Good basic eQMS system for small companies
January 30, 2018
Good basic eQMS system for small companies
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Arena
Arena Quality is used as the central repository for our Quality Management System SOPs, to process engineering change orders, for complaint management, CAPA management, training system, storage of released product drawings, BOMs, deviations, etc. Primary users are R&D and Quality, but the entire organization uses Arena.
- User interface is relatively straight forward & easy to learn.
- The fact that Arena is an electronic QMS system is a significant improvement over our previous paper system. Information is now much more easily accessible and hyperlinked.
- Also because Arena is electronic, everybody has visibility to our engineering change orders: who has approved, when ECO submitted, etc. In previous paper system, we sometime lose track of where files end up on reviewers' desks.
- Cloud-based, so no need to download a desktop application. Makes the information in Arena more accessible.
- Arena is not the most sophisticated system, so there are things we are not able to customize. E.g., It would be ideal if the training world has underlying organizational structure so that training programs can be set up for functional teams and functional people managers can see at a glance the training status of all their team members.
- Post-approval implementation of Engineering Change Orders is currently done/tracked like a checklist. It would be ideal if the implementation phase is tracked liked the approval cycle, with assignee's, due dates, automatic notification, etc.
- Layout of the screens can be better. E.g., in Engineering Change Order, we've added custom questions. The layout is such that the question titles are squeezed into a narrow column & the questions take the whole rest of the page. Makes the system look unprofessional.
- Positive impact: Moving away from paper system has reduced lost files, restarting processes, etc. We will never go back to a paper quality system.
- Positive impact: Electronic system gives employees who are travelling or typically off-site access to information. Electronic approvals allow people to approve things outside of regular office hours.
- Negative impact: Less collaboration. Previously, we had meetings where approvers would review changes or items together, then sign physical papers. With an electronic system and people being able to review items separately, we have less in-person discussions and things can be missed. Similarly, what was previously easily clarified in person, now people just reject changes and the whole electronic process must start anew.
- Positive impact: easier traceability to see the history of items, trace to change orders, etc.
I was not part of the Arena selection team. However, I know some of the decision factors included:
- integration with our PDM system
- integration with our eCAD system
- integration with our production enterprise system
- cost
- integration with our PDM system
- integration with our eCAD system
- integration with our production enterprise system
- cost