An image is worth a thousand words, a sentence that we live by at VKS. In this article, we would like to introduce you to digital quality checklists. With the help of Mr. Blaise Kamy, a Quality Inspector at CMP - Advanced Mechanical Solutions, we will explore what a digital quality checklist is and why it is more powerful and efficient than its paper equivalent. Mr. Kamy is also a Certified Internal Auditor, member of the Mouvement Québécois de la Qualité, a French Canadian association specialized in quality and he has worked with both, traditional paper quality checklists, and digital ones provided by the VKS software.
What Is A Quality Checklist?
Quality is the result of appropriate project management. Quality checklists help guarantee that the final products meet the expected quality requirements for the project. Confidence in business is vital and can be ensured by proper control measures such as quality checklists.
According to Mr. Kamy, a quality checklist is an essential tool for repetitive tasks that need to be completed at a specific date and which require validation. For example, one could use a quality checklist to validate the packaging of an assembly of parts: how many boxes, how many screws should each box have, etc. It’s basically ensuring that the content is as expected before being sent to the client.
Quality checklists are usually printed on paper, but a new generation of digital checklists is taking over with undeniable efficiency. Mr. Kamy is working with the VKS application which offers intelligent checklists that gather data for a better view of the entire process.
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Benefits Of Using Digital Quality Checklists
Time-Saving
Mr. Kamy explains that the primary role of the quality checklist is to help its user to carry out his work quickly in a non-penalizing time. Time-saving is important here, which is what digital quality checklist offer: more efficiency and less time spent transcribing data
Higher Efficiency - Higher Employee Satisfaction
As you save time using advanced quality checklists by VKS, your employees are less weary after their shift. Inefficient motions are tiring and according to the Lean Manufacturing philosophy, worthless motions are a waste. Enhancing your work methods has a positive impact on your human resources as they feel better treated with quality tools for a better work environment.
Visual Control At Its Best
With a step-by-step visual quality checklist , the quality inspector checks the work of the operator, ensuring that all the parts are identical and standardized with no difference between them. This customer has a process to inspect after the first part is produced, prior to the operator engaging in further production. Our customer calls this process a “fresh look inspection.” This ensures that the operator fully comprehends the process before launching the full production. The “fresh look” is performed by comparing the parts with detailed images, videos, and information alongside the digital quality checklist for a visual appreciation of the work.
Mr. Kamy specifies that the “fresh look” can be done before and at any time during production, in order to keep the focus on quality and break the eventual monotony caused by repetitive tasks as they can affect quality. Quality control is an ongoing process within manufacturing operations and quality checklists need to be adapted to continuous utilization.
Real-Time Remote Access
As mentioned above, VKS allows detailed traceability of your operations in real-time. The inspector can even monitor production from afar and continue updating information whenever necessary. In, A Guide to Working Remotely with VKS , we explore in-depth the numerous possibilities of working at a distance and how this influences the productions' defect rate.
Integration With Mass Updates
CMP’s vision was to digitally integrate all factory operations into one system, from the simplest to the most complex ones. Centralizing all the data in the VKS system means having an overview of all factory’s activities from one place. And because communicating and sharing the information is instantaneous with the VKS software, every user has the latest information at their fingertips, wherever their location.
Traceability
Mr. Kamy says that with VKS and its traceability feature, one can consult the data gathered in a quality checklist years later as it is permanently archived. This helps for an optimized analysis of the production or to simply provide a client with valuable detailed data.
Customers can send highly detailed drawings that may not be easily understandable by the contract manufacturers’ employees. To better address the customer's needs, VKS helps transcribe these drawings into visual documentation that the operator will understand easier. If the client wants proof the job has been completed, VKS allows exporting real-time data in common formats such as Microsoft Excel or PDF.
Moreover, the visual documentation used to realize the project can be shared with the client on demand. In order to support the technical traceability data and to comply with customer's demands, VKS can provide images, showing the step-by-step process and all departments involved, from beginning to packaging and even shipping.
The visual procedure can either be printed, shared from VKS to VKS - if the client also uses VKS - or shared in usual formats as mentioned above.
Mass Updates In Quality Checklists
Mr. Kamy has noticed that printed checklist are limited as they are not instantly updatable, and can even get lost. Printing checklists also has an impact on the environment, when you can have much more information on your tablet, using VKS.
Digital Quality Checklist is The Future
In the past, Mr. Kamy had been working with paper quality checklists and has since migrated to the more functional digital ones since working at CMP. The difference is blatant when explaining how efficient advanced quality checklists are, compared to traditional ones. The fact that these visual checklists are very image-driven and intelligent makes quality control even more efficient for every Quality Inspector and Auditor such as himself.
Why use a thousand words when you can simply use one image or, even better, a video? Making things simpler is what technology, like the VKS software, is about. By streamlining the auditing and quality check processes VKS allows its users to experience greater efficiency which translates in higher productivity.
