Certificates of analysis confirm the purity of a particular good, serve as a guarantee and are based on tests carried out as part of the quality control of a single batch of products. Certificates of analysis are those documents that it is hoped will never have to be searched for again once archived. They serve a single specific purpose. In the event of an accusation, they allow claims to be passed on and responsibility to be discharged based on the certificate of guarantee. For the manufacturers and users of goods, the processing of certificates and, above all, their careful archiving over many years is essential. If these processes were previously done manually, it is time to automate them, especially with regard to the archiving of analysis certificates.
For a simpler demonstration of certificate processing and archiving of analysis certificates, we will take two practical examples of goods from two different industries, namely steel construction and the production of baby food.
Certificates of analysis for the steel constructor
For the steel constructor, the situation in daily practice on the construction site is as follows: For the construction of a new logistics hall, the steel constructor is supplied with steel girders en masse. First weekly and then even daily, the beams come in, delivered by different suppliers from the steel sector. Each of these steel beams comes with its own certificate of analysis, which attests the purity of the steel and gives a guarantee. The number of certificates is already skyrocketing with just one single delivery. An employee now has to read the data from each individual certificate of analysis in order to archive it properly. In other words, he has to identify the manufacturer/supplier, the product name with associated identification number, the product batch and so on and so forth. This work is enormously time-consuming and error-prone, yet it must be done meticulously, otherwise the consequences can be severe. Imagine that the certificate processing and archiving is only done carelessly during the construction of the logistics hall. And then the worst-case scenario occurs. Twenty years after the construction of the logistics hall, several steel girders collapse, resulting in considerable personal injury and material damage. The steel constructor is called to account as the designer of the logistics hall. If the certificates of analysis for the collapsed x, y and z girders are missing due to improper archiving twenty years ago, the guilty party is quickly identified, the reputation of the steel constructor is ruined and he is also faced with an accusation. A more than unpleasant idea.
So why not automate exactly these processes of certificate processing, including the exact archiving of all analysis certificates, so that such a fiasco does not occur in the first place? Instead of having to manually assign each delivery, which, depending on its volume, comes with the quantity x of analysis certificates, to a project or an order, these steps are now completely automated. AI-based OCR (Optical Character Recognition) not only reads these certificates with a speed that is unimaginable manually, but also with an accuracy and therefore with a security that is second to none. The intelligent, AI-based OCR extracts all relevant data from each individual certificate of analysis, i.e. the manufacturer/supplier, the product name with the associated identification number and the product batch, and automatically passes these to the system, for example a document management system (DMS), for archiving. As a result of the high-quality data extraction by the OCR software, the conscientious archiving of the analysis certificates of each individual steel beam becomes a fact, which in a worst-case scenario as described above is decisive and decides on guilt or innocence. With the meticulous archiving of all relevant data from the analysis certificates, the steel constructor can prove that the steel he used met the requirements that he had received twenty years ago when the now collapsed steel beams x, y and z were delivered, that he had received confirmation from the steel supplier of the guarantee of the purity and quality of the steel.
The production of baby food
A good from a completely different sector than steel construction, with a very similar handling of the certificates of analysis, also applies to the production of baby food. Due to the ratio of food intake to body weight, infants and small children must be given special protection. This is reflected in the strict regulations and requirements for manufacturers. Toxic residues in raw materials used, such as pesticides, however small these residues may be, are an absolute no-go. It is therefore essential for manufacturers of baby food to be able to present a certificate of analysis for every single raw material that they process in their products, with the respective raw material supplier guaranteeing the purity of the raw material.
No matter whether steel manufacturers, producers of baby food or goods from other industries, thanks to the automated extraction of all relevant data by means of an OCR solution from the certificates of analysis and the subsequent automatic archiving, they all benefit from error-free processes. This not only relieves the employees of a great deal of manual work, but above all gives the company the necessary security.
Do you have certificates that you want to process automatically? Then let us look at your specific case together and work out a suitable solution. We look forward to getting to know you!
