QAD is proud to announce the release of the 2022 version of QAD EQMS, our Enterprise Quality Management System. In this release we address the workforce shortages and absenteeism caused by COVID-19 and focus on making it easier to find training gaps, to close those gaps and to find employees with the fewest training needs to fill in for an unexpected absence. We’re also releasing a groundbreaking new capability to help users more efficiently develop and maintain Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEAs) with a hierarchical tree view editor.
Enhancements in this release include:
- New training management capabilities
- Improved user experience
- Navigation improvements
- FMEA hierarchical tree view editor
QAD EQMS 2022 Highlights
The latest enhancements include:
New Training Management Capabilities
QAD EQMS 2022 provides a training management system that allows enterprises to conduct complete and effective instruction to ensure that quality, compliance and safety standards are met. It ensures educational needs are effectively identified and addressed, even as changes occur within the organization. The system includes comprehensive training tracking capabilities that meet industrial and regulatory standards requirements, such as ISO 9001, IATF 16949, ISO 13485, HACCP, 21 CFR (QSR) Part 820 and others.
The training management system was the focus for this release with significant improvements to enhance the user experience. With these enhancements, larger organizations have more control over the scope of entities, like titles, training roles and skills. Companies can now control educational events and conduct succession planning based on training role, as well as identify titles by site. They can manage training using a dashboard showing the “report to,” the manager that requires the training needs, as well as the most qualified substitute for an absent employee. Additionally, the dashboard shows training requirements and accomplishments for current employees.
Improved User Experience
QAD EQMS has significant improvements to the user experience providing more clarity, efficiency and control. These enhancements include the ability to:
- Create control plans without completing a FMEA
- Set up rights in administrative tools separate from the administrators of the UI
- Confirm certain commands, and
- Utilize the self-paced training option called GuideMe, so new users can become familiar with the UI and learn how to complete inspection events
Navigation and FMEA Hierarchy Improvements
In addition to the improved user experience, QAD EQMS has significant navigation improvements to provide the ability to quickly move through product and process risks (FMEA) using a graphical hierarchy, to allow faster searching and navigation without losing context. The navigation menu is reorganized with highest use at the top. We made enhancements to eliminate autoscroll when opening a module, to reduce scrolling when selecting a multi-cross reference field and to reduce movement when completing a checklist in the Auditing system. Additionally, we improved the supplier experience with seamless integration when a new supplier contact or user is created from QAD SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) as well as allowing a user to open EQMS from SRM without having to log on to EQMS.
With the groundbreaking FMEA hierarchical tree editor we addressed three significant hurdles to building and maintaining the multiple layers of a FMEA:
- The tree view shows the full context of the FMEA regardless of the level you are in so you don’t lose context
- Easily search for a term and it will show records for that term on all levels
- Easily drag and drop the order at any level in the FMEA
A Team Effort
Many of these improvements are based on user feedback and have been developed with direct insights from customers. Our partners, business consultants, industry experts and others play a key role in our product development efforts by sharing ideas and affirming the business benefits for new capabilities. We would like to thank all of you for your input, but would especially like to thank our customers who participated in any of our topic-specific advisory boards. As a result, QAD EQMS 2022 further enables enterprises to more rapidly plan for and respond to disruptions to their business.