software as a service

To ensure a reliable quality assurance process in production and manufacturing, workpieces must be measured at regular intervals and checked for any deviations from the production plan. This is because defective materials, human inaccuracies or non-optimal production processes, if they go unnoticed, lead to poor manufacturing results and thus to high follow-up costs in mass production.

IT-supported measurements

This can be prevented by collecting precise measured values, because a company can intervene in good time in the event of quality deviations in the production process that lie outside the tolerance limits. If these measurements are to be integrated into the production process with as little effort as possible, the use of an IT solution for data acquisition is essential. Especially by companies that sell their products to ver-

Integrated into the production

If a company manufactures at different global locations, an integrated overall solution should be selected that transfers the measurement data generated worldwide to a central server, which forms the basis for a reliable evaluation of the quality assurance process.

Up to now, such software has usually been acquired through a company-wide purchase license, which has the advantage that all locations can be integrated into quality management with the same license. However, this involves high one-time investments that temporarily tie up a company's liquidity. Therefore, such a license purchase does not always make sense.

Cost-effective Software as a Service

In order to reduce the economic risk and to preserve the equity ratio, a quality assurance solution as Software as a Service (SaaS) should rather be considered, as offered by the IT service provider BINSERV: Its BINForcePro® QA software has also been available as a cloud solution for several months now, for which production and manufacturing companies pay a flat monthly usage fee. The principle of SaaS is similar to that of a car leasing contract: the term, rental amount and payment method can be individually configured for the customer. This eliminates the need for high investments - in addition to the license fee, the cost of additional hardware required to store and operate the system - and the expenses remain clearly calculable. According to current studies, this can save up to 30 percent of the costs that would be incurred with a classic software license.

But that is not the only reason that makes Software as a Service so important in the area of quality assurance. Another interesting aspect is that through a rented use of the software from the cloud is also always guaranteed,

CheapRental Options

that the latest version of the solution is used for quality management. Because unlike the purchase of software, important updates and upgrades are usually already included in a rental option. This can actually be decisive for the compliance with quality standards in the company, because every innovation in the QA system ultimately means either an even more extended measurement data collection or a simplified evaluation of the collected data. Both in turn ensure less susceptibility to errors in the production process.

Flexible use at different locations

Above all, flexible cloud solutions also offer companies noticeably greater flexibility in quality management. Browser-based access, for example, ensures that the corresponding tool is ready for use more quickly and can be used completely independent of location. Even employees in the field or in the home office can have mobile access to the software and thus be optimally integrated into all important processes. The integration of foreign locations in the event of an expansion of the company is also easier with a cloud solution, because costly on-site installations are eliminated if the IT departments at the various locations can carry out the commissioning of the web-based solution themselves, without the need for internal IT administration.

Even without local installations, all users throughout the company can work together in a network with QA software in a pragmatic SaaS version: If, for example, an employee at the Chinese location carries out a quality inspection at a measuring station - ideally equipped with a touchscreen - according to the instructions of the QSTool, the decentrally recorded data is stored in a central location thanks to the cloud, to which the measurement data of all other locations also reach. This procedure enables transparent and simple data storage and evaluation without the need for costly consolidation that is inevitable with distributed IT systems.

Signal effect for medium-sized companies

However, not only internationally operating companies and corporations, but also medium-sized businesses should consider a SaaS solution if they want to put their quality assurance on a solid footing. Because the signal effect of a professional quality assurance process should not be underestimated: Even smaller

FlexibleCloud solution

Companies can often score points with this when awarding contracts because they have a decisive point ahead of their competitors. With a flexible rental option, they can make use of a professional solution and still keep the costs low for themselves. And in the event of an unexpected increase in demand, for example due to a short-term expansion of the company, additional capacity can be booked at any time. In short, by using a cloud solution for quality management, production and manufacturing companies can only win. Ultimately, this also benefits the end consumer, who can rely on the consistently high quality of the products they use thanks to the optimized control processes.