Quality checks and alerts

Control points make checks by themselves. Record the result, raise alerts and watch a process on a control chart.

Go to Quality. It has three tabs: Checks, Alerts and Control points. Quality comes with Professional and above, and control charts with Business.

Control points

A control point says what to check, on what, and how often. Go to Control points and click New control point.

• What to check - such as "Paint thickness".
• When - While making, or When goods come in. You can limit it to one step.
• Product, or a category. Leave both empty for everything.
• Type - Pass or fail, Measure, Instructions, Take a picture, Worksheet, Register materials and by-products or Print label.
• One check per - Order, Product or Quantity.
• How often - Every time, At random, Every so many days or Only when asked.
• Instructions and What to do if it fails.

A Measure also needs Expected, Lowest, Highest and a Unit. A Worksheet needs its questions, one a line: the operator answers each one, then passes or fails it, and the answers stay on the order.

Register materials and by-products asks what was really used and made; those quantities become what the order's Finish dialog starts from. Print label gives a 100 x 50 mm label with the product, order, batch, quantity and a barcode.

If you have more than one warehouse, Failed quantity goes to moves failed goods away.

Doing a check

Checks appear by themselves when an order is confirmed or goods come in. They show on the order, on the shop floor and on the Checks tab. Click Do it, and record the result.

To stop an order finishing with a check still to do, switch on An order can't close with a check still to do in settings.

Alerts

When a check fails, you can Raise a quality alert. Anyone can also raise one from an order or from the shop floor.

An alert records What is wrong?, the product and work centre, a Root cause, What was done to fix it and How to stop it happening again.

Alerts sit on a board: New, Confirmed, Being fixed and Solved. Drag them across. Add your own root causes and teams under Settings > Stop reasons & lists.

Control charts

On Business, a Measure control point has a Control chart link. It shows the latest measures, with:

• Average and Spread (standard deviation)
• Cpk - how well the process fits your limits. 1.33 or more is capable.
• Dashed lines for the control limits, three spreads either side of the average
• Red lines for your own limits, and red dots for failed checks

A process can stay inside your limits and still drift. The chart helps you see that early.