Solution Summary
Specification Management
Ensuring that our products are
produced to the right recipe and achieving the right specifications, is not
only required to be compliant with various business practices such as ISO 9000,
Q1, TS, QS etc., it is also essential to producing consistent and high quality
product.
The
other reality is that specifications change, and, especially in multiple plant
scenarios, making sure that every operator is aware of a specification change,
and every system is updated, can be a daunting task. Specifications are used by
your ERP system, your LIMS, SPC, Weight and Net Contents Control, HACCP, SCADA, process control and
other in house systems. Just synchronizing these systems can be a fulltime job,
and can be subject to substantial error.
With the plethora of systems that you
probably already have, you probably have your products defined in at least 5 or
6 different databases, and part of that definition are your specifications,
bills of material and recipes. One
change to one product might mean updating each of these systems. A blanket change to hundreds of products –
such as an ingredient substitution – may be a major project. Maintaining minor variances of specifications
to satisfy specific market sectors can be more work than it appears to be
worth.
By incorporating a single enterprise
wide repository for your specifications, and integrating that information into
your other legacy systems, a small change is just that, a small change. Once entered
into the specification management system, it is reflected in all of the other
systems and documents on the date it becomes effective. A blanket change is exponentially easier to
handle.
Specifications
for food products can be anything from regulated specifications to completely
arbitrary. Bacteria counts are probably fairly tightly regulated – color may be
completely arbitrary. Even the arbitrary specifications are usually driven by
the consumer in some way.
If it is just specification
management in its purest sense that you want, QIC has a number of
solutions. It may be that you maintain
your recipes and specifications on paper.
We can offer Document Management and Control solutions that will ensure
that you are always referring to the current and active products, and that paper
copies are controlled. This approach
would use our MasterControl™ solution.
But typically if you are going to the
effort of an electronic specification management system, you should probably be
looking at going all the way to a formula management system. For very little incremental effort or cost,
you obtain a central repository of specifications, as well as the capability to
simulate changes in ingredients, for chemical products generate MSDSs, for food
products recalculate nutritional values, label claims, and format the
nutritional and ingredients labels, calculate cost by any number of methods,
and most importantly simulate the total effect of a change – cost or market
driven – on the total product. For this
level of extensive capability, there are only about 4 or 5 enterprise oriented packages
available. QIC has evaluated the market
and has selected ProductVision™ from Advanced Software Design as the superior
solution for its client base.
ProductVision has met QIC’s stringent
criteria for inclusion as a QIC endorsed solution.`
It is used at many of the world’s
largest chemical, paint, cosmetic, food and CPG companies.