What is QCC (Quality Control and Compliance)?
QCC (quality control and compliance) represents a proactive, team-driven approach to maintaining data integrity and meeting regulatory requirements in digital engineering. Unlike QC (quality control), which focuses on reactive defect detection through inspections and audits, QCC emphasizes cross-functional collaboration, continuous improvement, and the optimization of compliance frameworks for industry standards.
Transform compliance from a mere checkbox exercise into a competitive advantage. Reduce rework costs and accelerate time-to-market for even the most complex products, ensuring both efficiency and excellence throughout product development and manufacturing.
The role of quality and compliance in digital engineering
QCC serves as the strategic backbone for creating and maintaining sustainable quality ecosystems in product development and manufacturing. It’s essential for enhancing digital traceability, delivering automated audit trails for ECOs (engineering change orders), and ensuring revision consistency across PLM (product lifecycle management) systems. These measures help maintain data integrity and ensure that all stakeholders work with accurate, up-to-date information throughout the product lifecycle.
Another critical aspect of QCC is streamlining compliance workflows. This involves developing standardized validation checklists for simulation data and reducing non-conformance risks in manufacturing-ready deliverables. By embedding compliance into the development process, organizations can minimize errors and ensure adherence to regulatory standards without compromising efficiency.
QCC also drives process innovation by redesigning error-prone data entry interfaces through team collaboration and establishing predictive quality metrics for 3D model validation. These proactive measures not only prevent recurring issues but also optimize workflows, enabling teams to focus on high-value tasks rather than repetitive corrections.
What are the benefits of efficient quality control and compliance processes?
Improve data integrity
Implementing robust quality and compliance measures helps maintain the accuracy and consistency of product data, reducing the likelihood of errors propagating through the development cycle. This ensures that downstream processes, such as manufacturing and assembly, rely on reliable and validated information, minimizing costly rework and delays.
Ensure regulatory compliance
Many industries, such as automotive, aerospace, and medical devices, are subject to stringent regulatory requirements. Quality and compliance practices enable organizations to verify that their products adhere to relevant standards, codes, and legal provisions, mitigating the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.
Enhance collaboration and data exchange
By establishing and enforcing consistent modeling practices and data quality standards, quality and compliance initiatives facilitate seamless collaboration and data exchange among cross-functional teams, suppliers, and partners, fostering a more integrated and efficient product development ecosystem.
Increase reusability and productivity
High-quality, compliant data promotes model reuse, reducing the need for time-consuming rework and enabling more efficient design iterations. This, in turn, enhances productivity and accelerates time-to-market for new products.
What's the best way to ensure quality control and compliance?
Keep reading to discover our recommended approach to quality control and compliance, or reach out to us for a free consultation today.
Define clear standards, best practices, and requirements for product data quality and compliance within your organization. These guidelines should align with industry regulations, internal processes, and downstream application needs.
Leverage specialized software tools to automate the process of checking and validating digital models, drawings, and associated data against the defined standards and requirements. Automated checks minimize the risk of human error and ensure consistent, comprehensive quality assurance.
Implement a system for continuous monitoring and reporting of data quality metrics, enabling you to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and establish a culture of continuous quality enhancement.
Seamlessly integrate quality and compliance practices into your existing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems and engineering workflows, ensuring that data validation occurs at appropriate stages and facilitating efficient collaboration and data exchange.
Provide comprehensive training and support to ensure that all stakeholders, including designers, engineers, and suppliers, understand and adopt the established quality and compliance practices, fostering a culture of quality-driven product development.
Need help with QCC quality control and compliance?
Arnd Feye and team have spent the last 20 years working together with clients to develop solutions that perfectly compliment the Dassault Systèmes portfolio. Reach out for a free consultation today.