Editor’s Pick: Quality Module Extends PLM Solution

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

Arena Solutions is one of the charter members of the cloud-based Software-as-a-Service industry. From day one, as far as I can tell, they have focused on the unique, exacting and complex data management requirements of engineering and manufacturing. Arena Solutions started out with a bill of material management and control application, and today offers a suite of applications that run the gamut of PLM (product lifecycle management) functionality, including change management, compliance management, supply chain collaboration and demand analysis. Arena constantly updates and expands its applications. The latest major expansion of the Arena PLM software suite is a module that integrates quality management into PLM processes and product records.

In simple terms, Arena Quality embeds quality management functionality into Arena PLM’s processes. It provides your teams — say, design, operations and supply chain partners — visibility into quality issues within the context of a product’s complete record. You have in-context visibility and collaboration functionality on affected items, changes, requests, files and projects. You can have links to associated enterprise systems such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) and external data sources, including things like legal and warranty claims, field service reports and regulatory databases. Arena Quality captures and tracks everything, so your product records are audit-ready.

Arena Quality helps you build processes that can meet ISO standards, FDA regulations and product quality business processes such as 21 CFR Part 11 and CAPA. Along those lines, you can track and report on trends, and export data to statistical tools for audit analyses. And these quality processes and workflows are customizable for the way you work, right down to the lingo you prefer.

Other features include the ability to assign responsibility at different levels, manage schedules and track progress. And there’s a feature for 21 CFR Part 11 compliant electronic signatures.

What this means for you is a bunch of things. First, it means that you can embed quality throughout your design through manufacture cycle and lifecycle. You’ll also be able to leverage cross-disciplinary teams and resources to solve quality issues, and have the ability to immediately identify quality problems when looking at a product record is a huge benefit. And since Arena Quality maintains a searchable history of everything that goes into your quality process and the records, you can build up your knowledge base, cut out duplicate tasks and improve your design and manufacturing processes on an on-going basis.

You can learn more about Arena Quality from today’s Pick of the Week write-up. Make sure to sign up for a demo of Arena from the link at the end. Also make sure to get your complimentary copy of “Avoid the High Cost of Quality Failure,” a brief yet highly informative white paper. The sections on the cost of quality failure and the financial benefits of integrating quality management and PLM are particularly interesting.

Since Arena is cloud-based, it enables you to build the infrastructure you need at a cost you can afford. But that also means that you do not have to fuss with software updates, running a data center, security or even buying PLM features that you don’t need or want. This makes Arena a powerfully attractive alternative to traditional on-premise PLM solutions. Hit the Editor’s Pick of the Week link, learn more about Arena Quality and see for yourself what Arena can mean for you.

Thanks, Pal. — Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Read today’s pick of the week write-up.

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