Boundlessly good

We have to prove that we actually deliver what we promise. Marino Borer, Head of Quality Management at Fracht AG in Basel, sums up what is currently challenging many Swiss SMEs: They work hard and successfully to achieve the best quality. But when it comes to verifiability, there are problems here and there.

At the same time, documentation requirements are becoming increasingly important. Standards are becoming stricter, official regulations are being expanded. Customers are knocking on the door and demanding complete audits.

Printed quality manuals? A child of the nineties. Uploading those same books to the intranet? Maybe adequate 15 years ago. But today it is no longer enough to set rules. Compliance must be monitored and evaluated. First-class quality management software provides excellent services on the way to this goal.

Many partners, many sources of error
Marino Borer describes the challenge facing his company: "Fracht AG provides transport and logistics services without its own equipment. This means that we work with many suppliers all over the world and organise deliveries - no matter where, no matter how big. Flexibility is enormously important here. And there are numerous interfaces to manage on the way to the destination.

In order to bring these processes under control in an evaluable manner, we decided in 2014 to introduce electronic quality management. The aim was to provide our customers - especially those from the pharmaceutical industry and the project sector - with complete proof of our performance. However, until then we had no adequate document control, let alone solid evaluation options."

Correct decision
Marino Borer researched various offers and decided on IQSoft, the number one Swiss quality management program: "I also looked at other offers, but they were too voluminous for me. In addition, we are a Swiss family business and wanted a Swiss solution. So we chose the tool from IQS AG in Zofingen."

Every electronic quality management system needs to be introduced in a logical manner. Marino Borer freely admits: "We did that wrong at the beginning and lost some time. An external consultant recommended that we simply map the current state and improve it. But it doesn't work to just integrate existing documents into IQSoft.

form." Hans-Peter Kost, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IQS AG, does not see this as uncommon: "Electronic assistants only develop their effect if you first define the process structure in your own company and consider which data and, if necessary, even which process steps you want to evaluate later and how".

Successful restart
Marino Borer: "We had to gain an overview and define a process map." He and his team started anew, supported by an expert from IQS AG. Then suddenly everything went quite quickly. In eight months, Fracht AG not only implemented the new document management system, including Business Process Modeling (BPM), but also activated contract management, optimization and improvement management (CIP) and audit management.

The result? You can see it.
The head of quality management reports with satisfaction: "We were audited ten times in 2016. Nine of the auditors came from the pharmaceutical industry because we organise particularly sensitive transports for these customers. We achieved good or very good results in every audit." According to Borer, it has also happened several times that the quality managers of the auditing companies have asked him what kind of program is running: "They are sometimes a little envious. They would also like to have such a good solution." The management of Fracht AG is also happy with what has been achieved and now also uses the IQSoft quality manager as an argument in acquisitions.

Suppliers, contracts, reporting
Fracht AG works with a large number of suppliers worldwide. Each of these service providers commits to first-class performance in multi-part and extensive contracts. Sometimes it is a question of compliance with the German Minimum Wage Act, sometimes it is a question of the explicit prohibition of child labour among Fracht AG's partners. And in any case, damage-free, on-time and on-location deliveries are at the top of the list of requirements. Marino Borer: "The companies that audit us check whether we have our suppliers under control.

"IQSoft enables me to make detailed evaluations on any topic via full text search. I can approach a supplier and say: This is what happened there. You have to improve that. This often involves liability issues in the case of damage reports from our customers. Even a small delay can really cost money. It must be clearly verifiable where in the perhaps long transport chain the error happened."

human factor
What is currently keeping Marino Borer busy: IQSoft is running perfectly. But the trained freight forwarder and current quality expert is not yet satisfied with the way the messages are recorded. He would like to record messages in more detail: "I still don't find the consolidation of messages from different supplier sources for later evaluation optimal. That has to be improved. This initial effort is not popular with all employees, but: "As soon as someone sees what the system can do for him, he uses it. It takes a bit of convincing here and there, not only when it comes to carefully recording other people's errors, but also when it comes to reporting one's own mishaps." Hans-Peter Kost is familiar with this argument. He says, "Almost no one makes mistakes on purpose. As a company, you simply want to avoid repeating them. You have to communicate that clearly."

Electronic quality management: for and not against people
Living, ongoing improvement with electronic support: a process that takes time to get going, but then brings massive time gains thanks to increasing automation. Costs are reduced. Processes are simplified. Everyday work becomes more pleasant for all users. And that - not only at the globally active Basler Fracht AG - is boundlessly good.