In an ideal world, materials control should be easy. Once the design is completed, a bill of materials (BOM) or material take-off (MTO) is generated and issued as a requisition for purchase. Fabrication or installation begins only after all materials have been delivered to site.

Reality is often very different. The above phases overlap and it is common to be installing the first materials before even the design is complete. Managing the intermediate phases of purchasing material progressively while the design is in progress, & controlling sub-contractors when there are material shortages can be complex, time consuming, and of course be very expensive.

QA Software’s Materials Management System QMS is a fully integrated system for managing all phases of the material management process, from Bills of Material through to receipt in store and issues to the field. It is designed to handle large volumes of data and enable the management of change to be carried out quickly and effectively.