software package recommendations?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a software or SaaS product to help track supplier non-conformances, CARs, RMAs, etc. A recent external audit found that we weren't doing a very good job tracking the issues, getting timely responses, and closing the 8Ds.

Our wish list for such a package would include:
1) database of supplier complaints, root causes, containment actions, permanent corrections, etc.
2) supplier access only to their relevant complaints/issues, etc (no spying on their competition)
3) automatic email notifications of new complaints, tasks overdue, etc.
4) multiple user simultaneous access
also helpful might be PPAP tracking and ISO/TS certificate updates

We are familiar with SupplyOn and Covisint and use them with our customers, and we are investigating signing up as a customer with these companies to use them with our suppliers, but they seem like overkill for what we need. Does anyone out there use such a system now, or have any previous experience or recommendations in this area? Anyone want to sell me such a system?

 

Google "Altassian JIRA." It is a configurable, pay for seat database that manages "issues." Pretty cheap. Easy to configure. And can support uploading downloading of supporting documents (like 8Ds). You issue the logons, some for your folks, some for your suppliers. It's not the sexiest as far as generating reports and stuff. But it doesn't have a big learning curve. And I find, simple is usually better.

 

Thanks, ncwalker. This was created for software development, but it looks like it may have all the functionality we need.

 

Yep. That is the origin of it. But it is still a web based issue tracker. What's open, what's closed with a portal to transfer documents. Bare bones, but (relatively) cheap.

 

Intelex is one of the supplier management SaaS product. This has lot of traceability built within the SCAR processes. I mean it tracks the login user information and creates record of documentation executed on each user visit to the SCAR. Also, due dates can be posted for containment, root cause, CA, PA and monitoring session to verify the effectiveness.

 

Thanks everyone. I'll look into the Intelex and see what that's about, also I saw someone posted recently a question about Sparta Systems' "Trackwise", I'll look into that one too.

In my investigations, I had flagged Verse Solutions and EtQ as possibilities, then I saw that they merged last week. As I was reading about the merger I noticed that they have a lower functionality, free package called Traqpath, which I'm also going to look into. I'll post updates on what I find for everyone's future reference.

RoxanneB, we don't have a document control software package in place, just the usual excel files and signoff sheets. As for the WHY, well, that's always the trick isn't it? We ought to do a 5-why analysis on the WHY. IMHO, the role of supplier cop kind of gets split between the factory quality department and the corporate quality ... me. It's hard for me to be effective because I'm not close to the failure or the parts or the problem. It's hard for the factory quality department to be effective because they get pulled toward customer quality issues, and there's some language barrier (they're in Mexico, most of our suppliers are in US). Sometimes I get pulled into issues when the factory thinks they're not getting an adequate response from the supplier, sometimes I get pulled in when the supplier thinks they're getting an unfair shake from the factory. At any rate, there's been some improvement lately, but our customers are pushing for big improvements and they think that the way they do it is the way we should do it. They use SupplyOn and Covisint, so they think we should have something similar.