Q›TAR Solutions

Q›TAR Equipment

Contact P&Q

To contact a P&Q advisor for more information on any topic, please call:
  0845 1300 707

or send us an email with your enquiry:

What our clients say ...

Capita plc Financial, Insurance and Business Management Services  
P&Q client: Capita
“Q>TAR has been in place for over twenty five years and has been used as our time recording system for monitoring staff attendance, sickness and holidays. The data captured has been instrumental in ensuring there has been sufficient oversight of the company's staff utilisation across its operation.
During this time, there have been minimal issues with the software in terms of reliability and ease of data access. The hardware, as it has aged, has shown an expected level of reliability, with any fix on fail requirements dealt with efficiently under the annual maintenance agreement.
All in all, the use of Q>TAR has continuously satisfied the needs of the company, and the service provided by P & Q International has been very satisfactory.”
(Tim Sill of Capita plc)


Cadbury (Ireland) (Manufacturer of Confectionery products)  
P&Q client: Cadbury Ireland
“We employ approximately 1400 employees between two plants in Ireland. We have been using QTAR since 1987 and operate it in both these plants. Our shift patterns are very variable. The staff at P&Q are always very helpful.”
(Catherine Murphy of Cadbury (Ireland))


Monarch Aircraft Engineering (Aircraft servicing & repairs) 
P&Q client: Monarch Aircraft Engineering
“We installed QTAR in 1991. It revolutionised our whole system of doing the payroll. QTAR is reliable and flexible and P&Q are always ready to help, they respond very fast.”
(Pat Thomas of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd)


Goodyear Dunlop (world's largest tyre manufacturer)    
P&Q client: Goodyear Dunlop
“At the Wolverhampton site, the rules for calculating employees' gross pay are incredibly complicated, depending on a multitude of factors such as the type of work, when they are working compared with their normal shift, the reason for the overtime or shift swap and even how dirty the work is! So QTAR has to be used to calculate the gross pay for each period of work. The supervisors approve and record reasons for overtime, shift swaps and absences during the shift, directly into the system, which has streamlined the process enormously.”
(Audrey Woolvin of Goodyear Dunlop)


Caparo Precision Tubes (Manufacturer of Steel tubing)       
P&Q client: Caparo Precision Tubes
“We first installed QTAR in 1991. We have found QTAR extremely flexible - it can do anything you require of it. Day-to-day operations are simple. It rarely goes wrong or gives us trouble. The Support team is well-informed and comprehensive. P & Q have kept their focus squarely on T & A - they simply have to be good at it.”
(Bob Sharratt of Caparo Tubing)


Crown Cork and Seal (International packaging company)    
P&Q client: Crown Cork and Seal
“We've had QTAR installed for quite a few years, and we find it to be a good program. P&Q are very friendly and helpful. If I have a problem or question they are always ready to assist me.”
(Christine Wathan of Crown Cork and Seal)


Unisys Insurance Services (Administering Life Insurance schemes)    
P&Q client: Unisys Insurance Services
“We have been using QTAR since 1991. We have a flexitime system with complex flexible working time requirements. It is largely self-administered (within the rules configured into the system) by the 1,500 employees. A competing system was installed and then rejected, since it was unable to cope with our requirements.”
(Julie Coldridge of Abbey Life)


TMD Friction (Manufacturer of Brake friction components)    
P&Q client: TMD Friction
“Our shift patterns are complex – 5-day, 7-day, morning, afternoon, nights and rotating, and we also have people on fixed salaries. QTAR handles these fine. When we upgraded QTAR just before Christmas, that went very smoothly.”
(P. A. Rothwell of TMD Friction)


Kraft Suchard (Manufacturer of Chocolate and confectionery) 
P&Q client: Kraft Suchard
“We have a workforce of about 850 and have used QTAR since 1992 to keep track of shift work, contractor hours and salaried personnel for payroll. We also rely on QTAR in our costing processes, to authorise overtime, book employee holidays, report excessive unauthorised absences, etc.”
(Martin Buckle of Kraft Suchard)


