It is common to find organizations putting the SAP Quality Management (QM) at the very bottom of the list of modules to be implemented in the integrated SAP Solution application. The majority of such companies gives cost as the main factor for why the SAP QM module lies low or in the bottom of lists.
Another common reason or excuse is that the company has an external system that is sufficient for the management of quality. To others, the excuse is that there is no need for managing quality because external vendors are always giving quality certificates which mean that everything is just okay.
Major components
The SAP QM has four major components that are used to manage quality at various levels of operation. The four components are;
- Material management
- Production
- Sales and Distribution
- Controlling
Understanding SAP Quality Management
One thing about the SAP QM is that in order to implement it, it may look as if you are adding extra expense to the cost incurred in obtaining the SAP Solution. What majority of SAP users do not understand however is that when you implement it, what you are basically attempting to do is to cut the costs that are associated with poor quality. The costs of poor quality are far reaching and may also carry hard costs. Such cost may include vendor and customer returns, shipping costs, production loss, rework and scrap from defects. This is in addition to the associated risk of breaching the government regulations and the risks of injury or death.
Main Benefits of SAP QM
The main benefit of SAP QM over the other external systems is the integrations aspect. The question that needs to be answered here is; what does it cost to run the external systems with other systems? What cost is it to run around with rims of papers and spreadsheets that are intended to be the main avenues for managing quality?
The SAP Quality Management integrated within the SAP Logistics so as to help plan, inspect and manage the quality for the internal, external, inbound and outbound processes and materials. The application allows for scheduling and planning of checks and tests so as to monitor quality at all stages. In addition to that, the application is beneficial in that it makes positive release fast, reduces mistakes and errors, compiles quality reports quickly and also generates quality certificates.
Additional Benefits
The SAP QM in addition provides for the integration of corrective preventive actions. This is facilitated by the use Quality Notifications. The Quality Notifications are used across the entire supply chain. In addition to that it can also be effectively used for recording and managing safety as well as environmental incidents and others. All this is intended to help the company ensure that quality is managed and ensured at all levels of production, storage, transport and supply.
The material management component of the SAP TQ is able to monitor shelf life of batches as well as the deadlines for recurring inspections. Furthermore, it has the capability of managing problems using the Quality Notifications as well as process complaints. Through the Sales and Distribution component, the application is able to manage customer related quality issues. It is also able to trigger inspection at shipping when deliveries have been created. When this has been done, quality certificates that accompany the shipping are also automatically generated.
Conclusion
Through its four major components, the SAP Quality Management provides a platform that can effectively be used to manage quality at different levels