Quality Workbench supports Minster Machine's system

When Minster Machine, a manufacturer of mechanical punch presses and feed systems, invested in Quality Workbench to support its document management system, the company had done its homework. Prior to taking advantage of PQ Systems' document management program, the company had begun nearly two years earlier to develop templates and organize processes for document control. By the time they were in the market for software, they knew what they wanted, based on manual systems that had been put in place in a highly methodical way.

Document control instructions and procedures developed first

"Quality Workbench is really part of our superstructure now," says Bob Deck, quality assurance manager for the Ohio company. With the help of Beth Hart, Minster's document administrator, templates on Microsoft Word were created and document control instructions and procedures were written—all prior to launching Quality Workbench training. Because of the methodical, gradual approach to installing its document management system, the company was able to use Quality Workbench in the most efficient way, and to focus on appropriate training.

A PQ Systems technical support analyst worked with Minster's Information Systems Department to install Quality Workbench. A document administrator position was added to manage the system and oversee the use of a test database created to test the new application. This database was later used as the basis for extensive in-house training and for understanding Quality Workbench and the document management system itself.

Flow charts assure processes are consistent

In fact, a complete instruction manual grew out of the early efforts to enhance employees' learning about the program. This instruction manual formed the basis for training and provided a reference for all users of Quality Workbench. "We wrote flow charts to assure that processes were being done in the same way, and then wrote the instruction manual around those flow charts," Deck points out.

About 300 members of the non-bargaining unit were trained in a format that focused on the instruction manual and the test database to achieve its results, while others will be trained on a just-in-time basis. The objective was to acquaint every employee with the basic functions of Quality Workbench, such as logging on, changing passwords, and using the search engine to find user operating instructions.

Quality Workbench improves management of 500-page engineering manual

To emphasize how critical Quality Workbench is in Minster Machine's process of managing document changes, Deck recalls the former system in which engineering standards were printed in a 500-page manual, with more than a hundred of these manuals available throughout the plant. Each change had to be made to all the copies, of course—something that proved challenging over time. "I point out to people that at any given time, there may not have been two copies of the manual that were exactly the same," Deck says.

Now, Minster's engineering standards are going on line, using its company-wide network and Quality Workbench to manage change orders. Once a change has been approved, it is available to everyone, with the assurance that the engineering standards being viewed represent the current revision.

Quality Workbench plays a key role in ISO and QS registration

In addition to the enhanced accuracy of all of its documents—there are ten different classifications of documents—Deck appreciates the ability that Quality Workbench gives him to track the activity level and to issue reports. "I can see the number of documents that have been approved, the kind of documents, and the department that generates them, and then produce a report of that information," he says.

Minster Machine is preparing for both ISO 9001 and QS-9000 registration, and Quality Workbench is playing a key role in this preparation. The 101-year-old company's own careful approach to the management of its documents and processes will also play a critical part in moving toward certification.