The Manufacturing Execution System GUARDUS MES Offers New Functions in the Complaint Management for More Efficiency and Higher Customer Satisfaction
Due to the new function set for the complaint management produced by the specialist for Manufacturing Execution Systems GUARDUS Solutions AG from Ulm, its customers are able to handle complaints more efficiently. On the one hand, the module upgrade contributes to the acceleration of the entire work process of the GUARDUS MES users regarding the comfortable data collection, findings, analysis, and documentation. On the other hand, all of the information is available online in compact form. The user is provided with a central, electronic work folder where he/she can access all the documentation he/she needs in order to offer extensive information to the customer. “Under complaint management, we understand not only a module for the administration of defects, but also a knowledge database with which problems can be quickly recorded, analysed, and eliminated in a sustainable but user-friendly way whether in the service or in quality management”, says Simone Cronjäger, member of the managing board of GUARDUS Solutions AG.
Never check quality, but rather produce it from the beginning – says the theory. Even if the demand for a zero defect strategy is an essential aspect in the philosophy of many industrial companies, defects cannot be completely eliminated. Nor can the resulting complaints be eliminated, but they are rather part of the everyday life of a company. What is actually decisive is the way in which companies handle these complaints.
In order to provide the responsible departments with all the tools that they need for a quick and extensive processing, GUARDUS has upgraded its MES complaint management in an intelligent way. Thus, when recording a complaint operation, the employee can immediately see whether there are some other complaints in the system for the same aspect, which parts are affected by the complaint and if they are identical, and which is the processing status of the complaints. Consequently, each user can inform about these aspects and the results of the previous complaints can be used for the current situation. Another improvement regarding the complaint collection is a better document management. From now on, all the relevant information can be assigned to the various processing steps. The result is an extensive digital complaint folder. Moreover, an integrated preview allows the user to visualise the corresponding documentation in the user dialog.
New functions are also available for the evaluation of the recorded complaint. During the evaluation, GUARDUS MES immediately recognises whether a certain defect pattern has already been recorded, respectively whether the defect is a recurrent one. A list with all the respective complaint positions shows when this defect pattern occurred, which customer was affected by it, and which corrective actions were taken. “The knowledge database of the GUARDUS MES complaint management regarding recurrent complaints and defects is unbeatable when you have to inform the customer in real-time and to take well-founded decisions”, explains Simone Cronjäger.
Due to the interconnection of the complaint management with the material consumption and traceability, in the event of complaints about complex final products or components, the GUARDUS MES user can establish which raw material has been used for the manufacturing of the affected element or from which goods incoming lot it comes (potential supplier defect) and whether it has been used elsewhere in the production process.
Last but not least, GUARDUS MES covers the monitoring of defined response times. The so-called Service Level Agreements are stored in the customer master of the MES and in the event of adequate complaints, the software initiates a workflow that automatically informs all the involved departments and monitors their response time.
