Oakley Ireland Optical – part of Californian-based Oakley Inc – fuses art and science to create innovative, market leading optical technology. The company manufactures and distributes high performance sunglasses, prescription lenses and frames, goggles, apparel, footwear and accessories, with the essence of the Oakley brand being communicated through hundreds of professional and amateur athletes worldwide.

Working towards both ISO 13485 and ISO 9001, Oakley required a quality management system that eased the process of achieving certification to these standards. Q-Pulse, developed by Gael Ltd, was implemented as the electronic solution to help Oakley Ireland Optical achieve their compliance goals in just six months.

Mairead McHugh, Quality Engineer at Oakley Ireland Optical, said: “We were in the process of implementing certification to both ISO 13485 and ISO 9001 and were on the lookout for a quality management system that would help us achieve this. All of our previous processes – such as supplier approvals and ratings, CA/PAs, document control, training plans – were managed through various spread sheets which were not always effective.

“Q-Pulse provided a series of modules, which not only looked at document control, but also provided control and tracking of CA/PAs, training, people, customer returns, maintenance, calibration, audits – both internal and external – and suppliers. Q-Pulse allowed all of the modules within the solution to talk to each other. For example, if a CA/PA required to be raised as part of an audit, the CA/PA raised could be linked to
the audit.

“As with any new system, we were prepared to give Q-Pulse some time settling in but almost immediately we could see the benefits of the system. In just six months we streamlined so many of our processes and thanks to this quick success, we managed to plan a number of major projects for the future which will involve us getting as much as possible from Q-Pulse - such as using the solution to log equipment and introduce new maintenance and calibration for this equipment. We hope to use Q-Pulse to set up a system that will log and manage new equipment as soon as it arrives.”

Q-Pulse helped Oakley Ireland Optical become compliant to both ISO 13485 and ISO 9001. Mairead added: “We now have proper quality management processes in place, which are much more controlled. For the likes of maintenance and calibration, we have a schedule in place which alerts the maintenance department when activities are due and overdue. The same with training, in that schedules can be put in place for the
renewal of training for staff.

“As the person that introduced our quality management system into the business, I now have a controlled system in place through Q-Pulse which has made my job a lot easier. Throughout, Gael has been very helpful and very professional and if there are any questions which require to be answered, they are answered promptly. As well as always being available, Gael provided us with a lot of training which allowed us to get the most out of our Q-Pulse system.”