It has been 13 years...

...since we first launched QC Database on our first pilot project. It was a compressor station upgrade with over 16,000 welds (13,000 xrays), 3,300 flanges torqued 100%, and 8,900 heat numbers, all of which had to be mapped onto the drawings.

Wow, 13 years, that is more than 5% of the age of the country...

If you were around in those early years, you remember what the web app looked like back then...

YIKES!

We eventually ended up with the app you are used to.

In those 13 years, we have been working closely with contractors to develop software features that streamline their quality workflows with a goal of speed and accuracy. No cutting corners, just doing the job properly FAST. The package compiler is a good example of this. We used to spend days in the job trailer building turnover packages, now it takes seconds. We would call it 'arts and crafts'.

QCDatabase.AI

Today, we are announcing a totally new web application, QCDatabase.AI! This new web app is in beta, meaning you are free to sign up and try it out, and if you are already signed up for the old program, you will have access to BOTH applications with the same number of seats.

Unfortunately, this new web app is not backwards compatible with the old web app, but we are working on import options for minimizing disruption. The older app (qcdatabase.com or pqshome.com) will remain online for years to come, until the last project finally gets archived.

What Changed?

As you can maybe tell from those screenshots, this is not our first rebuild. We have one other major overhaul to make QC Database more mobile friendly and to change functionality.

Here are some of the upgrades to QC Database that we think were worth the effort:

1. You can now turn off auto-weld-numbering, as well as flanges and other map items. MANY contractors asked for this, but the old design did not allow it.

2. Multi-page NDE reports. Yeah, we know single page NDE reports was a bad design. This was our chance to fix it.

3. Package Compiler now has a table of contents. We attempted, but failed, to add a table of contents to the old app. Another fix that we should have thought of originally.

4. AI document extraction. No more tagging heat numbers to MTRs, flanges to torque reports, or welds to NDE reports. QC Database AI will do it for you. You can choose the model or 'bring your own AI' using our MCP server to let something like Claude Desktop do the work. You also can turn the feature off for a 100% human workflow or use our auditing tool to make sure the AI tool is 100% accurate.

5. AI BOM extraction. When you upload PDF drawings to QC Database, you can now export the BOM tables to excel which are extracted using AI.

6. Automatic ITP writing. Our previous attempt at implementing ITPs, which we called "Inspection Tasks", was unwieldy. Our new ITP module is fully featured with due dates, user assignments, and you can even use AI to generate them.

7. Shippers! Instead of just spool labels, QC Database now has a shippers feature. Track every truck ticket down to the smallest detail. Collect signoffs on the shipping checklist and the receiving checklist. The RIR, which admins can update, is now built right into the shipper.

8. Photos can be attached to ANYTHING. ITP lines, packages, map items (welds, flanges, heat numbers), and more, all support photos. Previously, you could only add photos to punch items, and it was a little clumsy. A huge upgrade that many have been asking for.

9. Notes! We are happy to announce the new Notes feature. These can be formal field observations or a personal TODO list. They can be private, or published in the project feed. Of course, photos can be added to these as well. If you are inside a boiler, or on a site without Wifi, you can draft a notes email on your phone, and send it to our AI notes agent when you get signal. By the time you sit down at your computer, your notes will be loaded into the app.

But WHY Rebuild QC Database?

Some of our customers might be hesitant to use AI, especially for something like project documentation, and we totally understand. That is why we aren't going to shut down the old application until people stop using it. At PQS we believe that AI is the next great tool in the job box. We don't think it can do everything, but on some tasks, it does an excellent job. We believe that for tasks like writing ITPs, and extracting data from small to medium documents like WPS's and NDE reports, it is starting to be as accurate, if not more accurate than humans. If this is true, then using AI is going to be a requirement for remaining competitive.

If you are still skeptical, check out our manifesto on using AI in construction quality. We called it the CEDAR framework. At time of writing it is still the pinned blog post.

We hope to hear from you soon, either by email or in the QCDatabase.AI forum (another new feature).

Have a great 4th of July weekend and Happy 250th Birthday America!