Overview

In September 2023, a system migration left ATS Scientific Products without a working quality management system. What followed was a critical period: with ISO 9001 recertification just months away, the team had to manage audits, training, and quality processes using Excel files and temporary SharePoint folders. Fixing the old system would have been costly and slow. Instead, they decided to start fresh.

After evaluating several options, the team chose Unifize for its fast setup, ease of use, and ability to support multiple quality processes in one place. Even before the contract was signed, most of the system was already configured and ready. Within 100 days, Unifize was live across four U.S. sites, covering document control, CAPAs, audits, training, and more.

This case study is not just about recovering from a system failure. It’s a clear example of how regulated manufacturers can move faster by adopting a platform that’s flexible, connected, and easy for teams to use—turning a crisis into a starting point for long-term improvement.

Challenge: A QMS Failure at the Worst Possible Time

In September 2023, ATS Scientific Products faced an unexpected and critical breakdown in their quality management infrastructure. A tenant migration in their existing QMS (BPA Quality) caused the system to fail entirely, leaving them with no functioning platform to manage documentation, CAPAs, audits, or training.

This failure came at the worst possible time. The company was approaching a scheduled ISO 9001 recertification, and without a validated QMS in place, compliance was at risk. The fallback—manual processes using Excel and temporary SharePoint folders—was unsustainable for the complexity and traceability required by a regulated manufacturing environment.

The team had a simple but urgent mandate: find and implement a fully functional QMS before the next audit cycle, and do it fast. There was no room for lengthy vendor evaluations or traditional implementation timelines. ATS Scientific Products needed a solution that could be deployed almost immediately—one that could restore structure, traceability, and audit readiness across multiple sites.

Why Unifize?

When evaluating potential platforms, ATS Scientific Products looked for a solution that could deliver immediate functionality while also setting the stage for long-term process improvement. Unifize stood out because it offered:

• Rapid Deployment Capabilities
  No-code configuration allowed ATS Scientific Products and Unifize to build core workflows even before the contract was signed, enabling a go-live in weeks instead of months.
  
  
• Flat Rate Licensing
  A predictable cost model with unlimited modules, removing the need to restrict scope or functionality to control expenses.
  
  
• Full Process Flexibility
  The ability to map, customize, and adapt workflows without relying on lengthy vendor-led development cycles.
  
  
• Scalability Across Sites and Processes
  One platform could serve all four U.S. sites, accommodate their different workflows, and expand to engineering, project management, and customer-facing processes.
  
  
• Seamless Data Migration Support
  Critical records from the failed system were migrated into Unifize, preserving historical data and ensuring continuity for audits and compliance.

Unifize Solution: From Zero to Audit-Ready in 100 Days

Even before the contract was finalized, ATS Scientific Products began working with Unifize to configure core workflows. Within days, the system was mapped to support document control, non-conformances, internal audits, training records, and change management. As part of this setup, the Unifize team also managed the migration of data from the failed system, ensuring ATS Scientific Products retained critical records and historical information without loss. By the time the contract was signed in December, the platform was nearly ready for rollout.

Onboarding began immediately in January across four U.S. sites. Despite limited internal resources, Unifize’s no-code interface and flexible setup allowed a single team member to lead the implementation while also managing day-to-day quality operations and conducting internal audits.

The platform was fully live across all sites well before the May 2024 recertification audit. Unifize provided the digital traceability, record control, and process consistency required to meet ISO standards. ATS Scientific Products not only passed the audit—it did so with renewed confidence in the stability and accessibility of its quality system.

Additional Opportunities: What Started as a Fix Became a Foundation

While the initial need was urgent, ATS Scientific Products soon recognized that Unifize could help solve a number of other persistent challenges—many of which extended beyond quality.

Opportunity 1: Improve collaboration across quality and cross-functional teams
Solution: Unifize’s built-in chat and shared record system enabled real-time conversations within workflows, allowing engineering, operations, and service teams to work closely with quality instead of in isolation.

Opportunity 2: Create consistency across sites with different workflows
Solution: Unifize allowed each site to retain its unique operating procedures while aligning them under a shared, centrally managed framework—ensuring both local flexibility and global consistency.

Opportunity 3: Reduce the burden of preparing for internal audits
Solution: By automating audit packet generation and centralizing audit records, Unifize cut down the time and effort required to prepare for internal reviews.

Opportunity 4: Make quality trends and root causes easier to track
Solution: With every record interconnected, ATS Scientific Products could quickly access historical data, link issues to specific products or suppliers, and conduct root cause analysis without having to hunt through multiple systems.

Opportunity 5: Support project and engineering change workflows in one system
Solution: ATS Scientific Products expanded Unifize beyond quality to manage engineering changes, deviations, and project stage-gate processes—consolidating all related records into a single, traceable project hub.

Results: A System That Replaced the Old—and Raised the Bar

The impact of Unifize at ATS Scientific Products extended far beyond solving the initial crisis. The platform became a foundation for smarter, faster, and more connected operations.

• The team successfully passed ISO 9001 recertification in May 2024, just eight months after losing their previous QMS.
• Adoption rates soared, with 100% of the quality team and 80% of cross-functional teams onboarded within the first eight weeks.
• Internal audit preparation time dropped from weeks to under 30 minutes, thanks to automation and centralized data.
• NCR and CAPA processing became more efficient, with faster closure rates and better traceability.
• Site-level differences were preserved while maintaining a shared system architecture, enabling consistent process execution across four U.S. locations, without hampering the collaboration across teams and sites.
  
  

Way Forward: Building a Connected Operations System

With a stable, compliant QMS in place, ATS Scientific Products is now expanding Unifize to power broader operational processes:

• Engineering change management and stage-gate projects are fully live in Unifize, creating centralized hubs for visibility and traceability across departments.
• Customer-facing requests like supplier surveys, quality agreements, and questionnaires are being logged and tracked in Unifize, with plans to add automated responses and external file sharing.
• Inter-division replication is now possible: process setups can be downloaded from one Unifize instance and uploaded into another—enabling rapid rollout across other ATS Scientific Products divisions with minimal effort.
• Kaizen-driven changes are being configured and tested in real time, showing how the platform supports continuous improvement without long IT cycles.

Conclusion: What Started as an Urgency Became a Long-Term Advantage

The collapse of a legacy QMS could have caused major disruption—but instead, it became the turning point for building something better. With Unifize, ATS Scientific Products didn’t just recover in time for a critical audit—they created a system that’s faster, easier to use, and more connected than anything they had before.

What began as an urgent need to replace a failed system has evolved into a new way of working—one that’s scalable, collaborative, and built for continuous improvement.

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