In November of 1998, Julia Hinrichs was hired as Quality Systems Improvement Manager at Peterbilt Motors Company's Headquarters in Denton, Texas. Peterbilt, a division of PACCAR Inc., manufactures premium quality trucks and offers a broad range of services for the over-the-road, construction, municipal and medium-duty markets. In support of Peterbilt's philosophy of continuous improvement, among Hinrich's first tasks was to seek out new, state-of-the-art Quality Systems software. After evaluating various programs - she eventually chose Quality America's Qpulse4, our Quality Management and Document Control software for ISO & QS9000.

While the department's software needs were specific to Audit and Corrective Action use, Hinrich said the moderate pricing of QPulse4 made it worthwhile to purchase the Quality System Package and use only a few of the modules.

Since the purchase, she has found Qpulse4 very user-friendly and as such progressed into using other modules, specifically Training and Equipment. "Its one of the most user-friendly products I've ever found" Hinrich says, adding that it generally takes just one month for new users - from managers to shop floor personnel - to become proficient using the software.

Ten different employees use QPulse4 every day. The modules that are used the most are Equipment, Corrective Action and Training. The Audit inspector checks 3-6 trucks daily and uses the Corrective Action module for tracking non-conformities.

As a result of using Qpulse4, the department has realized cost savings in several areas, including a mass reduction in paper. Both Equipment Calibration and Auditing were very paper intensive and with Qpulse4 they were able to reduce their paper tracking to almost nothing, getting rid of file cabinets of paper in the process. Additionally, the software's e-mail function reduced the corrective action response time to resolution within 24 hours.

Even though Qpulse4 is an off-the-shelf product, Hinrich likes the fact that we are always willing to listen to her request for software changes and tries to incorporate those changes into future versions of QPulse.