Although best practices and management systems behind quality management have remained consistent for decades, the systems and solutions used to ensure the production and delivery of high-quality products and processes have changed drastically. Systems that once seemed ideal have become obsolete and unable to address the rising complexities of today’s markets.

Companies initially developed spreadsheet management systems to manually monitor and analyze quality data. As technology developed there was a movement toward either implementing point quality solutions, many of them home-grown, or quality-specific modules in enterprise resource planning systems to manage quality. In both cases, most companies failed to meet the business and technical requirements of global manufacturing companies.

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