SAP Business One is a comprehensive ERP system for small and medium-sized companies, but it’s not designed as quality management software. Nevertheless, thanks to the flexibility of SAP Business One and the data already present in the SAP system, quality management evaluations can still be performed effortlessly.
QM SAP Business One
The ISO 9001 standard outlines requirements that a company’s quality management system (QM system) must satisfy to demonstrate that the company can supply products that meet customer requirements and increase customer satisfaction.
The principles of quality management include customer orientation, management responsibility, involvement of stakeholders, and continuous improvement. The ISO 9001 standard gives companies the opportunity to develop a competitive edge while complying with these principles. The requirements of ISO 9001:2008 can for example be implemented as follows:
- Determining customer satisfaction
- Collaboration with suitable suppliers
- Evaluations of quality goals
- Traceability
Quality management to determine customer satisfaction
The ISO 9001:2008 requires you to determine customer satisfaction by suitable measures. But you don’t need pages and pages of questionnaires. Instead, you can evaluate the data already present in the quality management system of SAP Business One, e.g. customer reviews, talks with customers, and orders and complaints.
Evaluation of customer satisfaction
in SAP Business One
To determine customer satisfaction in accordance with ISO 9001:2008, you can perform the following steps in SAP Business One:
- Step 1: Create custom fields
- Step 2: Data entry in these fields
- Step 3: Custom report
The customer evaluation is performed in the business partner master data of the SAP Business One system. The subjective part of the evaluation is performed in the business partner activities in the SAP Business One system (e.g. telephone calls, live conversations).
Evaluation of quality goals
For ISO certification, your quality goals must be measurable and verifiable. But they don’t need to relate to quality directly – the QM system covers all areas. Organizing additional training measures and determining order rates are alternative examples of goals that lead to improvement, indirectly influencing the quality of processes, which therefore has a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Supplier evaluation in SAP Business One
In some cases, quality management also requires traceability. The necessity of traceability depends on regulations, customer requirements, and your own business requirements. One suitable traceability measure is to use serial numbers. In SAP Business One, a material serial number can already be registered during receipt of goods. This serial number will then be carried forward throughout all subsequent steps (e.g. transfer to another warehouse, delivery). The integrated serial number search function allows the full product life cycle to be traced at any time.