Quality

The Quality area is where a propane office keeps its safety and compliance paperwork honest: the problems you are working to fix, the checks you run on goods you receive, the test instruments your technicians rely on, the procedures your crews follow, and the risks you are watching. Everything here links back to the customer, supplier, item or receipt it concerns.

How to read the Quality dashboard when you open the area

The first page, at Quality in the sidebar, answers "what needs attention right now":

• Open Issues, Open Actions, Avg Days to Close and Contained count the problems still being worked, the tasks still open on them, how long problems take to close, and how many are contained.
• Issue Trend plots issues opened and closed over the period you pick; Status Distribution splits them by Registered, In Progress and Closed.
• Pareto by Type and NCRs by Type rank your issue types by count, so the problem that keeps coming back is at the top. (NCR means non-conformance report, the same record the app calls an issue.)
• Source Analysis splits issues into Internal (found by your own people) and External (raised against a supplier or reported by a customer).
• Supplier Quality counts issues per supplier. There is no separate supplier scorecard; the number comes from the issues linked to each supplier.
• Assigned to Me and Recently Created list the issues you own and the newest ones. Export CSV downloads the list you are looking at.

The sidebar groups the rest of the area:

Issues, inspections and quality documents each have their own guide, linked at the end of this page.

How to keep a test instrument under control when your technicians rely on it

A gauge is any measuring instrument you keep calibrated: the pressure test gauge a technician uses for a leak check, or the scale your plant uses to weigh cylinders. Keeping it under control means you can show which instrument took a reading and that it was in calibration that day.

1. Open Quality → Gauges and choose New Gauge.
2. Fill in Gauge Type, Role (Master, the reference you check other instruments against, or Standard, an instrument used for everyday work) and Calibration Interval (Months). Leave Gauge ID blank to get the next number automatically.
3. Add what identifies the instrument: Description, Manufacturer, Model Number, Serial Number, Date Acquired, and where it lives (Location, Storage Unit). Each of your depots is a location.
4. Save. The gauge starts with Calibration Status Pending until its first calibration is recorded.

Last Calibration Date and Next Calibration Date are filled in for you from the calibration records; you never type a due date.

How to record a calibration when an instrument has been checked

1. Open Quality → Records (or the gauge itself and Add Calibration Record).
2. Select Gauge, then enter Date Calibrated.
3. Under Calibration Attempts, add each reading pair: the Reference value and the Actual value the instrument showed.
4. Record the conditions and evidence: Measurement Standard, Temperature, Humidity, Calibration Supplier if an outside lab did it, Approved By, and Notes.
5. Tick Requires Action, Requires Adjustment or Requires Repair if any applies.

A record with none of the three boxes ticked is a pass, and the gauge moves to In-Calibration; ticking any box makes it a fail, and the gauge moves to Out-of-Calibration. A gauge also reads Out-of-Calibration on its own the day its next calibration date passes, or when it is set to Inactive. Record a new passing calibration to bring it back.

Set a gauge Inactive instead of deleting it when it has calibration history, so the history stays on file.

How to keep a risk register when you want to get ahead of a problem

A risk is something that might go wrong, or an opportunity worth pursuing, that you want to weigh before it happens: a supplier whose transports keep arriving late in cold snaps, or a stretch of customers whose tanks are too small for a keep-full schedule in January.

1. Open Quality → Risks and add a risk, or add it from the customer, supplier or item it concerns (it then shows on that record's page).
2. Fill in Title, Type (Risk or Opportunity), Severity and Likelihood (each rated 1 to 5), Status, Assignee, Description and Notes.
3. Move the Status as you work it: Open, In Review, Mitigating, then Closed (dealt with) or Accepted (you decided to live with it).

Severity and likelihood stay separate; the app never multiplies them into one score. Anyone employed by the company can raise a risk; editing and deleting one needs the quality update and delete permissions. The assignee is notified when a risk is assigned to them.

How to set up the lists quality uses when you start

Under Configure:

• Issue Types are your categories of problem (for example, customer out of gas, short delivery, damaged cylinder). A new issue must have one.
• Action Types are the tasks an issue can require. Five come with every company and cannot be deleted: containment, corrective, preventive, verification and customer communication. Add your own with Required Action and Active.
• Gauge Types name kinds of instruments (a name only).
• Issue Workflows are reusable starting points for a kind of problem; see the issues guide.

Where this fits

• Problems and their fixes: Issues.
• Checking goods you receive before they become stock: Inspections and inspection plans, which start from a receipt.
• Written procedures your crews follow: Quality documents.
• Upkeep of your plant equipment: Maintenance.