This is the third in a series of articles on Quality Certification Management for distributors. Find the first article, on the importance and growing adoption of certs, here. And the second article on how to manage quality certifications, here.
Quality certifications (certs), are here to stay because they help companies manage risk. While certs have traditionally been used where the consequences of product failure are high, product quality certifications are increasingly being used to improve operating efficiency, protect brand value and encourage sustainability and human rights.
Distributors report more companies are requiring certs, beyond the traditional cert-intensive industries of aerospace, defense, electronics and medical.
For many years, and now to a greater extent, large global brands certify and monitor suppliers, and require certs for every shipment because the public relations consequences of unsavory suppliers are high.
For companies that are not voluntarily managing this risk, new regulations are forcing the issue. Recently, Germany enacted the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act that requires large companies to ensure social and environmental standards are observed in their supply chain. Companies must monitor both their own operations as well as those of their global suppliers. Companies are required to report and act if they find problems. The Netherlands is reportedly close to enacting a similar regulation, and a draft EU regulation with higher penalties is circulating.
With cert use increasing, and knowing how much of a headache they create, we can be certain the future will look different than today. But what will it look like?
Cloud-based Collaboration Networks for Quality Certifications
Both Microsoft and Amazon have announced massive investments in supply chain networks using their cloud infrastructure. Companies like Four Kites and Project44 have grown dramatically because they can unlock data stored in legacy systems, enabling it to be combined with data from third parties, creating real-time global logistics networks where companies can monitor and execute their logistics strategies.
Quality certifications are on a similar trajectory. Digital quality cert management platforms enable vendors and customers to safely exchange critical documents, collaborate and communicate with each other. Specifically, they:
- Create a single source of truth for all parties, eliminating ambiguity about specifications, expectations and metrics
- Connect communications between companies with the documents, avoiding having to search multiple emails, folders and physical files when researching historical events
- Enable quality personnel to copy or redact inbound certs, or create new certs
- Provide secure and easily searchable data storage
- Enable execution of intercompany processes like defective material reports and supplier corrective action requests, where the next steps are clear, expectations are defined and responses are measured for supplier performance reporting.
Large distributors create thousands of certs per month, which requires automation and integration between networks and ERPs. Integrations enable customers to automate their high-volume cert-related transactions.
Quality Certification Outlook: More Data, Fewer Documents
The format and content of quality certifications are largely set by the producer. In the first step, industries are adopting standard cert templates which describe what and how information will be presented. This will make it easier for scanning technology to convert images back to data for analysis and review.
In the second step, companies will begin exchanging actual data. Customers will specify the information they require on their quality certifications by linking critical dimensions and characteristics to their product manufacturing documentation. Vendors will inspect the products and provide the customer with digitally signed certs accompanied by inspection data over a secure cloud network.
The customers’ QMS systems will analyze the data, pointing quality team members towards areas requiring human judgement. This spares team members from the monotonous work that computers do better, and frees them to do what they do best: Solve problems and improve processes.
It is this step, which can be done with today’s technology, but will be even better when assisted by Artificial Intelligence based on large language models like ChatGPT.
The Evolution of Quality Certification Management
Forty years ago, paper certs accompanying shipments made perfect sense. Today, the idea of converting digital data into an image, printing it, signing it, shipping it via a diesel truck, so a customer can scan it back to a digital image only to discard the paper and abandon the valuable data is senseless, time-consuming and expensive.
Some companies exchange certs via email and portal, but adoption of these methods has been limited.
Like other supply chain processes, the future of certs is going to be digital. Safe, cloud-based networks, integrated ERPs, and structured, actionable data will characterize the future with records being instantly generated, shared, analyzed and stored. The days of inconsistent and incomplete data being archived in various formats and sent via multiple methods are soon to be over.
“I believe digital cert management is one of the most important things to have happened in the fastener industry in the last 20 years.”
– Leo J. Coar, Editor, Distributor’s Link Magazine
Paul is a Co-founder of Aramid Technologies, the developer of SmartCert. SmartCert streamlines the exchange of critical documentation in global supply chains, taking the paper and the work out of paperwork so humans can do what they do best. With over 800 companies exchanging quality certs on the platform, SmartCert is the leading company in the field of Digital Quality Cert Management.
Paul experienced challenges with certs when he was the operations manager for a machining company servicing the aerospace, energy and medical industries. He is a Director of Greentech Environmental and Color Communications and was previously the CEO and Chairman of ABP Induction, a global manufacturer of high-powered electrical heating equipment.
Reach out at pdecker@smartcert.tech