Customer Complaints
Record the complaint against the customer and the part.
QMS for automotive
Show what the complaint changed
A complaint comes in through your customer's portal, and the fix has to reach the control plan, the risk analysis and the work instruction. In VisualQMS the complaint stays linked to its investigation, the corrective action, the revised documents and the operators who confirmed the new version.
- Already delivered in automotive
- Complaint to control plan, linked
- Control plans stay in Excel
The morning a complaint lands
One fix, three files and three owners
A complaint arrives through your customer's portal, and containment has to start within hours. The 8D gets written and the fix agreed. Then the PFMEA, the control plan and the work instruction each need a new revision, and they are separate Excel and Word files on a shared drive, kept by different people.
IATF 16949 asks for the control plan to be reviewed after a customer complaint and its corrective action, and for problem solving to update the PFMEA and control plan where needed. Months later a customer auditor or your certification body picks that complaint and asks what changed. A PFMEA left behind after the 8D is a finding waiting to happen.
One complaint, followed through
Follow a complaint to the revised control plan
IATF 16949 also asks you to consider similar processes and products. In VisualQMS each record is created by the person responsible and linked to the ones before it. The 8D you send your customer can be filed with the complaint.
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Complaint recorded
Quality engineer
The complaint goes into Customer Complaints, recorded against the customer and the part, which can come from your ERP once it is connected. The customer's email is filed with it.
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Contained and investigated
Quality
A non conformance takes it through registration, investigation and closure. Your containment actions and root-cause analysis are filed on it, in whatever form you use, including your customer's 8D form.
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Corrective action
CAPA owner
The CAPA names who approves it and who carries it out, and has a deadline with reminders. It moves through steps such as For Implementation, For Verification and Verified, so the fix is checked before the CAPA closes.
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PFMEA and control plan revised
Process engineer
Where your rules require it, a change request is approved first. The engineer opens each file in Excel, locked to them while they edit, and each new version is approved before it is published.
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New version acknowledged
Operators
Where the training rule says so, publishing the new work instruction asks the operators it names to read and acknowledge it. Anyone overdue goes to their manager.
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The fix is in. Which other parts need it?
The complaint keeps its links: the investigation, the CAPA, the revised PFMEA and control plan, and who has acknowledged the new version, with earlier versions in the version history. If your control plans carry the part, the customer and the line, filter by the line, and every control plan made on it is in one list, each one step from its history.
Still in Excel, now under control
Keep each part's PFMEA, control plan and instructions together
Locked while you edit
The control plan opens in Excel, locked to the editor until it is checked back in. Each time it is checked back in, or its details change, a row is added to the version history.
Filed by part, customer and line
Documents can carry the part, the customer and the line, so people find the control plan by what it is about. A family control plan shows under every part number it covers, with no copies in other folders.
Linked to each other
Link a PFMEA to its control plan and the work instructions that go with it, as related documents.
Only the approved revision in use
Anyone who opens it in VisualQMS sees the approved revision. The version number and approval date are written into the file, so a printout at the station can be checked against the current one.
Reviewed on schedule
Every document has a next review date, set automatically or by hand, and the review starts when the date comes round.
Opened from the process activity
With the process maps, an activity opens the latest approved work instruction. When a new version is published, the activity opens it from then on, and the map doesn't need to be republished.
When the customer audits you
Why the control plan changed, and who read it
A VDA 6.3 process auditor or your certification body picks a part and asks for three things: its control plan, the change behind the latest revision, and proof that operators have read the current work instruction. In VisualQMS all three hang off the same document: its version history, the complaint or change request linked to it, and the acknowledgement records for each version.
Documents and process maps can be tagged to the requirements of the standards you work to, such as IATF 16949 alongside ISO 9001, which it supplements, and you find them by going through the standard.
Internal audits run in the same system: planned, ongoing and completed audits, with each observation linked to its CAPA.
No big-bang rollout
Start with the control plans, add complaints and CAPA after
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Step 1: Control plans and instructions first
Your control plans, PFMEAs, work instructions and procedures come across with their existing numbers, and their details are added in bulk from Excel templates.
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Step 2: Parts and customers from your ERP
We have connected Microsoft Dynamics, M‑Files has connectors for SAP, Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, and any system with an SQL database behind it can be connected directly. For anything else we build the connection.
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Step 3: Set up for your plant
The modules are pre-configured and set up during implementation with your own departments, regions and roles.
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Step 4: The rest when you need it
Customer complaints, non conformances, CAPA, change requests and internal audits can join at the start or later.
Questions about VisualQMS in automotive
What do the automotive terms on this page mean, and what are they in VisualQMS?
A control plan lists the checks and measurements for each part; a PFMEA is the risk analysis of a production process; an 8D is the eight-step problem report most car makers ask their suppliers for; IATF 16949 is the automotive quality standard, ISO 9001 with the car makers' extra requirements; VDA 6.3 is the German process audit. In VisualQMS none of them is special: the control plan and the PFMEA are Excel files under document control, the 8D is filed on the complaint, and the standard's requirements are imported and tagged on the documents and activities that answer them.
Can we tag our documents to IATF 16949 requirements?
Documents and process maps can be tagged to the requirements of the standards you work to, such as IATF 16949 alongside ISO 9001, and you can find them by going through the standard clause by clause. A standard's requirements are imported or created by hand, and several standards can sit in the same system.
Where does our customer's 8D fit in?
The 8D stays in your customer's template or portal. What it asks for is linked in VisualQMS: the complaint, the investigation, the CAPA and the revised documents. The 8D you send can be filed on the complaint.
Can it manage our control plans, PFMEAs and work instructions?
Yes, as controlled documents in Excel or Word. They are locked while they are edited, approved before they are published, and earlier versions stay in the version history.
Does VisualQMS keep the control plan in step with the PFMEA?
It keeps them linked, lets them be revised under the same change request, and has each revision approved before it is published. It doesn't compare their rows, which stays in your FMEA software or template.
Can we track a change to a deadline, and keep the customer's approval?
A change request is assigned to a named person with a deadline, and a reminder goes out before it passes. Your customer's approval, by email or form, can be filed on the change request.
How does VisualQMS help with IATF 16949 certification?
A certification body certifies your quality management system. VisualQMS holds the evidence the auditor asks for: approved documents with every change in the version history, acknowledgement records for each version, and complaints, CAPAs and audits linked to the documents they concern.
Can we use part and customer data from our ERP?
Yes. Customers and parts can come from your ERP, so quality work uses them without keeping them twice. We have connected Microsoft Dynamics, M‑Files has connectors for SAP, Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, and any system with an SQL database behind it can be connected directly. For anything else we build the connection. Tell us which system you use, and we'll scope the connection with you.
Can it run on-premise?
Yes. VisualQMS works in the cloud or on-premise: on your own servers, hosted, in your own cloud or on M‑Files Cloud.
Linked, whichever you pick
The modules a complaint runs through
Non Conformance Management
Take it through investigation to closure.
Learn moreCAPA Management
An owner and a deadline, with reminders.
Learn moreChange Management
Approve the change before the control plan is opened.
Learn moreDocument control
The PFMEA, control plan and work instructions, approved before they are published.
Learn moreTraining Management
Operators acknowledge the new revision.
Learn more