According to a study by AFNORstudy, 92% of companies consider it essential or at least necessary to measure non-conformities. However, 20% of companies admit that they are unable to measure non-conformities at present.
A good treatment of anomalies, non-conformities and reservations allows you to control and certify the quality of your equipment or your processes. Thus, discover in this article how to carry out a good management of these three subjects with the help of a digital tool. This will allow you to improve the reactivity of your operators thanks to a more fluid transmission of information between the field and the office.
In this article you will find out :
1- How can you improve the performance of your equipment through good fault handling?
2- How can you succeed in keeping your certification by dealing better with your non-conformities?
3- How can you optimise the quality and profitability of your operations by improving the lifting of your reservations?
1- Improve the performance of your equipment through good fault handling
Definition: what is anomaly detection?
An abnormality occurs when there is a deviation from the equipment in its original state or a malfunction of equipment.
There are three types of anomalies.
- One-off anomalies: when a single piece of data differs abnormally from the rest of the data.
- Contextual anomalies: when a piece of data differs abnormally from the rest of the data in a specific context.
- Collective anomalies: when a group of data is abnormally different from the rest of the data.
What are the issues involved in dealing with anomalies?
Proper handling of anomalies is essential to maximize the efficiency of your resources. Indeed, the treatment of an anomaly has a positive effect on the downtime of your equipment, and therefore on your costs and margins. To meet these challenges, the follow-up of a protocol for the management of your anomalies is essential. The protocol consists of three parts.
- To establish the existence of an anomaly
The finding is a crucial part of the proper management of anomalies. Without this first step, the process cannot proceed properly. There are four steps in the anomaly finding process. The first step is to become aware of the anomaly. Next, the nature of the anomaly must be qualified, then its extent, and finally its origin. After the first observation, there are two options: either the agent in the field is able to take charge of correcting the anomaly himself, or the anomaly has to be dealt with by remote operators.
- Anomaly report
Second, it is imperative to perform an effective anomaly report. The report must be as accurate and precise as possible. Indeed, the more detailed the description of the discrepancy, the more the processing officers will be able to deal with it optimally and efficiently. A discrepancy may result in a temporary interruption of activity. It is therefore important that the processing time is short. In addition, a detailed report allows for a better analysis of the cause of the anomaly's occurrence. This analytical part is essential to reduce the number of anomalies on your equipment in the future.
If the anomaly is handled through a remote agent, it is all the more important to make a detailed report. In this way, the remote agent will have all the keys to solving the problem.
- Making a good anomaly report
A good report begins with a very precise description of the equipment affected by the anomaly, so that remote technicians can identify the equipment.
In addition, describing the problem is essential: identifying what the effects of the problem are and which malfunctions generate the anomaly.
If possible, the anomaly should be qualified. It is also preferable to take a picture of the equipment.
Finally, the data must be transmitted to an agent responsible for handling the anomaly and ensuring its follow-up.
How does Ermeo improve the performance of your equipment by dealing with your anomalies in the best possible way?
Thanks to the Ermeo tool, your field operators will be able to easily report all the anomalies they detect during their inspection tour. They will be able to take pictures, make comments and follow the progress of the inspection.
Your managers will be able to take note of anomalies in real time, and organise and track the follow-up of their treatment. All information concerning anomalies will then be stored and accessible at any time.
The Ermeo tool therefore allows you to improve equipment performance by reducing downtime and eliminating anomalies in the most optimal way possible.
2- Keeping your certification by better handling your non-conformities
How to define a non-conformity?
Compliance requirements can come from three sources: customers, management, and applicable standards and regulations. Identifying and dealing with non-compliance is a harbinger of your company's good health! In order to be able to detect non-conformities, it is important to know how to define them. A non-conformity occurs when a resource does not comply with an applicable requirement.
There are three types of non-compliance.
- Formal non-conformities: this refers to equipment that does not meet the requirements in force.
- Risks: this is equipment that may affect public interests (safety in the workplace, protection of the natural environment and consumer protection).
- Serious risks: this is equipment that presents a serious hazard.
What are the challenges of dealing with non-conformities?
The challenges of dealing with non-compliance are twofold:
- Bringing a solution to non-compliance as soon as possible;
- Ensure that this non-compliance does not occur in the future.
How to proceed with the treatment of a non-compliance?
In order to properly deal with non-conformities, you must make a list of the conformities to be respected, to detect them more simply when non-conformities surface.
Moreover, in order to ensure a qualitative treatment of non-conformities, a good traceability of the information collected in the field is essential. If the information is well updated and well transcribed during each operation, the field agent will be able to be guided and will benefit from a maximum of details. Thus, on the one hand, the officer declaring non-compliance must be as accurate as possible, and on the other hand, the information must be well stored and easily accessible.
