| dc.description.abstract | Nowadays, in the electronic industries, along with the proliferation of the OEM model, brand owners pay more attention to protect their brand image. Hence, material traceability has become a major issue facing manufacturers, who are required by the brand owners to provide these detailed usage information of materials and components in the production process. They must comply to ensure long term relationship. Therefore, traceability provides significant benefit in cost reduction in case of product recalls caused by defectives.
The focus of this study, Company A, is an industrial computer manufacturer, with its own brand with global sales. Its major products include measurement, automation, computer and communication equipment, mostly with high precision and high quality requirements. Company A must constantly improve its yield and quality, to maintain its reputation and relationships with its clients. Recent growths in sales for Company A, coupled with expansion in product lines, increased in customization, lead to more complicated sources of materials and production processes. These have resulted in higher repair rates. In order to improve product quality and fulfill external customer’s needs, company A is faced with immediate requirement for better traceability.
Based on the general characteristics of computer manufacturing, this study identified the causes inhibited material traceability as: lack of proper operating procedures and materials management, and the limitations of the current information system. An improvement plan is proposed, including a reengineered process for material handling, changes in its MES System to include several functional modules. These will hopefully result in a new level of material traceability for Company A. | en_US |