsulates. EQMS has given me the head space to be more strategic as I'm now spending less time completing administration.
EQMS customers have rated the overall software performance 4.5/ 5, and we're working hard to keep on improving and developing cutting-edge technologies.
Read more customer reviews on Capterra: www.capterra.co.uk/reviews/150193/eqms
What to do now:
When you're confident EQMS will do all three of the above, you have a good chance of giving the project the green light. For tools to calculate metrics such as:
- Total cost of ownership
- Cost of Poor Quality
- Return on Quality
Download the EQMS buying toolkit here: quality.eqms.co.uk/eqms-buying-toolkit
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