Remote working has become the norm.

With this comes opportunities and challenges, including on the IT systems needed to support and maintain quality standards in manufacturing.

Furthermore, a growing need for integration between suppliers and customers IT systems is now expected rather than being some futuristic flight of fancy.

Listen to customers

G&P has been at the forefront of integrated quality management systems with the in-house development of QTrak.

This has been achieved, not least, by listening to customers and adapting the real-time reporting system on a bespoke level tailored to individual requirements.

Indeed, customer feedback is pivotal in making QTrak fit for purpose and easy to use, whilst narrowing down data to what is actually useful for the customer.

Know the limits

However, even the most advanced technology in the world has its limits.

Human intuition and inspection may always be a match for even the most complex algorithms in the quality management process.

Sometimes, it’s also the case that technology can provide too much information, making what were previously simple decisions a myriad of unanswered, and possibly irrelevant, questions.

Worthwhile technology for inspection software, such as QTrak, provides the customer with instant and easily accessible reports from which to make valued judgements without clouding the issue unnecessarily.

It is a perfect example of data vs information. Data is a collection of unorganised facts while information is the structured and organised presentation of that data. QTrak assembles the data and provides the information.

Focus on what matters

One of the QTrak’s key assets is that it has been developed totally in-house by G&P and built from the ground up.

This provides complete autonomy for software upgrades and also allows the flexibility to provide bespoke solutions for any customer should they be required – in order to create a system that is entirely focused on their needs.

Once again, it highlights that the technology itself is driven by human insight and needs.

Reporting and sorting

While various IT systems have their own goals, the role of QTrak is to improve communication, provide a higher level of accuracy in inspection processes, standardise reporting processes and provide control throughout the product manufacturing lifecycle.

These guiding principles will always remain the same while the technology itself is upgraded to handle the fast-moving developments in various manufacturing sectors such as automotive and aerospace as they deal with an ever-shifting landscape, not least the importance of low carbon propulsion.

Simon Francis