Manufacturing Traceability Software from GEI Consultants provides solution by helping to track material/component traceability. With product traceability solution, businesses can identify & contact supplier of part or product for next stage of action.
Manufacturing Traceability Software helps manufacturers to keep track of their products as they move from one location or production facility to another – from raw material to final product, and from overseas to domestic. This enables them to quickly locate the source of any quality problems, or recall needed if a quality defect occurs.
What is traceability?
Traceability is the ability to track every part and product throughout the manufacturing process, from the moment when raw materials enter the factory to the moment when final products are shipped.
Information on each part and product, including inspection results, assembly details and time spent at each station, is recorded from end-to-end.
Product traceability is the ability to identify, track and trace a product both during production and through distribution as it moves along the supply chain.
Compliance with government regulations and industry standards to protect consumer safety is a primary driver of product traceability. Linked to this, traceability and batch coding are also crucial in enabling fast, effective product recalls (or withdrawals) when a safety issue, quality issue or product defect is identified. This helps minimise the scale and impact of the recall on the manufacturer/ supplier.
For example, product serialisation is mandatory in the pharmaceutical sector. A unique identifier containing product type, batch/ lot number, and expiry date (usually in the form of 2D data matrix and human-readable codes) must be included on all medicines to comply with the Falsified Medicines Directive.
Similarly in Food and Beverage packaging, the majority of retailers now require traceability information to be included on secondary (outer case or carton) and tertiary packaging. Typically this means printing or labelling a GS1-128 barcode containing batch number, production date, and other information. Egg classification coding and Farm to Fork take this even further; coding information on individual eggs and animal passports to enable tracing of the farm the produce came from and the conditions the animals were kept in.
What role does coding and marking play in Product Traceability?
Production line coding and marking systems enable traceability information to be efficiently, accurately applied to products and packaging – either in the form of human-readable alphanumeric text, linear barcodes or 2D barcodes/ QR codes.
Using inkjet printing, automatic labelling or laser marking, this data can be applied to virtually any product type. Videojet’s key priority is providing best-in-class coding equipment to mark this traceability data with quality and precision – offering machines that enable greater efficiency, lower costs in the event of coding errors, and improved customer service and support.
Why is traceability important?
There is often this notion that traceability only applies to products that might be subject to recalls, like food or airbags. In those cases, it is obvious why traceability is important. You can’t effectively recall a defective or contaminated product without a full understanding of its source, history, and distribution.
However, every modern manufacturer – even those in sectors without strict compliance regulations – should make traceability a priority. Indeed, traceability helps improve quality and efficiency by giving manufacturers real-time visibility into their operations and by facilitating root-cause analysis.
For example, if some products are reaching the end of the production line with defects, it is useful to have visibility into their whole production process. Perhaps they did not stop through a particular station for quality check. Or maybe all defective products were handled by the same new operator, which points to gaps in operator training. Or perhaps all defective products went through the same machine, which should be checked by maintenance. Or all defective products contain components from a particular supplier.
Benefits of traceability
1. Root cause analysis
Having access to all the data on products’ paths enables manufacturers to dig deep, and find the root cause of problems. Issues are identified and solved quickly to minimize impact.
2. Continuous improvement
Seeing how parts and products move through lines facilitates continuous improvement. Indeed, improvement opportunities are lost when genealogical data is not accessible. Knowing where and when bottlenecks and delays occur makes real-time optimization possible.
3. Value stream mapping
Since traceability monitors how products move through the manufacturing process, it helps with value stream mapping. Equipped with detailed product genealogy records, manufacturers gain supply chain visibility, which provides a much more granular picture of their operations’ value stream.
Tips for Improving Real-Time Production Tracking
Job Shops are some of the most complex manufacturing operations when it comes to work scheduling and tracking. No matter whether it’s metal working or plastic parts, orders do not necessarily follow “standard part routing” steps with the same time per operation.
