Challenges in practice
Deviations and complaints are often part of everyday life along the value chain today – but they cost time, money, and nerves if they are not consistently managed. Whether in supplier management, internal manufacturing and assembly processes, or customer complaints, service requests, and claims. In many companies, complaints are still handled in an unstructured manner via emails, Excel lists, or isolated applications. There is a lack of transparency, responsibilities are unclear, and measures get lost in day-to-day business.
Recurring errors are often detected too late, causes are not eliminated in a sustainable manner, and valuable insights are not fed back into FMEA and improvement processes. At the same time, pressure from customers, suppliers, and regulatory requirements to process complaints quickly, completely, and transparently is increasing.
A lack of integration into ERP and controlling processes also makes it difficult to evaluate error costs and prevents targeted management of improvements. The result: unnecessary error costs, angry customers, and missed optimization potential.
Solution QS1
QS1 offers the perfect solution for managing deviations and complaints throughout your entire value chain in a transparent, compliant, and efficient manner.
From mobile error recording to structured complaint processes with customer-specific requirements such as 8D reports, Ishikawa, and 5-Why, to holistic deviation and CAPA management, QS1 guides you through all the necessary steps.
Integrated portal solutions allow you to communicate deviations and measures directly with customers and suppliers, reducing throughput times and creating clear responsibilities. Workflow-based action processes guide you safely through the root cause analysis – even across multiple production stages and plants. Seamless connection to ERP and controlling data makes error costs transparent and automatically reflects actual deviations in the corresponding FMEA.
Error chain analysis across the batch network of the entire value chain makes it possible to not only detect individual errors, but also to identify dependencies, causes, and effects across all processes at an early stage – allowing QS1 to act preventively rather than reactively.
- Freely configurable error and complaint recording process for your individual workflows
- Graphically guided error coding for fast and consistent error description
- Mobile error recording via tablet or smartphone directly at the scene of the incident
- Automatic creation of complaints from testing and quality processes
- Consistent complaint and deviation management internally as well as with customers and suppliers
- Workflow-based action and CAPA management for sustainable error elimination
- Cause analysis with Ishikawa, 5-Why, and AI support for faster root cause determination
- Error chain analysis across the batch network of the entire value chain for early cause identification
- Seamless error tracking across processes, production stages, and plants
- Standard-compliant forms and reporting, such as 8D/xD reports
- Recording and controlling of error and complaint costs, including scrap and rework
- Passing on deviation costs by directly transferring customer costs (e.g., rework) to internal or supplier complaints
- Collective scrap and waste management for series and quantity deviations
- Complaint control with key figures such as ppm analyses and throughput times
- Seamless integration into ERP processes, including logistics and commercial processing
- Web portals for customer and supplier communication with direct exchange of measures
Does this sound familiar?
- Deviations and complaints come from all directions (suppliers, internal production/assembly, service, customers), but there is no central overview: What is open, what is critical, what is recurring, what is escalating?
- Recording and processing are carried out in email, Excel, or isolated applications: Responsibilities are unclear, information is scattered, and measures get lost in day-to-day business.
- Repeated errors are identified too late, causes are not permanently eliminated: lessons learned remain local, and feedback into FMEA and improvement processes does not take place consistently.
- ERP and controlling connections are patchy: logistics, rework, commercial processing, and error costs run “off track.” Decisions are based on gut feeling rather than reliable figures.
- Communication with customers and suppliers takes up unnecessary time: status, documents, 8D/xD, and measures are exchanged via media breaks, and queries and loops extend the throughput time.
This should be achieved through a robust process
- A uniform, standards-compliant end-to-end process: Recording => Analysis => Complaint/Communication => CAPA => Effectiveness testing => Prevention (regardless of source, plant, or production stage).
- Fast, standardized recording at the point of occurrence: mobile recording, clear error coding, consistent data structure instead of free text and post-documentation.
- Systematic root cause analysis and CAPA logic: Ishikawa, 5-Why, risk analysis, and action plans must be managed, comparable, and documented in an audit-proof manner.
- Workflow-based control instead of “follow-up”: Responsible parties, deadlines, escalations, status, and proof of effectiveness must be mapped in a process-reliable manner, including a complete overview of all CAPAs.
- Consistent, deep integration into ERP and cost logic: Error costs (rejects, rework, customer costs) must be transparent in the process, including complaint controlling (e.g., ppm, throughput times) and feedback in FMEA.
Coverage in QS1
- Enables a freely configurable error and complaint recording process with mobile recording (tablet/smartphone) and graphically guided error coding for fast, uniform description.
- Guides you through structured complaint processes in compliance with standards, including customer-specific requirements such as 8D/xD reports, integrated root cause analysis methods (Ishikawa, 5-Why), and optional AI support for faster root cause determination.
- Controls CAPA via workflow-based action processes: clear responsibilities, deadline and escalation logic, status overview, effectiveness testing, and audit- and revision-proof documentation.
- Integrates customers and suppliers via web portals: direct exchange of actions, reduced processing time, fewer queries, and clear proof of communication.
- Integrate ERP and controlling processes end-to-end: automatic creation of complaints from inspection and quality processes, online integration of logistics/rework/commercial processing, recording and recharging of error costs, and error chain analysis via the batch network, including reflection of actual deviations in the FMEA.
The result: faster and more consistent handling of deviations, fewer repeat errors thanks to guided CAPA, transparent status and cost information, professional communication with customers and suppliers, robust complaint control, and a closed learning loop extending all the way to FMEA.
Your advantages
- Identify deviations early on, record them in a structured manner, and communicate them transparently.
- Processing in accordance with standards and secure communication with customers and suppliers via QS1 portal solutions.
- Faster and more informed error analysis through structured root cause analysis and flexible action plans.
- Central overview of all CAPAs, including status, responsibilities, and effectiveness testing.
- Direct feedback of deviations into the FMEA for sustainable risk minimization
- Clear coordination of measures, deadlines, and responsibilities via workflows
- Efficient evaluation of complaints to identify trends and recurring errors
- Transparency regarding error and complaint costs through integrated cost controlling
- Reduced throughput times and less coordination effort in the complaint process
- Sustainable reduction of error costs through preventive rather than reactive action
- Improved customer and supplier relationships through traceable and professional processing
- Audit-proof and revision-proof documentation along the entire value chain
