Software for Quality in the Chemical Industry

The chemical industry converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into polymers and plastics, synthetic rubber, surfactants, dyes and pigments, turpentine, resins, carbon black, explosives, and rubber products or inorganic chemicals like salt, chlorine, caustic soda, soda ash, or acids: all of which are key products that consumers and industries alike rely on.

Quality and Safety

As almost every line of business at some point relies on the products of the chemical industry, there would most probably be a standstill in the plastics, foodstuffs, automotive, or mechanical engineering industries without its over 70,000 products. Hence, the origin and quality of every individual constituent is of paramount importance in this initial phase of the production chain.

Within its regular operations, the chemical industry must adhere to more rules than merely those of the periodic table. The ICS 71 standards catalogue, for instance, sets the guidelines for chemical technology and production. Safety also plays a major part, as the substances employed are often hazardous to humans and the environment. Hence, the American TSCA or regulations by the EPA and further industrial chemical standards outline strict guidelines for the testing and evaluation of the physical and chemical properties of substances. REACH, CLP, and the Certificate of Analysis (C of A) are further measures that are applied. As adherence can best be ensured by achieving a consistently high level of quality in products and production processes, our CAQ.Net^® software solutions provide everything you need in order to be able to manage, improve, and comprehensively document your product quality.

LIMS: Laboratory Information Management System

The software consistently supports you throughout all analyses, inspections, and examinations in the laboratory and lays the groundwork for comprehensive sample management. Whether preparing, gathering, and distributing samples or performing statistical analyses and creating control charts: CAQ.Net^®’s Compact.Net module provides you with all the tools you require for data acquisition, preparation, and evaluation in the laboratory. In order to ensure data security and the various traceability requirements, the software also contains tools for batch-tracking and analysis specification.

Additional validation inspections after the laboratory analysis, fully automated label printing or the automatic multi-language creation of batch-related certificates conclude the functionalities of the software.

Well-Trained

The Qualify.Net training management module supports you during the planning, execution, and documentation of all training-related matters in your company. Apart from assisting during the documentation of all existing qualifications and planning of future employee trainings, it is primarily the consistent target/actual comparison regarding required and available qualifications that provides a significant reduction of the training-related workload. Just a few clicks allow you to fulfil key documentation duties and create an expressive and easily maintainable qualification and training database. The qualification matrix in the software furthermore allows you to, for instance, precisely trace which employee requires training in which area and at what point in time said training is due. This means you can consistently monitor and document any type of training and qualification – regardless of whether you are dealing with safety trainings, language tuitions, technical schoolings, or any other type of training. Powerful e-learning capabilities round off the profile off this module.

Manage and Calibrate Equipment

As the reliability of information is determined right at the point of its initial collection, perfectly functioning equipment is essential for correct measurements. Gauge and maintenance management is applied in order to ensure that the employed devices are always correctly calibrated and in sound working order. It furthermore organises the acquisition, application, and maintenance of all measuring equipment. Within CAQ.Net^® these aspects are covered by the module PMM.Net. Apart from providing real-time monitoring and documentation of the state of equipment as well as its location of use and calibration status, this module ensures that only devices which are available and in sound working order are implemented in measuring processes – thus eliminating the possibility that faulty or unsuitable equipment is used.

Total Document Control

An efficient and effective document management system is vital in order to successfully tackle the documentation duties of regulating standards. Create, maintain, control, and archive all your documents with just one program. The software QBD.Net can be fully embedded in your existing MS Office environment, allowing you to continue to work with the programs you are familiar with and use QBD.Net to control all document monitoring and maintenance processes in your laboratory and company. Amongst a host of other functions, QBD.Net includes sophisticated escalation management, project tracking, document access control, and facilitates a 100 % paper-free documentation.

ERP-Integration

CAQ.Net^® is a management system that fluently communicates with other IT-systems and facilitates the mutual transfer of data. Hence, with CAQ.Net^®, the idea of data transparency does not stop at the CAQ-system, as the CAQ-system is also connected directly to the ERP-system. A standard interface transfers master and dynamic data between the two systems. This means that all article master data is synchronized and that incoming goods inspections are automatically logged on in the CAQ-system as soon as new incoming goods are registered by the ERP-system. The direct communication between the two systems thereby greatly increases the overall process efficiency in the company.

Decades of Experience

CAQ AG has over thirty years of experience in the field of computer aided quality assurance and quality management. Our first customers included a variety of manufacturers from throughout the chemical industry. Over the decades we have continued to support said customers in the implementation and maintenance of our standard-compliant software solution and many of these customer relationships have since developed into knowledge sharing partnerships. These partnerships allow us to continuously improve our product and rapidly adapt to changing industry demands. The resulting target/actual comparison between CAQ.Net^® and the most current requirements by manufacturers in the automotive sector means that our customers are always in command of a cutting-edge software solution that allows professional, efficient, and standard-compliant quality management.

Highlights

• Bidirectional integration into a vast variety of IT-systems
• Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)
• Online/offline audit and checklist management
• Certificate generator and management of Certificates of Analysis (CoA)
• Qualification matrix for monitoring employee training measures
• Graphic evaluation planning with statistic and analysis functions
• Traceability down to the individual measurement value
• Inspection plans for incoming goods, SPC, and outgoing goods
• Integrated supplier management and web-based supplier evaluation functions
• Systemwide audit-trail
• Change management with cross-departmental change workflows
• Consistent implementation of PDCA and Kaizen in a cross-modular cycle of control
• Form generator for designing customized forms
• Escalation management for action and due-date tracking
• Workflow-management and assessment of action effectiveness
• Cross-modular linkage of articles, article groups, processes, documents, inspection plans, etc.
• User-specific access control
• Sophisticated system-wide document management functions
• Optimized for usage on touchscreens
• And much more