NextGen Quality Monitoring

The Requirement

Amatica's client manufactures in the UK, middle and far east. Existing spreadsheet based quality audit and reporting systems involved a lengthy chain of communication, were difficult to manage and presented directors with out of date information. Delays in reporting and managing quality failures meant that sub-standard components could continue through the production process and be despatched to the client, potentially leading to costly returns and reprocessing.

A real time monitoring system would enable faster problem investigation, escalation and resolution, catching and resolving faults before a garment leaves the factory.

The Solution

Amatica designed a prototype based on Microsoft Explorer and SQL database technologies that replicate the look and feel of existing quality forms, thereby increasing familiarity with the workforce and reducing risk, implementation and training costs. A traffic light scheme that highlights and tracks fault severity was already in place. To minimise training issues this was adopted for the interactive audit facility.

The system is also designed to incorporate tolerances and accepted variations in quality. These were programmed as system variables against specific garments. Shopfloor quality auditors use wireless PDA's to record and submit results to a central database that escalates problems automatically.