The quality manager for the energy managers

Cemal Yilmaz, Quality & Environmental Manager at Gutor Electronic LLC, Wettingen, is a critical person. For him, nothing is set in stone, not even an electronic quality manager like IQSoft that has been in use for years. That's why in 2010 - after almost two years as Lean Manufacturing Manager at Gutor, he had just taken over the quality management of 'his' company - Yilmaz first questioned the function of IQSoft in his company: "I examined alternatives such as 'Improve', IMS and the SAP Q module."

18 years of IQSoft or: Why loyalty pays off

Six years later, IQSoft is still active and has thus been a deeply integrated part of quality management at the Wettingen-based manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for 18 years now. "It's absolutely worth it!" says Hans-Peter Kost, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IQS AG in Zofingen. "We have continuously developed IQSoft for over 20 years since its beginnings and have not only expanded its functions, but also optimized them. Those who have used IQSoft for many years have received every new standard release free of charge during this time. There are no maintenance fees for the general release. " And the costs for the telephone hotline? Cemal Yilmaz finds them fair. Admittedly, some things could go even faster for him. But he adds self-critically: "When something is due, we would have preferred to have done it yesterday. 

Hans-Peter Kost understands this, but says very firmly: "'Shoo shoo' doesn't do anyone any good." A strategy that has obviously proven its worth. IQSoft has been the number one Swiss quality management program for years.

Title 10, Paragraph 50, Appendix B

Gutor Electronics is one of the few European companies to meet the 'Nuclear Quality Assurance Standard for Nuclear Power Plants and Fuel Reprocessing Plants' of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In 'Title 10, Paragraph 50, Appendix B' of these regulations, the Americans have defined in 18 points which requirements must be fulfilled in order for a company to be allowed to supply its products to American nuclear power plants. The linchpin in ensuring these quality standards at Gutor is IQSoft's test equipment management system. Hans-Peter Kost is not surprised by this: "We look after many customers who operate in the highly regulated sector."

It has to be a Porsche

Cemal Yilmaz appreciates such performance. When an employee at IQSoft once asked him whether such a Porsche was needed, Yilmaz's answer was unequivocal: "We work in the nuclear sector and our products cost good money. We don't compromise on that."

This attitude regularly pays off during audits. Yilmaz reports with great satisfaction that external auditors are immediately in a good mood when they see that IQSoft is being used: "They tell us: Oh, you're working with this tool? Great. And everything is already easier."

No wonder: Thanks to its many interfaces (for example, to SAP), IQSoft manages data from a wide variety of sources and allows not only auditors to make enormously accurate evaluations. For example, Gutor runs customer complaints, supplier reports, internal reports, error analyses and more via IQSoft.

Good groundwork is a must

Today, this is no longer complicated, says Yilmaz. However, he remembers that the path to the goal required considerable effort: "We had to standardize the names of our data sets. If you enter clean data, you get clean data. And it takes someone to maintain the system a bit afterwards."

Set clear rules

Cemal Yilmaz: "I actually had to dictate to certain people that absolutely all data is entered cleanly. Here in Switzerland, this now works well and I would like to expand the application areas of IQSoft even further. There is still room for improvement with our colleagues in Malaysia. Although they record complaints very accurately and reliably, they do not yet consistently list the follow-up measures.

individualization over here and over there

IQSoft allows the user to access captured data at any time - even with third-party tools. Cemal Yilmaz has had his IT department develop one or two special tools for this purpose.

Hans-Peter Kost sees this with both a laughing and a crying eye. He likes the fact that his customers creatively individualize IQSoft. On the other hand, after well over 1200 installations for very different industries, such effort is often not even necessary. Hundreds of individual solutions have been developed and are ready to go in the drawer: "We strongly advise our customers to sit down with us when they have problems and challenges. We can often meet special requests in a very uncomplicated manner and within a very short time.

Powerful, but not too powerful

Why doesn't IQS AG simply include such functions in its standard program? Kost waves it off: "Our standard is already very powerful. If we were to include hundreds of extras, IQSoft would become confusing. We offer a lot right off the bat, plus individuality made to measure. We want IQSoft to be usable without huge training."

Cemal Yilmaz is clear that there is always an initial outlay when you want to use a tool productively - regardless of the brand - but basically, he says, "Anyone who knows how databases work can work very well with IQSoft after a short time. My employees and I definitely like it a lot."