Epicor Advanced Quality Management

Proactivity is vital to improving quality management. With real-time visibility into quality and compliance—at every step and across all stakeholders—an organization can tip the balance from reactive to proactive. Epicor Advanced Quality Management (AQM) can act as your intelligence gateway into global performance—objectively and truthfully delivering the information you need on all things quality. Reporting and analytics are built into the Epicor AQM solution to provide on-the-fly data visualization and deep analysis of multiple measures, across different processes, and for all levels of the enterprise—providing the insights to help you meet quality objectives.

Epicor AQM extends your Epicor ERP solution with functions for managing supplier, customer, and employee information. It also adds modules designed to administer documentation relevant to quality systems and manufacturing processes, as well as product data management and analysis. Additionally, Epicor AQM allows you to identify and track employee training and skills management, documentation management, and risk management. On the operations level, Epicor AQM includes modules for preventive maintenance and device calibration, as well as complete inspection, data collection, and statistical process control (SPC) capabilities. The system provides solutions for the tracking of non-conformances (NCMs) and the means for issuing and handling corrective actions.

Epicor AQM features include:

Audit

The Epicor AQM Audit module can transform the way your organization schedules, executes, acts on, and analyzes internal or external audits.

1. Build for a variety of audits

2. Ensure findings—including opportunities for improvement—always have follow-up and assign responsibilities, a due date, and trending information for efficient and timely reporting.

3. Initiate/automate integrated workflows for managing the outcome

4. Clone existing checklists/protocols using a template library

5. Track and test employee understanding of new/revised documents, policy awareness, and individual certification

6. Attribute audit findings and outcome to tolerance thresholds for managing risk

7. Utilize AQM Mobile to download internal and external audits to your mobile device

Nonconformance

Transform the way you track failures experienced due to a process, product, or service with the Epicor AQM Nonconformance module. Whether the source is a customer complaint, an inspection, an audit, or is supplier-related, the module is designed to efficiently capture, manage, and track in a closed loop.

1. Track all types of events and failures and excel in meeting regulatory demands

2. Formalize/harmonize the approvals process

3. Identify trends and action taken over timer

4. Provide engineering with a comprehensive history of events and failures by product

5. Investigate failures for root cause, responsible parties, operations, and/or material

6. Track, manage, and analyze customer-returned material

7. Associate and report costs for all types of nonconformance, dispositions, and capture verification

8. Improve response time, visibility, and customer satisfaction

9. Analyze trends and costs by supplier, product, measuring device, employee, and more in real time

Corrective Action

The Epicor AQM Corrective Action module provides a closed-loop and integrated module to inform, address problems, and eradicate the potential for recurrence. Use this module to formalize your approach to documenting and addressing specific and systemic problems, and then share that learning across the organization.

1. Provide timely issue management that meets or exceeds regulatory and customer demands

2. Replace “fire-fighting” with root-cause and long-term solutions through a central knowledge base

3. Capture and control both internal and external failure quality costs

4. Define corrective and preventive actions—including responsibilities, notifications, and escalations—plus record the impact to people, processes, and products

Inspection and Statistical Process Control (SPC)

With the Epicor AQM Inspection and SPC module you can plan for and record the results of product testing, to confirm product conformity and identify trends that may indicate future nonconformities. This module is critical for recording and analyzing data—from receiving, through production, to delivery—to generate adjustments and improvements at the speed of business.

1. Track and maintain a centralized repository of data for product testing as well as incoming, in-process, and final inspections

2. Quickly analyze data from inspection results and use SPC charting to monitor process consistency

3. Validate measuring device and equipment readiness

4. Verify data collection against the correct revision of inspection plans and prints

5. Escalate failed inspections or nonconformance to manage product disposition

6. Ensure conformance with quality standards such as ISO 9001, IATF 16949, AS 9100, ISO 13485, etc.

Quality Planning

Managing APQP projects, various Production Part Approval Process/First Article Inspection (PPAP/FAI) submission requirements and other quality-related projects can be challenging. The Epicor AQM Quality Planning module uses a configurable template approach—making this process more efficient while providing a single source of truth.

1. Save time and utilize the included configurable templates for a best practices approach to managing new product introduction programs and submissions

2. Maintain one library of plans and submissions for effective collaboration and control—internally and with customers and suppliers

3. Promote alerts and escalations to avoid timeline slippage and improve efficiency and communication

Calibration

The Epicor AQM Calibration module transforms the way you track and control measuring devices and test equipment into a centralized system.

1. Manage the calibration schedule in a central system that reminds users when action is due for internally or externally calibrated equipment

2. Provide a history of where a device was used and what products/processes it was used to certify utilizing AQM Inspection/SPC module integration

3. Perform statistical analysis using statistical studies and automatically calculated results XGenerate quick and accurate calibration certificates and histories

4. Track the cost of maintaining the calibrated device library

To learn more about this module feel free to contact us through our contact forms.