1. Link Customer Orders to Production Orders and Raw Materials
Many ERP systems do not provide a direct link between customer sales orders and the associated work order or job. This link is vital in providing a view of the manufacturing process and potential purchased parts necessary to satisfy each and every customer order. Scheduling software solutions today can provide this linkage. Often called “pegging”, this connection used effectively in a finite scheduling system can realistically project customer delivery dates and notify the scheduling department when orders are forecast to be late so action can be taken ahead of time to improve on time delivery.
2. Digitize Your Tooling Inventory
Tooling is a critical input to most metal and/or plastic production operations, and most ERP systems ignore it when it comes to work scheduling in production operations. It’s too late to discover that necessary tooling is out for repair or in use on another job when your team goes to set up a job. You need that information as you plan your shift dispatching.
Simply putting tooling in a separate desktop database or a spreadsheet doesn’t cut it when it comes to improving work scheduling. The information in desktop applications is siloed, making it hard for the entire team to share. And since it’s not integrated into your scheduling plans, you may find that the tooling you need is just not available.
APS systems use tooling as a vital part of the scheduling process. Tooling can be treated as a constraint on operations or a required resource and becomes part of the production plan. You won’t have to scramble at the last minute to find substitute work because tooling isn’t available.
3. Be Clear About Priorities
The best way to manage work scheduling effectively is to be sure production priorities are clear. Prioritize work orders needed to fulfill customer demand over orders that are supporting forecasts.
Most ERP systems at best provide loose links between shop orders and customer sales orders, making it hard to keep priorities in line with customer expectations. They also make no distinction between production orders released to fill forecast and those needed for actual customer sales order demand. Relying on paper routings makes it difficult for shop personnel to reorganize the floor part sequencing with changes in due dates that reflect the constant changes in demand. In addition, the infinite MRP planning used by most ERP systems almost guarantees you will have past-due orders that aren’t required for immediate customer demands, but it will prioritize them over other orders with real demand on the books.
An APS solution can use both forecasted and actual demand, but actual demand (Customer Sales Orders) can be linked to finished good jobs for clarity of resource usage and visibility to expected due dates. And it schedules shop orders based on your factory floor constraints (machines/shifts/tools/labor) for realistic schedules that help maximize revenue and on time delivery to customers.
4. Adopt Lean Manufacturing Principles
Lean manufacturing is useful for more than just minimizing inventory. Used properly, new MES systems can accurately track operation performance throughout the entire production process and easily identify potential bottlenecks to help to streamline production processes and eliminate non-value-added steps. In addition, it will also help you to error-proof processes to cut down on scrap or rework. Monitoring real time machine and labor performance or quality specification thresholds can provide early warning when a process is veering out of control.
5. Simplify Setups Whenever Possible
The best way to increase OEE, uptime and throughput is to minimize downtime, whether planned or unplanned. You already know that keeping up with recommended preventive maintenance schedules will help, but simplifying setups can help by getting the most production process “performance” time out of your equipment on a shift-by-shift basis.
One of the best ways to simplify setups is to run jobs with similar setups consecutively so that you can take advantage of the common raw materials and/or tooling and setup elements already in place. It’s extremely difficult to sequence jobs manually, and most ERP systems don’t even try, but it’s all in a day’s work for MES and APS software.
6. Cross Train
It’s wasteful to have a job all ready to go only to discover that you don’t have a skilled operator available to run the job. Even if your ERP system allows you to put a skills code on a routing step, most don’t do anything with the information when it comes to scheduling.
APS and MES systems understand that operator skills are required input to an operation, and real-time labor reporting will help provide visibility into operator availability as the shift wears on.
Conlcusion
Manufacturing Traceability Software Simplify and Streamline Your Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Platform with a Centralized, Easy-to-Use Dashboard. With ConnectedSurge, enjoy a single system of record for product and supplier data that is secure, reliable and easy to access. Gain an immediate Competitive Advantage over the manually intensive and error-prone process of managing disparate data sources!