CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
27 March 2007
Product News
IQS Releases Version 6.80
IQS announced the release of Version 6.80 of IQS. "With the adoption of quality growing from quality control to full lifecycle quality management, release 6.80 from IQS helps us further address the growing end-to-end quality needs of our customers," said Michael Rapaport, CEO. The new version offers features that bridge the gap between engineering and manufacturing, reducing errors and driving out cost. Version 6.80 also has features that extend quality to non-traditional users, and improvements for Six-Sigma and Lean projects allowing quality to be an enterprise function, not simply an operational department.
Version 6.80 Early Adopter - Schefenacker Vision Systems weighs in on the new functionality to improve collaboration between engineering and manufacturing. "We are excited about IQS Version 6.8 functionality in the area of product change notices. We expect that the new flexibility and capability will allow us to better connect our Engineering and Manufacturing organizations. The efficiency gains here are extremely valuable," said Bill Soule, Information Technology Manager at Schefenacker Vision Systems.
Connecting Engineering and Manufacturing
IQS release 6.80 introduces features that break down the barrier between engineering and manufacturing. Typically, a wealth of information like part specifications and characteristics, risk analysis and control plans are well developed in engineering, only to get vaulted and forgotten. Manufacturing then reinvents the data, or works from out of date information. The disconnect between engineering and manufacturing is a prime source of errors, rework, cost overruns, nonconformances and recalls. Version 6.80 provides features like improved engineering changes, cross departmental work-flows, FMEA authoring, custom views by supplier, product and plant, and brings engineering quality information logically into manufacturing. IQS systematizes the flow of engineering changes, document revisions, FMEA's and control plans. The improved flow assures that everyone in the manufacturing process - operations, inspection, quality, purchasing and suppliers have the correct up-to-date information they need to do their job - correctly, the first time.
Extending Quality to Non-Traditional Users
IQS is further expanding quality to non-traditional enterprise users. Release 6.8 provides user interface flexibility and tailoring to assure that quality is easily accessible to everyone from engineering and suppliers to operations. The new release offers a fully customizable user interface and menu structure to make quality practices friendlier to purchasing, engineering and non-traditional quality users. It allows dynamic views of tasks and issues by product, supplier, and customer creating usable quality information for the entire product team.
Supporting Program Launch Management - MS Project Integration
IQS tracks the nitty gritty details it takes to execute a project. For each task that is typically tracked in a project plan, IQS has instructions, checklists and assignments at the checklist level and a wealth of information to assure that the activity is performed correctly, and linked to the next step. IQS provides program managers visibility and traceability to assure that when an activity is marked as "done" it has been done correctly. Because IQS tracks at a very fine level of detail, linking IQS into project management gives a program manager greater predictability in their projections. They are able to understand accurate activity completion, the nature of bottlenecks, alternatives to issues, and in short - do what needs to be done to bring their program in on time. In version 6.80 IQS is integrated with MS Project, passing projects back and forth, and flowing the wealth of IQS information up to program managers.
Six-Sigma, Lean and As-Built - Core Functions also Enhanced
Release 6.8 offers many additions and enhancements to its core quality functionality. For Six-Sigma and Lean projects, additional data is being tracked; e.g. scope, impact, cost, benefit etc.. The enhancements provide turnkey tracking of Lean and Six-Sigma projects from inside IQS. For clients who create assembled parts, there is a new "As Built" option that allows traceability and verification for all serial numbers and components of a final assembly. In addition to removing hours of manual verification work, and the inevitable errors, if there is warranty work down the road, "As Built" can pinpoint who, what, when and where the product was manufactured, minimizing the impact of warranty work and saving countless hours and dollars.
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