I wrote a detailed guide on quality inspection software for buying offices, on the SynControl website.

It has become a hot topic for buying offices and trading companies. Top management is looking for savings in support functions, and the quality department is fist in line. These types of questions are asked more and more often:

• Do we really need 4 people in the office to manage quality? Couldn’t we be more efficient?
• Would it make a difference if we had fewer inspectors? Does quality really improve after we find issues?
• Do our best suppliers really need to be checked that often? Couldn’t they self-inspect instead?

A response to all of these questions is to use a dedicated software solution to automate some tasks.

But is it a good fit for your company? I mentioned the following pros & cons:

The main advantages are:

• Elimination of paperwork tasks.

• Real-time communication of data for faster decisions.

• Adding structure to the inspector’s work.

• After-the-fact view over what the inspector has done, at what time, etc.

• Statistics available to see suppliers performance and more.

and

The major drawbacks are:

• If you only employ 1 or 2 inspectors, it might not make much sense to invest in a new tool.

• If you subcontract some work to independent inspection agencies, they might refuse to use the mobile application — especially if they haven’t equipped their staff with tablets yet.

• If your requirements are quite particular, they might only be partially supported by the application.

• Typing some findings on a tablet/phone is never as fast as writing them with a pen & paper.

What do you think?