We all grow—individuals, organizations, and the quality world as a whole. That growth processes don’t unfold without challenges became clear at our Quality Congress ’24, which revolved around the theme “Oei, ik groei” (Oops, I’m growing). Two hundred quality professionals were confronted with some revealing facts. We learned that growth spurts are inextricably linked to life’s journey, that there is no need to fear growth, and that it can even bring great benefits.
Applying growth in practice
For quality managers, “Oei, ik groei” offered a fascinating journey. “A congress like this provides inspiration. You reap the rewards of it,” says Femke de Korte, Manager Compliance & Quality Assurance at Weener Plastics.
Risto Skjelnes, Quality Assurance Engineer at SMART Photonics, shared that the congress made him more aware of how he interacts with his colleagues and that he intends to maintain his growth mindset and apply it in practice.
On resilience, self-awareness, and a growth mindset
The journey at Theater Kunstmin in Dordrecht began with Saskia Verhaeren from Groeibrein. Saskia’s mission is to help people get the most out of themselves through personal and professional growth. She coaches, trains, and inspires to break through limiting beliefs and increase self-confidence so people can achieve their goals with energy and satisfaction.
During “Oei, ik groei,” she focused on resilience, self-awareness, and the growth mindset of quality professionals. “Accept your struggles, for they lead to growth,” Saskia told the congress attendees.
Seeking solutions and inspiring others
At ManualMaster Trevally, we are also subject to growth and the challenges it brings. It requires seeking solutions, creativity, and the ability to inspire one another.
Our project manager, Hugo Bakker, our Poland-based developers, sales manager Johan de Rooij, and account manager Steven van Dasler took their audience through how they embrace their own growth processes.
Hugo and our Polish colleagues took on the challenge of a hackathon to build a new feature for our application in just a few hours. They took on the challenge with passion and ended up with not one, not two, but three new applications that will be further developed for implementation.
New functionalities and AI
Johan and Steven pointed out the continuous growth phases Trevally undergoes and the progress visible in our Spring and Autumn Releases. Johan: “Twice a year, we significantly expand Trevally with new features and enhancements that make working with the application more pleasant and faster.”
We at ManualMaster are also hard at work on integrating advanced technologies that, among other things, will enable documents to be imported and archived in the blink of an eye.
A new look for Q-Learning
Johan: “Over the past year, we implemented around 150 improvements, primarily in the area of the Q-Learning module.” Steven adds, “Q-Learning, the Trevally module that enables organizations to train and educate people through their quality system, has been given a new, better look. The module is now more organized, and completing training sessions is simpler.”
Johan: “Next year, in addition to our Spring and Autumn Release, we’ll have an extra update in February. We can’t wait to refresh Trevally’s navigation and ergonomics. Furthermore, in 2025, our customers can make use of our professional in-house studio. With ‘Video on Order,’ we’ll offer customers the opportunity to create videos with us to train colleagues in using their own system.”
No growth process without relaxation
Growth processes need to be alternated with periods of relaxation. During the Congress, musicians and singers from the original Lion King Musical performed a number of beautiful songs from the show. Our thanks go to: Gitty Pregers, Annefleur van den Berg, Jan van Olfen, Danny van Kessel, Peter van Aart, and Gijs Anders van Straalen.
Television and theater makers Rob Urgert and Joep van Deudekom—known from, among others, the award-winning satirical Saturday evening program De Kwis and Het Instituut—held quality managers to account by showing how blurry the lens is through which they view the world around them. With humor, the QM’ers, QA’ers, and QHSE’ers were shown how conditioned our brains are. This provided insight into how we make decisions in turbulent and uncertain times, and with these revelations in hand, how we can embark on a path of growth.
Trevally drives growth
What does growth mean for a flourishing organization, and how can one address it in a qualitative way? Jeroen Vereecken of Pauwels Engineering explained. As a manager of a quality team in the chocolate industry, he makes extensive use of Trevally. Documenting and integrating information, actions that need to be taken, logging records with web forms, learning through Q-Learning, and designing dashboards where his QA team can find all the information they need—Pauwels Engineering uses Trevally for all this and more.
All locations aligned with Trevally
Jeroen: “The application enables continuous communication between our sister companies, complete with management reviews, trend analyses, and supplier questionnaires created with the WebForms module. Trevally ensures we can work functionally and quickly.”
For a new company that started up within Pauwel Engineering last year, ManualMaster was implemented from the outset. “There’s so much possible with Trevally,” says Jeroen. “But think carefully in advance about what you want to achieve and how you set up the system.”
In five years, the QM-manager wants to have rolled out the Risk Management module, and all locations should be receiving automatic reports and graphs of registrations via web forms. “So that all Pauwel Engineering sites are on the same page.”
‘Oei, ik groei’ plants seeds
During “Oei, ik groei,” it became clear that the quality world is growing vigorously. How do people view all these growing pains?
Femke de Korte from Weener Plastics: “It’s great to hear here that we can train our brains, that it’s malleable, and that we can make our own choices. It’s also inspiring that at a congress like this, I can take a peek behind the scenes of another company during client sessions. What choices are colleagues making, what does that look like, and what would it mean if I translate that to my own organization? Seeds are being planted here that make you think.”
Having a tool like Trevally in your department doesn’t mean you automatically grow. How you use it and how you set up the application determines your growth. You have to do the growing yourself.
She has now been working with ManualMaster for six years. “And we’re still building; that’s what I love about it. New clever features keep emerging, and the integration between the various modules becomes increasingly important.
We started by describing and setting up processes, and now we’ve added the Risk Management module. If you then ensure risks appear in your documents and processes and extend this through Q-Learning in training sessions, working with ManualMaster becomes extremely fun. If you ask the right questions when configuring the system, you can also provide management with the right information. Suddenly, the system starts working for you. It’s just shy of being AI.”
Putting growth lessons into practice
Risto Skjelnes from SMART Photonics also gained useful insights. “The developments within Trevally itself make these kinds of events interesting,” says Risto. “You’re informed and surprised with great tips from other users.”
He has been using ManualMaster since the beginning of 2024. Does Trevally help him grow as a Quality Engineer?
“I can’t do without it. Previously, I managed our documents with an application that required a copy machine. With Trevally, fortunately, that’s a thing of the past. We recently completed a certification, and for that, you need a good system. We had to learn a lot, and that involved some frustrations, but now we work more productively than ever.”
It’s a Wrap!
For us, the ManualMaster Congress 2024 was once again a fantastic opportunity to update our users on the latest developments and to engage in discussions about what the future will bring. We would like to thank all visitors and client session leaders once again for their attendance.
Did this congress leave you wanting more? Check out our agenda and stay informed about all upcoming events and gatherings!