Next, an analysis of the origin of the non-compliance must be conducted. This analysis is essential since it allows us to know the underlying problem. Finally, long-term action must be taken to prevent the problem from recurring. Following this, an improvement report can be created to determine areas for progress.
In order to implement these four steps, an action plan must be drawn up, which means organising monitoring and finally analysing the relevance of the actions carried out.
N.B. It is sometimes difficult to avoid the recurrence of non-conformities. It will therefore be a question of trying to avoid as far as possible the harmful effects of these.
How does Ermeo guarantee that you keep your certification by better handling your non-conformities?
Ermeo allows you to have a complete view of the status of non-conformities, to resolve them in time and to have a complete traceability of non-conformity management operations.
Your operators have a checklist on digital media of all the conformity that each piece of equipment must have. When recording non-conformities, they can precisely characterize the non-conformity, take pictures, make comments and collect all the necessary data in order to achieve the most exhaustive restitution possible.
The transmission of the non-conformity to the remote operator is done automatically in real time. The latter can, from the web platform, add and update information once the non-conformity has been dealt with. This is done in real time and facilitates the non-conformity detection process. The Ermeo tool ensures optimal management of non-conformities, and all data collected in the field can be traced on the application or on the Web platform. The application also allows you to update information in real time. This facilitates the analysis of the origin of the non-conformity.
3- How to optimize the quality and profitability of your operations by improving the lifting of your reserves?
What is a reserve?
Reservations refer to all differences and defects related to the delivery of a work that can be found on a construction site. When the work is handed over, an inspection is carried out to ascertain any apparent defects or faults that constitute reservations. These reservations can be detected up to twenty days after the delivery of the works. The need to monitor the reserves is constant. A building site generates at least one reserve per square metre.
We can find three different cases of reservations.
- Malfunctions: the work requested has not been carried out correctly and must be reworked.
- Non-faults: the work requested has not been carried out.
- The first tests show manufacturing/workmanship defects, so the delivery time has to be extended.
What are the challenges of reserve management?
Three issues recur regularly concerning the management of the lifting of reserves.
- Difficulties in transmitting information: it is difficult to transcribe the information (data, photos, comments, etc.) collected on paper afterwards, once in the offices.
- Consolidation of the data/information collected: it is difficult to know where to store the data after leaving the site.
- Good follow-up to the lifting of reservations: it is necessary to ensure that information has been collected and that reservations are properly dealt with, which involves numerous reminders by regular telephone calls.
How do you proceed to lift reservations?
To overcome the difficulties of transmitting information, set up very detailed reservation forms that your agents can use intuitively.
Do not neglect the data consolidation step. This step requires a lot of rigour and time. However, it is essential. It therefore requires excellent organization. So, if possible, use a digital medium to carry out and facilitate the task.
Finally, exemplary monitoring of operations implies a good sequencing of tasks between field agents and managers. It also implies having dashboards adapted to the needs of field and remote agents.
In summary, there are three crucial steps to ensure an optimal lifting of reserves:
- an effective stocktaking,
- good monitoring of reserves,
- the creation of an adapted reservation form.
Finally, it is a good idea to create a checklist to check that there are no remaining reservations on the site.
How does Ermeo optimise the quality and profitability of your operations by improving the lifting of your reserves?
With Ermeo, your field operators will be able to identify a reserve directly from the mobile application. They will be able to characterise it exhaustively with the date of identification and its type (defects, non-defects, etc.), define its criticality, take photos and identify a resolution date, etc. And they will do it even if there is no network. No more trips back and forth to find missing information; no more paper waste that prevents the correct identification of all reservations.
This reserve will then be automatically transmitted to the site manager, who will be able to take note of it. If necessary, he will be able to modify or add certain information and send it to the company in charge of processing it.
With Ermeo, he will have a complete view of the handling of the reserves on his site, to ensure that they are lifted on time.
Things to remember
The proper management of your anomalies, non-conformities and reservations is therefore essential to improve the performance of your equipment, maintain your certification, and optimize the quality and profitability of your operations.
There are three issues related to defect management:
- detection of anomalies with exhaustive feedback, which is imperative for team leaders to have a good understanding,
- the team leader's assumption of responsibility and follow-up of the resolution,
- correction by the operator.
It is very complex to ensure a good management of your anomalies on paper or on Excel. There are solutions, such as Ermeo, that allow you to organize this management in the best possible way.
Ermeo saves time for your operators and makes it easier for your teams to work together, and improves responsiveness and performance.
