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3 Common Supplier Management Challenges

We love to talk quality. Over the past several years, we’ve spoken with countless quality leaders who all say the same thing: they face challenges related to data, disparate systems, and organizational culture.  ARMATURE’s supplier management software is designed to solve these common problems in a way that’s seamless and intuitive—so you can manage risk and ensure compliance across your entire network of suppliers. It starts with the data.

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When Faced with a Deluge of Data, Capture What Matters

Today’s organizations have more information than ever before at their fingertips, but is it too much? Many of the quality professionals in our Rolodex seem to think so. Between on-time delivery, DPPM, CAPAs, and all of the other metrics in the mix, it can be hard to focus on the data that matters and stitch it into a cohesive quality picture.

Supplier Management Software with a Smart Approach to Data

 

ARMATURE lets you specify what data you want to collect, and then we feed that data into user-friendly reports that show you exactly what you need to know—and none of what you don’t. Our configurable software gives you creative control over your data collection, eliminating the data noise that can otherwise get in the way of quality insights.

 

One example of our smart approach to data lies in our full lifecycle approach. Our team is building tools that organize audit data around the lifecycle of the evaluation, rather than tying each data point to a static and finite document. This flexible approach to data will allow quality professionals to reference the entire history of site reviews, self-assessments, and issues tied to a given supplier, but also to suppress the information you don’t need at any given time. You’ll benefit from the full lifecycle perspective as you conduct your quality audits, without getting bogged down in unwanted details. It’s really the best of both worlds, and it’s coming soon.

 

Disparate Systems Paint a Muddy Picture of Quality–That’s Why We Support Open Integration

Many manufacturers still employ legacy systems that struggle to keep up with the demands of today. These systems are often home-grown and loosely pieced together, which leads to challenges when it comes time to compliance assurance. As quality leaders understand better than most, the risks associated with a quality failure are far too great to be handled by a smattering of spreadsheets and emails.

 

ARMATURE’s supplier management and quality software is built with open integration in mind. We understand that supplier data is only one piece of the pie, and we shape our data to enable seamless integration with your other enterprise systems. Our dedication to open integration allows you to reach out to any other source of information and bring it back into ARMATURE Fabric, tying data together from across your quality landscape so that you can make sense of it—without IT issues.

 

Quality is Everyone’s Responsibility—Our Collaborative Tools Reinforce This

One of the concerns we hear most often from quality professionals is that quality is not as collaborative or cooperative across the organization as it should be—instead of being a company-wide responsibility, quality is relegated to the quality department at the expense of the broader organizational goals. 

Supplier Management Software Enables Broader Participation in Quality Efforts Among All Stakeholders

As every quality professional knows, compliance is a two-way street. Our software makes it easy for quality inspectors to conduct audits, report issues, share results, manage CAPAs, and have an open dialogue with suppliers and stakeholders that’s all captured in our system. Not only does our software keep track of every document and data point for you, but it streamlines communication and facilitates the important compliance discussions that happen in the course of your manufacturer-supplier relationship.

But you don’t always want everyone to see everything. That’s why our software provides flexible communication tools that allow you to make your comments public or private, and to restrict your messages to specified recipients as needed. Our communication tools give you the control you need, so you can have ongoing conversations with the supplier you’re evaluating, but also have hidden side conversations with your quality team, or even certain members of your team. It’s up to you—but no matter how you set up your permissions, you’re inviting all stakeholders to the table and making quality everyone’s responsibility.

To learn more about our supplier management software, schedule a demo. We’d love to learn more about your quality processes and take you for a spin!

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We regularly publish articles in the fields of Accreditation, Certification, Auditing, Continuous Quality Improvement, and Integrated Risk Management (IRM).

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