What is the quality manager's real job?
In most shops the quality department spends most of its time collecting records: chasing inspection forms from production, looking for certificates, trying to remember who was told about a nonconformity decision, preparing folders before an audit. The real work — analysis and improvement — rarely gets its turn.
The reason is that the quality system is an island. Measurements are on paper, the control plan in Word, nonconformities in Excel, document revisions in a folder. That scatter does not produce records; it makes people hunt for them.
In TIQERP quality is not an island. The control plan belongs to the work order, the measurement to the gauge used, the nonconformity to the lot and the decision to the shipment. The record is a by-product of the work.
The daily chain
- Incoming inspection. Lot number and certificate are recorded; material that fails cannot be issued and suspect stock goes to quarantine.
- Control plan. Characteristics, tolerances, gauges and frequency are defined. Plans are versioned and the current version is fixed when the work order opens.
- First article. A new part or a revision change requires approval; the report is produced in AS9102 format.
- In-process checks. When the frequency is due the terminal prompts the operator; the gauge used is selected with the measurement.
- SPC. On special characteristics the mean and control limits are followed, so an out-of-control trend appears before the tolerance is breached.
- Nonconformity and 8D. An out-of-tolerance value opens a nonconformity automatically. Customer complaints run the 8D steps and do not close without a root cause.
- Release. Shipping cannot open with a missing check or an open nonconformity; the certificate of conformity and lot certificates are attached automatically.
Documents, audits and competence
The quality manual, procedures, instructions and forms are kept with their versions; only the current version is visible on the floor. Internal audit findings close only against a verification record, and a person whose competence has expired cannot start the job at the terminal.
