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Process file · Manufacturing
Manufacturing
What’s inside: output checking · company memory
In-spec certificates into the QMS; quality takes the out-of-spec
The question this file answersWhere do our certificates of analysis go after goods-in — and could we find one today if an auditor asked?
Fits: plants where every incoming material batch brings a certificate that is read, retyped into the QMS and filed by hand
Not for: sites whose suppliers already deliver certificates as structured data into the QMS through a portal — the reading is done; the non-conformance work is yours either way
Typical day
What the desk looks like today
Typical, from the manufacturing playbook. Every incoming batch arrives with a certificate of analysis — the playbook counts volume as one per batch, no daily number, so we do not invent one. Someone in quality reads it against the material spec, types the values into the QMS, flags anything out of range and files the PDF — then hunts for it the week before an audit. It hurts twice: on a heavy receiving day, when batches wait on the reading, and in audit week, when the cupboard has to become evidence.
What changes
What Monday looks like after
The week before the audit, nobody opens a cupboard. The auditor asks for the certificate on a batch from March; quality types the batch number and has the PDF and the recorded values in a moment. On an ordinary receiving day: certificates for the batches on the dock are read and, where every value is in spec, in the QMS; the quality engineer's list holds only the ones with a value out of range or a line missing. The engineer still decides what happens to a failed lot; the retyping and the filing have gone. You can see, per supplier, how often a certificate needed a person.
Typical, not a measured client result. Every figure here comes from the playbook source named below.
~50–65%
less quality-document review time — SAP/Siemens case studies (2023)
Before: quality reads every certificate against the spec and types it into the QMS. After: SAP/Siemens cases (2023) report 50–65% less review time — non-conformance stays a person's call.
Where this number comes from
SAP and Siemens published case studies (2023) report 50–65% less review time on quality documents; ASQ benchmarks show digital QMS cutting audit-preparation time by 40–60%. Playbook range 45–65%. Vendor and association figures, not our measurement.
What we install
What we put in front of the systems you already run
The QMS you run keeps the record — SAP QM, ETQ, MasterControl, Veeva or another — and the ERP keeps the goods receipt. Alongside goods-in we add a certificate step:
- the certificate arriving with the batch — supplier-portal PDF, email attachment or a scan from the dock — is read and tied to the goods receipt in the ERP
- each reported value is compared to the material specification for that part
- certificates with every value in range are entered into the QMS through its interface, the PDF stored where a search finds it
- any value out of range, missing or unreadable goes to the quality engineer as a non-conformance candidate, certificate and spec side by side.
First scope: the raw materials you receive most often.
What stays human — and what this will not do
Non-conformance investigation. The conversation with the supplier about a failed lot. Regulatory interpretation. Answering the auditor in sentences.
What can go wrong — and what we do about it
Specifications that exist only as a PDF drawing or in the engineer's head cannot be compared against automatically; writing them into a table is the first audit finding. Certificates from small suppliers arrive as scans, occasionally handwritten — reading quality drops, and those will be most of what the engineer still sees. A QMS without an interface means prepared entries a person confirms, not automatic ones. The SAP/Siemens 50–65% is review time on quality documents; non-conformance investigation, supplier conversations and regulatory interpretation are not in it.
How long it takes, and what we need from you
Audit, about two weeks (€1.5–3K): we sit with the quality team, count a recent month of certificates by supplier and format, check that specs exist per part as tables, and confirm what the QMS accepts through its interface. Pilot (€10–20K): 3–5 weeks, medium complexity in the manufacturing playbook — the most frequent raw materials, the engineer reviews every flagged value. Production: the remaining suppliers, then the back catalogue. From you: goods-in mailbox or portal access, the spec tables, a month of certificates.
The path: free 60-second estimate → free 20-minute review → paid audit of this one process (€1.5–3K, typically two weeks) → pilot with your people in the loop (€10–20K, weeks, not quarters). No transformation programme. Prices are public, on the services page →
This is about you if…
- Does every incoming batch arrive with a certificate that quality reads and retypes?
- Are your material specs written per part in a table, not only in the engineer's memory?
- Is there a QMS — SAP QM, ETQ, MasterControl or similar — that an interface can write to?
What does this mean in euros?
That depends on your volumes and wage costs — this page will not invent the number. The free 60-second estimate runs that calculation from your answers, with every multiplier sourced.
Not a named Aperanda client. Process file · Manufacturing.
Deep-dive process file. Volumes, weeks and sources come from the industry playbook; nothing here is a named client.
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