Software for Quality in Mechanical Engineering

It can safely be said that most of the devices built by the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors are prerequisites of other production industries, as they are the initial machines and facilities with which subsequent products are made. From small machines or components to entire refineries and production plants – the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors are as multi-facetted as the industries for which they create vital production equipment. To a certain degree, the quality of subsequent products is also decided right in this initial phase of the production chain by the quality of the machines and plants that are used in said production.

Interdisciplinary Linkage of Quality Philosophies

Just as the development and construction of machines and production plants unites a variety of technical disciplines such as materials science, mechanical engineering, or drivetrain technology, CAQ.Net^® brings together several different quality methods in one powerful system. Whether PDCA, DMAIC, or Kaizen: CAQ.Net^® extracts the most suitable measures from existing quality philosophies in order to give you everything you require to achieve your quality goals and production targets.

Mechanical Engineering Standards

A variety of standards from around the world must be adhered to when producing goods in the mechanical engineering sector. These include the MADE and TPS publications by the British BSI, the ASME standards in the United States, or the VDMA and VDI regulations in Germany. Many regulations are also brought together in the pan-European Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, better known as the Machinery Directive. It applies to machinery as well as interchangeable equipment, safety components, lifting accessories, chains/ropes/webbing, removable mechanical transmission devices and partly completed machinery. Along with the omnipresent ISO 9001, many of these guidelines formulate high demands with regard to documentation and the quality of products and production processes.

Perfect Tools for Quality

The highly complex products of the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors require that the quality of every detail is monitored and controlled. Only if all components are of a superior quality can the overall construct be successful. The comprehensive management solution CAQ.Net^® provides the perfect tools with which to achieve this. Whether initial sample tests, FMEAs, document management or change control and maintenance management: the modular system gives you all the components that are required for state-of-the-art quality management in the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors.

ERP-Integration

Within today’s information technology, there are few aspects that are as important as the effective and efficient interaction between different systems: the bidirectional exchange of information is an absolute necessity in order to be able to conduct successful data management. 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.

Increasing Revenue by Fulfilling Standards

In order to be fit for the future, there is no way around the application of powerful and fully integratable software solutions. Apart from assisting in the fulfilment of official quality standards (the resulting certification itself being of an unspecified monetary value), the application of innovative CAQ.Net^® solutions also contributes to an overall increase in process efficiency and company revenue. What is often conveniently underestimated is that quality itself is an aspect of great importance for the financial wellbeing of a company. The reasons are simple: it is more economical to prevent errors than it is to subsequently remove them. Bad quality leads to unhappy customers and unhappy customers lead to missed opportunities. Missed opportunities in turn lead to a loss of revenue.

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 the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors. 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 this sector means that our customers are always in command of a cutting-edge software solution that allows professional, efficient, and standard-compliant quality management.

A Holistic Management Solution

Successful quality assurance and management in the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors requires an all-inclusive management solution that covers all quality-related facets from product design to complaint management and safeguards consistent compliance and traceability. This solution must incorporate all aspects of quality management and facilitate the adherence to valid standards and guidelines. This solution is CAQ.Net^®: your all-inclusive management solution for the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors.

Highlights

• Bidirectional integration into a vast variety of IT-systems
• CAD inspection planning with automatic stamping of drawing characteristics
• Standard compliant inspection plans for incoming goods, SPC, and outgoing goods
• System-wide functions for the predictive/preventative maintenance of facilities
• Qualification matrix for monitoring employee training measures
• Online/offline audit and checklist management
• Graphic evaluation planning with statistic and analysis functions
• Traceability down to the individual measurement value
• Consistent implementation of PDCA and Kaizen in a cross-modular cycle of control
• Complaint management with cost analysis functions
• Automatic control plans based on the FMEA and inspection plan
• SPC with machine and process capabilities (Pm/Pmk, Pp/Ppk, Cp/Cpk)
• Root cause analysis via Ishikawa Diagrams and 5-Why Method
• Change management with cross-departmental change workflows
• Multi-language-capability for master and dynamic data
• 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
• Optimized for usage on touchscreens
• Sophisticated system-wide document management functions
• And much more