Executive Summary

Quality & EHS are converging. Quality professionals are often responsible for EHS, as well as quality. Consumer products and chemical (CP&C) companies typically have separate tools for quality and EHS, but professionals want a single solution that handles both.

Quality management is maturing as companies seek greater efficiency and effectiveness. CP&C companies are well along the path to maturity in managing quality. Quality management maturity means using a QMS globally across the organization, shared data that provides a single source of truth, automated processes, common workflows, transparency internally and across the supply chain, accountability, and a systematic way to identify and exploit opportunities. Although quality management is relatively mature, there is room for companies to mature further.

Companies are taking a hybrid approach, primarily using a cloud QMS to manage quality but still relying on business tools such as spreadsheets and shared drives. Companies use quality/EHS software for numerous processes, most notably supplier management and spec management.

Technology improves quality outcomes and is having a major impact on quality management practices. The most significant impact is improved quality driven by process automation which reduces human error. QMS delivers process efficiency gains through automation and continuous improvement, as well as visibility across the organization of all processes, documents, etc.

Quality professionals have many, interconnected challenges related to processes, data and people. The most common challenges are having a global document repository and an easy-to-use QMS that delivers process efficiency and effectiveness. A centralized document repository can organize vast amounts of documents and provide transparency. Ideally, an easy-to-use eQMS system enables a culture of quality, overcoming resistance to change. Supplier management, followed by product recalls and their associated costs, are top challenges related to regulations, standards and industry expectations. Decentralized and legacy processes lead to challenges managing suppliers, as does decentralized data.

The pandemic has increased the urgency to manage risk and move forward with digital transformation. Additionally, the pandemic has made adding headcount less important. There may be opportunities for companies to move funds budgeted for headcount toward digital transformation and QMS. Remote auditing has become increasingly important due to the pandemic.

Companies are investing in digital transformation and cloud-based QMS. These investments will alleviate a range of challenges, especially those related to supplier management. Companies require a QMS solution with a supplier portal that handles documents, audits, and supplier scoring. Other top investment priorities for 2021 are data analytics visualization tools and automation.

ROI is understood, but hard to quantify. Measuring QMS return on investment is challenging because many metrics are difficult to quantify, especially when talking about cost avoidance vs cost savings. Due to this challenge, many do not have any formal or informal processes in place to measure their QMS ROI. Despite these challenges, quality professionals believe investment in a QMS is the right decision.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Becoming fully mature in managing quality by making full use of a global QMS drives cost savings and improved customer outcomes, which ultimately means investments in QMS deliver ROI.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Becoming fully mature in managing quality by making full use of a global QMS drives cost savings and improved customer outcomes, which ultimately means investments in QMS deliver ROI.

Is this key takeaway something you are able to apply in your business?

Yes, absolutely
We'll try, but might need support
I don't think so