A quality management system (QMS) enables engineers to electronically monitor, manage and document their quality processes to help ensure that products are manufactured within tolerance and comply with all essential standards to avoid product defects.

Here are three examples of where QMS implementation can benefit an engineering company:

1. Improving business strategy

Engineering companies need quality management standards to support their operations in terms of business strategy, technology identification, and technology adoption to be able to do this properly. Additionally, the current quality management systems that manufacturers use to run their businesses will need to continue to change to keep up with the ever-changing requirements from users and their customers.

One way of starting to look at what this means in practice is to look at the recent BSI publication PAS 1040 Digital readiness – Adopting digital technologies in manufacturing.

This innovation standard helps senior management within engineering manufacturing companies to assess their digital readiness and understand the areas they need to develop in order to increase value from the adoption of digital technologies.

2. Reducing the environmental footprint

Many engineering sectors have been pioneers in the use and development of Lean methodologies, with these contributing to greater efficiencies and labour productivity. For example, some of the UK’s best manufacturers, by being truly excellent in the implementation of Lean, can compete effectively on quality with companies from Germany and compete on cost with companies in the Far East.

However, non-labour resource costs are typically 4.5-5 times higher than labour resource costs for manufacturers. This suggests that there is now a great deal more potential business benefit and opportunity for engineering organizations from managing their non-labour resource use better than they have from trying to squeeze more value out of their existing labour resources.

Digital QMS technologies can give part of the solution simply by supplying better real-time data. For example, a factory with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors placed appropriately can deliver to the operators of the production process much better information about where and how they are using certain resources to enable better decisions about how to improve it.

Additionally, a fully visible digitally connected collaboration networks can extend this view across an entire engineering supply chain.

Another interesting opportunity is how the use of such digital technologies products with a significant lifetime can give rise to innovative new business models, such as through-life engineering services. With these service offerings, the manufacturer may no longer sell the product to a customer but instead guarantee its availability, taking on some of the risks and accepting the operating costs.

When that happens, the onus is on the engineer to create a product that has the highest level of resource efficiency to reduce their own costs. BSI has produced some guidance on such business models in the form of PAS 280.

3. Health and safety on the factory floor

Cobots, or collaborative robots, are robots designed to work amongst humans within a factory environment without the need to be walled off or separated from people.

The advantages they bring is that they can do a lot of things that engineers either do not want to do, or do the same tasks better, without being consigned to an area or role. Thus, their use can accelerate the continuous improvement processes that a quality management standard brings to an engineering company.

However, a barrier to their use is that it is not yet clear how engineering organizations can implement the use of a cobot in a way that does not pose risk to a worker on the factory floor.

BSI has a number of standards that can help with this, such as PD ISO/TS 15066:2016. This specifies safety requirements for cobots and the work environment and supplements the requirements and guidance on collaborative industrial robot operation given in the main ISO robot safety standards.

Additionally, BSI recently reviewed and published PD 5304 Guidance on safe use of machinery that gives guidance and advice to engineers looking to comply with the Machinery Directive.

Digital Adoption, QMS, and BSI

The QMS of an engineering company is central to its present and future success, and digital technologies can play a critical role in enabling the continuous improvement of the business.

These investments are not without risk and BSI can help companies on their journey to adopting them via a range of management systems standards, such as BS EN ISO 14001, BS EN ISO 9001, and BS EN ISO 45001.

Experience the benefits of implementing a quality management system into your engineering business by adding BS EN ISO 9001 into your collection today.

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