Binocs for Quality Assurance batch review

How to plan Quality Assurance teams (for batch release)

This blog defines, in a high-level way, the scope and the challenges faced by QA release teams and how we, using Binocs, can face these challenges.
Let’s start and situate the case.

What do we understand with Batch release?

To release a batch, several final checks and verifications need to be done by the QA team. These tasks include:

• Checking the batch records
• Verify production deviations and corrective actions
• Are all QC tests executed properly?

The estimation for the time a batch review will take, how is this typically done?

Estimating review times for planning is often based on gut feeling and averages.
This is because several factors must be considered which determines the duration of a batch review.
A couple of examples:

• Number of deviations and corrective actions captured in the batch record
• The complexity of the production process
• Type of product produced

Team polyvalence is important…

Proper training and team polyvalence in order to execute the review activities is essential.
The required team member competencies depend on variations such as production areas and stages and the type of product.

What about recurring and ad hoc tasks?

Furthermore, there are recurring and ad-hoc tasks and events the team planner must consider.
A small summary:

• Sterilization cycles
• Batch release dispatching
• Training and meetings, both individual or group related
• Holidays
• Sickness
• Etc.…

Taking all the above into account, one could state the requirements for a planning and scheduling system for batch review teams.

Binocs is built for QA

Be able to react to short term planning changes in a lean and agile way.

• Visual management is important, highlighting planning contain violations and team capacity bottlenecks in a clear and planner/user-friendly way.          

• The ability to (re-)schedule in a fully automated way and create planning proposals, taking business requirements, team availability, team competences and preferences and locked activities into account.

Ability to handle priorities and cope with business rules in order to steer behavior

• Task priorities is a key parameter for the scheduling algorithm, next to due dates, lead time reduction, and others.
• The prioritization of tasks can be set in an automatic way, i.e. based on business rules or demand source, but can also be altered manually by the planner.
• Business rules are environment specific and can be defined and altered by the planner in a user-friendly way.

Collaborative and providing high visibility.

• Binocs is a web-based tool, allowing accessibility anywhere for team members.
  
• We aim for lean, high visibility and user-friendliness.

Capture the team polyvalence.

• A competence matrix is part of our product. Configure who is authorized to perform which type of tasks based on the service activities defined for your team.
  

Flexible and fit for the job.

• We have a fast track implementation approach which allows a fully operational planning system in 6 weeks.

Discover our solution on Binocs User Meeting 2019 or request a demo!