Managing compliance and quality control using your ERP

It goes without saying that your products need to comply with relevant regulations and meet the quality standards your customers, and their customers, expect. Non compliance can result in issues like delays, recalls, legal action and reputational damage, while quality issues – even if they’re not in breach of regulations – can lead to unhappy customers and potential loss of sales. For discrete manufacturers, rigorous inspections and tests are standard practices that demonstrate your products have been checked for defects, and comply with safety and environmental laws.

There were more than 350 product recalls in 2024 ranging from toys, food and electricals, and nearly 450 product safety reports in the UK. A single recall can set you back hundreds of thousands of pounds in investigation fees, lost sales and resale costs, and you could be faced with fines of up to £20,000 if an item sold is found to be unsafe.

Product laws and standards

UK manufacturers are governed by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 for consumer goods, so whether you supply direct-to-consumer or businesses, any item sold must meet health and safety standards, and be traceable. The British Standards Institute is the UK’s national standards body that awards ISO accreditations to manufacturers who produce in line with its high standards. Customers often look for these standards as it gives them confidence to purchase, but it also stands as a mark that you’re a trusted, quality supplier. Since Brexit, there has been change and uncertainty around standards but the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill is currently making its way through Parliament, giving the government freedom to accept/diverge from EU legislation around product safety and standards.

You’ll have stringent quality control processes in place already, but both compliance and quality control are tricky to manage – especially if you rely on an old ERP system or use spreadsheets to manually record inspections, tests and results. As well as being time-consuming, critical information could easily be missed because of human error.

Can an ERP streamline compliance and quality control?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software like ECI’s Ridder iQ improves visibility of your processes, so you can optimise quality management. It gives both your team, and customers, confidence that any issues will be picked up at the earliest opportunity, reducing the chance of delays or breaches. The cloud-based ERP centralises business processes like production and quality control, so that you can see projects and access/analyse data like test results. You’ll quickly spot trends and get to the bottom of recurring quality issues, while having a clear record of all inspections, and being able to automatically generate reports for compliance.

Three ways Ridder iQ can help

1. Take the work out of inspections
   
   Automate checks and inspections with Ridder iQ by setting up alerts. Results are automatically recorded in the system, so you’ll always have a reliable audit trail. The condition of your equipment can also be assessed in real-time, so if there are any issues, they can be addressed quickly to prevent serious defects and waste. It also allows you to keep a close eye on the quality control process through the project management module and production schedule. You’ll immediately see where the item is in production and if there are any hold-ups. An ERP eliminates tasks like data entry, so more time can be spent on inspections and innovations that improve quality. In the future, it’s likely we’ll see advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) being used alongside an ERP, enabling you to rapidly identify anomalies that would once have gone undetected.
   
   
2. Data visibility and traceability
   
   With an ERP, test and inspection results can be recorded accurately, so you can maintain an audit trail. Identifying effect trends is also easier: for example, if the system records a large number of defects during the welding stage, it suggests there could be an issue with equipment. Because the data is stored in a central system, it’s easy to access and act on. It’s also more accurate than manually-collected data so there’s less chance of missing or incorrect inspection details/results. Ridder iQ has a traceability module, so you can easily track certified materials – which have been tested to meet a specified standard – displaying any certificates alongside it.
   
   
3. Automated reporting
   
   A good ERP allows you to automatically generate reports, pulling in data from inspections and tests to demonstrate compliance. Not only does this save you hours of work, you’re able to present information in a readable and visual format, using real-time data. You can also maintain a secure record of material certificates for traceability purposes. With a cloud-based system, and appropriate permissions, teams are able to access these documents from anywhere. And since it’s all backed up on remote and highly-secure servers, critical data wouldn’t be lost if there were an incident at your plant such as a fire.
   
   Join over 25,000 companies by implementing ECI’s industry-specific software. Ridder iQ, designed for discrete manufacturers, is custom-built to help you streamline compliance and quality control.