This function manages quality control from end to end: defining sampling points and frequencies, the methods and standards applied, test plans with their specification limits, measurement types, laboratory instruments and the full history of results. This is what the market calls a LIMS, or Laboratory Information Management System.
Every result stays tied to the product and the period concerned, which makes quality traceability something you look up rather than something you reconstruct.
Why the binder always catches up with you
In many laboratories, results live in a spreadsheet, sometimes in a notebook, often in both. Everyone knows where to look, and it works as long as nobody asks for anything.
Then a customer asks for the quality history of a batch delivered six months earlier. Or an auditor wants to see the test plan that applied over a given period, with the limits in force at the time. So you piece it together, cross-check files, work out who signed off what, and hope the version you found is the right one.
Structuring quality control is not about adding procedure. It is about making sure the question is settled by looking up one line.
How it works
Sampling points, frequencies and sample types are defined for the site.
Each test is tied to a method and to the standard that governs it.
The sample is logged and tied to the product, the point and the period concerned.
Measurements are entered manually or picked up from laboratory instruments.
Values are compared against the limits in the test plan currently in force.
The result is kept on record and stays available by product, by period or by sampling point.
Three situations this feature addresses
Tracing a batch’s history takes half a day
The situation: The request comes in from a customer or an auditor. The results are in a spreadsheet, the certificates in a binder, and the person who knows where to look is on leave.
What the software does:
- Every test tied to its product and its period
- Search by product, sampling point or date range
- Complete history of results, ready to export
What changes: The request is handled by looking up one line, not by reconstructing a paper trail.
The test plan changes and the history does not know
The situation: Specification limits change, a method is revised, a frequency is adjusted. Six months later, nobody can say which rules applied to the batch in question.
What the software does:
- Test plans and limits held in the data model
- Methods and standards tied to each test type
- Results kept alongside the rules that applied to them
What changes: The history stays readable, even after the plan has moved on.
The out-of-spec result surfaces too late
The situation: The result is entered, but nothing flags it. It gets read at the monthly review, by which time the product concerned left the site days ago.
What the software does:
- Automatic comparison against the limits currently in force
- Out-of-specification results flagged
- Immediate link to the product and period concerned
What changes: The problem gets dealt with while something can still be done about it.
What this function covers
Working with your existing instruments
The software connects to the laboratory instruments already in service, which removes the double entry of results and eliminates the main source of transcription error.
The results produced do not stay locked away in the laboratory. Tied to the same site data model as every other function, they sit alongside production data and feed straight into reports, with no intermediate export.
Deployment can start with the laboratory alone. It is often the quickest scope to put in place, because it barely touches the electrical installation.
Where this function delivers the most
Food and beverage, chemicals, cosmetics, water treatment, metals, construction materials: wherever a laboratory checks production.
Case studies
One software package, several functions
Our PILOT software also covers truck flows, site access, weighing, production, downtime, reporting and integration with your business systems, all on a shared site data model.
You only turn on what you need, and you extend when the need arises, without changing tools or rebuilding interfaces.
The other functions
Laboratory and quality shares its data model with the other functions. Each one runs independently, on the same foundation.
