Looking to move to an electronic QMS software

[gpalow]

Hello all. We are looking to move to an electronic QMS software for our SOPs, CAPAs, and audits but have noticed there are so many out there. Can you provide me with any recommendations?

 

[qualprod]

First do a table of requirements
AC management, audits management, risk management, email notifications, document management, and so on, next, look for software on the market, and get a demo of each, after that you can take a good decision, also take Into consideration, cost of software, licensing, trainings, etc.

 

[Randy]

Recommendations? Yep some of the best I've run across is simple old MS Office and maybe some Cloud service like Google or such

 

[Ronen E]

Interesting Read - Using a Wiki to implement a Quality Management System (QMS)

I think that the first two questions you need to ask yourself, to give you the general direction, are:
1. What is your budget for this (initial and ongoing)?
2. Which is right for you - a web/cloud-based solution or in-house hosting (do you fully understand the consequences of each)?

 

[Mike S.]

Randy's experience is similar to mine. I have seen "home made" low-tech systems using MS Office programs work really well -- not fancy, just functional. And I have seen very expensive (to buy and to operate) commercial programs that almost every user hated. I can't offer advice on good commercial programs, I can say lots of people I know hate TipQA. YMMV.

 

[Eredhel]

Do you all have an ERP system? The last two ERPs I've used both have QMS stuff built into them.

 

[Qualguy1]

Hello all. We are looking to move to an electronic QMS software for our SOPs, CAPAs, and audits but have noticed there are so many out there. Can you provide me with any recommendations?

I saw your post on QMS. I have been doing this for 18 years and know most of the players.
The QMS market is divided into 3 categories : Solutions provided by ERP vendors, Solutions that come from QMS vendors, and vendors that provide only 1 type of solution like CAPA or Document Control, FMEA, etc. Most importantly, how easy is the product to learn and how many days and cost of deployment are required. Try and document as many requirements that you can think of. Don't do it alone. Create a team and let users accept ownership of the tool. I also recommend that you try and document the flow of your process because all QMS programs work differently. Good Luck

 

[gpalow]

Thank you all for the feedback.

 

[patricks]

Hello all. We are looking to move to an electronic QMS software for our SOPs, CAPAs, and audits but have noticed there are so many out there. Can you provide me with any recommendations?

Some of what I have come across (this is not an exhaustive list):

QMS:
High budget:

• SAP (ERP with a quality module)
• Oracle's JD Edwards (ERP with a quality module)

Mid Budget:

• Plex (ERP with a quality module. We evaluated this but passed over and selected Oracle. I had voted for Plex)
• Cebos (What I used was clunky but I hear they have a newer version)

Low budget:

• Microsoft office (My absolute recommendation unless your company is > 500 people. )
• Google Docs

A relevant anecdote: One of our customers (Aston Martin) had a really cool QMS that automatically generated a DFMEA from a CAD drawing. And then auto-generated Control Plan from PFMEA. I don't remember the name. Only witnessed it on their laptops and haven't used it personally. My point is there may be innovative stuff out there.


SPC:

• Gainseeker (Avoid)
• Q-DAS (I kind of liked it but was a bit complex to setup and had a learning curve)
• Someone should come up with an innovative SPC software.

My recommendation here is be cautious with SPC. It is a powerful concept and can be very useful but is not applicable to all situations.


Audits:

High budget:

• Ease beacon

Mid Budget:

• iAudited (Recommend)
• iAuditor

Low Budget:

• Microsoft Access (needs some programming skills)
• Kamishibai board (this is the old school way)

 

[Usernameron]

I have the opposite problem. The company has QMS software but, it has not been updated much since it was installed in 2005. We are a small manufacturing company with less than 25 employees. The software does not let you transfer anything into word format ect. Do i just start over?