LEONI Wiring Systems (Manufacturer of Lucas brand electronic vehicle parts)    
P&Q client: LEONI Wiring Systems
“We originally purchased QTAR in 1990 purely for payroll management, with up to 3000 individuals on the system. We found that using the system was simple, with a lot of standard reports included. But when we realised how QTAR could be expanded, we had extra ones written for reporting things like absenteeism in different ways that suited our requirements better. P&Q staff give good support and are easy to talk to, even if you aren't very familiar with computers.”
(Stella Pepper of LEONI)


British American Tobacco (Tobacco manufacturer)    
P&Q client: British American Tobacco
“The QTAR system has been in our factory since 1986 and has been very stable with few issues. P&Q support has been reliable and efficient. The application has outlived a number of HR system transitions, and migration of interfaces has not been problematic. A number of custom modules have been designed to meet our special needs, including absence and overtime reporting.”
(Hans Commandeur at BAT)


MBM Produce (Foodstuffs)    
P&Q client: MBM Produce
“We have been using the QTAR system about 16 years. It works well. It's hard to make set rules about this kind of factory. Work patterns change often. People work very variable hours. Sometimes they make time up when they need to come in late. I find it easy to go into the system and override it. We upgraded a few years ago, and we found P&Q very helpful. They are happy to talk me through any problems I may come across.”
(Jenny Hawkins of MBM Produce:)


Dunlop Oil & Marine (Manufacturer of Industrial hosing) 
P&Q client: Dunlop Oil & Marine “Dunlop Oil & Marine has been using QTAR since 1984. We have had no trouble with the system in all that time. Because P&Q concentrate on T&A, the system works perfectly.”
(Sue Thomas of Dunlop Oil & Marine)


Some P&Q clients (from UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Africa, etc) 
Some P&Q clients:


Q›TAR Data Collection Systems

QTAR Data Collection Systems

Shop Floor Data Collection
Automatic Identification & Data Capture
SFDC and AIDC Systems and Solutions

The data your organisation generates, everything from job tracking to access control records, is highly valuable. Using a flexible and powerful Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC) and/or Automatic Identification & Data Capture (AIDC) System like Q›TAR is key to maximising its potential.


Rugged reader

With accurate capture of data, you can improve the performance of every aspect of your business, from machine and process optimisation to inventory and warehouse management. Your company benefits from increased productivity and reduced costs. Even customer service can benefit if sales staff have access to accurate, real-time inventory data.

Being able to call on accurate data can help pinpoint where the strengths and weaknesses lie in your operation and is an important foundation for your management decisions. Conversely, inaccurate data and inefficient data collection lead to a range of problems.

Hand-held computer and bar-code scanner


Stock picked or put away incorrectly means lost profits. A bottleneck on a key machine can bring a production line to a halt.

Human error and the cost of compiling data manually make automated data collection essential for reducing operational costs and increasing productivity.


Vehicle-mounted Windows Mobile Computer

A Q›TAR Data Collection System can give you the data in a form which meets your management information needs.

In the warehouse or in the stock yard, our data collection solutions ensure that the whereabouts of every stock item is known. On the shop floor, our data collection solutions can monitor machine and human performance.

Hand-held mobile computer, Pocket PC or PDA/EDA

Best of all, they integrate with our Time and Attendance and Access Control products.

At P&Q we have developed solutions to help you harvest and exploit all the data in your business, in real time and in a form which meets your management information needs.

Controlling Labour Costs

Labour costing is typically used for keeping track of work done by each employee in respect of one or more of the following:

  • Department
  • Cost Centre
  • Work Centre
  • Location
  • Activity
  • Skill
  • Grade
  • Machine
  • Work Cell

The breakdown of hours worked each day is stored for further analysis and reporting, and can feed into other systems that provide your Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Default values may be set up for each employee, to avoid unnecessary input.

Tracking individual jobs

Job Costing, Job Booking and Job Tracking and Work-in-Progress (WIP) are all key metrics that you need. From them you can generate the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that help you better manage your business, drive costs down and increase profits. We can help you keep track of important elements of individual processes such as:

Wall-mounted alphanumeric Data Collection terminal, typically used for Shop Floor Data Collection

  • Labour Content
  • Raw Material Input
  • Quantity Processed
  • Machine Usage
  • Machine Down-Time
  • Labour Idle Time

Customised Solutions

In addition to these options, we can offer customised data collection solutions to suit your particular needs.

Please contact a P&Q Advisor for further information.