Why You Need HQMS:

Manufacturing Accuracy
An important benefit of the HQMS system is that everyone involved in a project will be simultaneously working on the same set of current data. If a system user is working on a master file inside of the HQMS solution and later views a copy of that file, immediately he or she will realize the copy is a replica of the original, or the latest master revision. This feature eliminates, and serves to prevent overlapping or inconsistent designs. Naturally, this leads to the emergence fewer design flaws as well as re-occuring issues at a manufacturing or QA level. With HQMS there are far fewer ECOs, greater instances of flawless first time designs, and much faster path to the marketplace.

Design Productivity
When HQMS is used in an engineering environment, the related system tools significantly increase the productivity of engineering teams. The HQMS system provides engineers with the correct tools to access all related data efficiently, resulting in the design process being dramatically shortened.

Another factor in the design environment is the fact that time saved equals money saved. Historically, a design engineer would spend nearly 25-30% of their time simply handling information by searching for it, retrieving it, waiting for copies of drawings, and then archiving new data. HQMS removes this dead time entirely. The designer no longer has to search for released design schematics or other related data, it's there on demand.

A third time saving factor given by HQMS is the elimination of processes which lead to "reinventing the wheel." The amount of time designers spend solving problems that have already been solved stands as a tedious issue. Often, reinventing the wheel may be considered a faster solution than to actually track down design elements that could be utilized again. With HQMS, the identification, re-use and modification of already existing similar design elements become a routine part of the corporate environment.

Control of Projects
The reason that product development projects are almost invariably late is not that they are badly planned in the first place, but that they routinely go out of control. Why? Because the immense volume of data generated by the project rapidly snowballs beyond the scope of traditional project management techniques. The greater the competitive time pressures, the greater the scope for inconsistency, and likelihood of rework. HQMS will enable engineers and Project Managers to retain control of the project by ensuring that the data on which it is based is firmly controlled. Product structure, change management, configuration control and traceability are key benefits of HQMS. Through the HQMS system, project control can also be further enhanced by utilizing the built in automatic data release and electronic sign-off procedures. As a result, it is impossible for a scheduled task to be ignored, buried or forgotten.

Speed to Market
Speed to market is just one of the major benefits of the HQMS system. Three primary factors serve to place limits on the speed in which products can be brought to market. The first factor is the time it takes to perform tasks, such as engineering design schematics, and tooling. Another factor is the time wasted between tasks. An example of this would be a scenario in which a released design schematic sits in a production engineer's inbox waiting for its turn to approve. The third factor in this process would be the amount of time lost if a schematic needs to either be redesigned, or reworked and then resubmitted for approval.

Data Integrity
The design of the HQMS single centralized vault concept allows users immediate access to the system for those who need it, while also serving to keep all master documents and records of historical change absolutely accurate and secure.

Why You'll Love HQMS:

Better use of Creative Team Skills
Designers are often conservative in their approach to problem solving for no other reason than to avoid time constraint penalties in regard to exploring alternative solutions. The risks of spending excessive time developing new design techniques and tools which may, or may not work, would be unacceptable. HQMS opens up the creative process in three important ways. It keeps track of all documents and test results relating to a given product change, which minimizes design rework and potential design flaws. It reduces the risk of failure by sharing that risk with others and by making data readily available to the right people on demand. HQMS also encourages team problem solving by allowing individuals to simultaneously share ideas in an effort to solve any related design issues that may arise.

Better Management of Engineering Change
HQMS will allow employees to create and maintain multiple revisions and versions of any design in the database. This means that iterations on a design can be created without the worry that previous versions will be lost or accidentally erased. Every version and revision has to be 'signed' and 'dated', removing any ambiguity about current designs and providing a complete audit trail of changes.

Comfortable to Use
Today, many electronic quality management systems vary widely in their levels of user friendliness. Several existing systems set out to operate within the confines of generic corporate organizational structures without any consideration in regard to ease of use. The corporate system should strive to make familiar tasks as user friendly as possible. In conventional working environments, users have to be skilled at accessing required information while at the same time they must also be prepared to accept it in a less than flexible form. HQMS eliminates the struggle of searching for required data when it is needed on user demand. User definable queries can be setup in order to allow instantaneous access to even the most common or generic forms of information.

A Major Step Toward Quality Management
By introducing a coherent set of audited processes to the product development cycle, HQMS excels at the efforts involved in establishing an environment for ISO9000 compliance and Total Quality Management. Many of the fundamental principals of TQ, such as empowerment of the individual' to identify and solve problems are inherent in the HQMS structure. The formal controls, checks, change management processes and defined responsibilities also ensure that the HQMS system contributes to conformance with international quality standards.