Dassault Systèmes - Are you serious about quality?

Do you have a quality management system in place but see that it is not enough? Would you like to take a more strategic approach to quality? Would you like to be one inspected less often due to quality metrics? Would you like to worry less about your brand reputation because you can rely on your product quality? The BIOVIA Total Quality solution from Dassault Systèmes can help.

Today's science-based companies are very aware of the relevance of quality in conducting a successful business and sustaining competitive advantage. Therefore, many enterprises have a total quality strategy in place that includes all areas of the organisation.

The challenge of quality

The overall challenge for Quality is to ensure regulatory compliance and operational excellence through high-quality processes, documents, materials and products underpinned by meaningful metrics.

However, quality is not just one project or a series of them. To have the deep impact on an organisation that is expected, quality requires a behavioural change - it is a culture - and although a total quality strategy is required and executable, there are challenges that can make the actual mplementation difficult:

• quality procedures and the processes need to be developed, and it must be ensured that they are followed consistently enforcing the execution of procedures can be very demanding, especially as it can lead to time-consuming, non-value-adding 'checkbox' activities
• the quality process needs to ensure that the right input materials of the right quality are used for the right purpose; different purposes may require different specifications of the material used
• all documents need to be managed and maintained throughout their life cycle in accordance with regulations mandating version control, review, approval, distribution and life-cycle management
• the required data from the different documents and sources needs to be quickly aggregated in order to measure and analyse quality-relevant metrics.

The requirements for quality

To achieve quality, companies must be capable of understanding, optimising and predicting products and processes throughout the organisation and the life cycle of a product, from ideation to commercialisation. Appropriate tools and techniques should be used not in a disconnected, stand-alone manner but instead as part of a strategic approach to delivering quality through a dynamic process of continuous improvement and innovation.

At the same time, processes need to be streamlined and cost-efficient to reduce compliance costs and the cost of poor quality. Quality excellence will increase productivity and enhance quality while ensuring compliance.

A strategic quality approach should include four major areas, as outlined in the table (above, right). This comprehensive approach helps BIOVIA customers to ensure regulatory compliance and operational excellence through high-quality processes, documents, materials and products underpinned by meaningful metrics.

Meeting the quality challenge with BIOVIA

BIOVIA's Total Quality solution enables customers to:

• reduce errors, minimise non-value-added manual tasks and improve efficiency by replacing disconnected and/or paper and spreadsheet-based systems with a solution that integrates key components of the corporate quality strategy
• standardise and automate quality processes, increase efficiency and accuracy of business processes and activities, and proactively improve business performance
• remove bottlenecks and compliance risks from laboratory-related processes in development, manufacturing and quality through integration, automation and harmonisation
• accurately manage materials and samples from receipt to disposal; address EH&S lab safety requirements; and reduce regulatory and quality risks, hazards and costs
• ensure enterprise-wide consistency of all quality documentation as well as compliant life-cycle management
• improve product and process quality with improved consistency and reliability through enhanced process understanding and knowledge sharing.

The comprehensive BIOVIA Total Quality increases efficiency, reduces costs, and improves quality and compliance by addressing all relevant aspects of an organisation's corporate quality strategy. The solution helps reduce time to market, increase sustainability, protect the brand and enhance competitive advantage.