Leaving no stone unturned
MESTEC and the challenge of product traceability
From cars to computers, pies to printers, consumers increasingly want to know the “how?” behind any manufacturing process. They understand the ‘what’ (it is) and the ‘why’ (they want it). But manufacturers today are fielding questions relating to:
- How was the product created, and to what specification?
- How were the individual parts, components, ingredients etc. sourced?
- How green was the production process?
- How can you guarantee its safety and compliance?
Hence the growing importance of traceability, and maintaining full visibility into a range of metrics relating to a product’s attributes, make-up, and supply chain history.
Proof made positive
The demand for enhanced traceability can be ‘traced’ back to two external and two internal factors:
External:
- Consumer demand – which is increasingly focused on a product’s sustainability footprint, and the degree of ethical sourcing involved
- Regulatory demand – which requires manufacturers to demonstrate compliance with various laws and regulations, as well as established safety standards
Internal:
- Contract compliance – where firms need to prove to their customers (particularly in the B2B space) that they’re delivering products against agreed timeframes, quality metrics, and specifications
- Continuous improvement – and being able to conduct activities such as root cause analysis to identify what products/components are causing issues and the suppliers involved etc., in a bid to optimise delivery over time
In each of these cases, a connecting thread is the importance of an audit trail for proving what went into a product, when, and with what characteristics. As the saying goes: if you can’t monitor and measure it, you can’t do anything about it.
Problem resolution
Maintaining real-time visibility of a product’s assembly process is particularly critical in industries such as healthcare, aerospace, and defence, where the margins for error are tight at best. Yet in reality, all manufacturers have an obvious responsibility in terms of product quality.
Such visibility, as afforded by a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) like MESTEC, plays an important role when a problem does arise. This can be seen during any product recall process, where the emphasis is on identifying the nature of a problem and the potential impact. But equally, good traceability also enables a manufacturer to instantly begin finding solutions.
In this instance:
- The cause of the problem can be tracked back in minutes to a specific sub-component, to individual suppliers, and to the design specifications being used
- If the problem relates to a single supplier, then the insight is available to help instruct them on the need to adapt their machine settings etc., or to conduct a complete redesign based on the nature of the fault
- In addition, if the single supplier implicated is one of many, then the visibility exists to view what other stock is available to cover the shortfall – while searching for longer-term solutions
What’s important throughout each of these scenarios is speed: the ability to react in time to minimise any fallout, and to have production lines brought back up to speed quickly to reduce any reputational or financial damage.
Granular level detail
Another important aspect of traceability to touch on, is quality control (QC). It’s here that manufacturers are able to establish a detailed baseline on which to measure, and ultimately improve, performance.
For starters, the MES system will detail the full bill of materials involved – including batch numbers. Secondly, it will also show the configuration settings being applied. From this dynamic view, a manufacturer can then ask all-important questions such as:
- What particular machines are connected to specific issues?
- Which operators are routinely using these machines?
- How many times is reworking involved?
The end result being a complete picture of cause and effect. Raw data that can then be fed into the QC process, and lead to changes in when different checks are applied – with precise guidance on what to look out for. In addition, the insight is also available to help determine any training shortfalls that are contributing to a recurring problem.
Covering all the bases
The idea of traceability can therefore lead to a more dynamic, data-driven shop floor – which is precisely the goal being advanced by MESTEC. Among the many features delivered by our technology is the ability to provide operators, at the relevant station in assembly, with a checklist to help meet quality and customer requirements. This can include tolerance settings and best practice guidance from those who have completed the work before.
Plus, the system helps bring greater robustness to traceability by monitoring the materials management piece, and aligning performance to a range of key metrics. The result is a real-time data record surrounding every product, with the ability to deep dive instantly into batch numbers, QC tests, supplier involvement, and any other factor impacting assembly. In terms of traceability perspective, it certainly is all bases covered.
Summing it all up
From demonstrating your sustainability credentials, to acting fast in response to a compliance request, traceability is an activity that sits at the heart of many manufacturing processes. But with MESTEC, you’ll have all the details needed to act decisively and supply the right information at exactly the right time
To find out more about our solution, get in touch.
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