Avoid rework in production by tracing components

Tracing Click demo: Traceability in production FAQ: Important questions about Track & Trace

A recall is the worst case scenario for any company. It causes enormous costs and makes negative headlines. Product recalls are not uncommon. According to statistics, there are around 300 product recalls in Germany alone and over 2,000 Rapex notifications from European member states every year. Reworking in production results in costs that can quickly run into the tens of millions. Reducing these scenarios by just 1% means enormous cost savings.

Ideally, you will recognize quality problems in production at an early stage and take immediate action. If a recall or rework is still necessary, it must be carried out quickly and in a targeted manner. Automated track and trace solutions are necessary to enable the traceability of components in production.

Advantages of traceability MES software

Traceability in production

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Transparency from the raw part through the production process of the individual parts

Linking of production orders

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Assignment of almost every data record to a product through Track and Trace

Traceability in production

Tracking & tracing for component traceability is a core function of the Legato Sapient MES solution. It enables seamless tracking and tracing of all products, including all product-relevant data – throughout the entire production process. This creates a complete image of each production unit – a digital twin. This includes all product data (e.g. order, type, features, quality status), product-related process data (e.g. torques, temperatures) and product-related system data (e.g. status, faults).

360° panoramic view for Track & Trace

As a key player, the MES enables the traceability of raw materials, intermediate or end products via corresponding reading points in the process. In addition to this practicable method, there is more to comprehensive Track & Trace.

60% of production companies only use tracking & tracing half-heartedly to reduce rework in production. You can only exploit the full potential in conjunction with machine data acquisition (MDA) and production data acquisition (PDA). This includes automated real-time data acquisition from the production process in order to guarantee high data quality and real monitoring of the actual situation.

Furthermore, tracking & tracing via an MES as a global control station has the advantage that you can view and analyze the seamless component tracking of all product-relevant data across the entire production process (from raw material to end product) at any time – unlike with local RFID data storage, for example. An MES can act as a central data hub for this purpose, providing not only transparency within the entire production area – horizontal data integration – but also real-time information from the store floor for the business level – vertical data integration.

With all the collected and stored data, a large number of aggregated values and key figures can be generated (e.g. processing and transport times, quality level), which serve as the basis for the continuous improvement process (CIP) and thus enable an increase in efficiency in terms of costs, time and quality.

Process interlocking – more than just tracing production

Seamless recording of data in terms of transparency is essential. In addition, modern tracking & tracing in terms of quality control should not only be used for prevention and monitoring. Rather, it should also include functions for quality control in order to be able to initiate appropriate processes when components or batches of poor quality are identified – not only track & trace but also control.

Control can take place automatically, i.e. event-controlled via defined process limit values and monitoring of the actual values from the control systems, or by manual marking by a production specialist. If a production unit (PU) in the production flow is assigned a blocking status, this process value is documented in its life file. Corresponding entries in the block list stop further processing of the affected PU and enable early ejection. This prevents unnecessary and cost-intensive further processing in the production process.

Carrier Management & PU Coordination (Skids)

For some production processes, it is not possible to transport the production unit itself. For this purpose, special means of transportation are used as “workpiece carriers”. Carriers or skids have their own ID (carrier ID), which is used for identification at the reading points. The identification of the production unit in the PU coordination is then carried out indirectly via the carrier ID to which the PU ID was assigned during merging. This is now a standard method for establishing the link between the identified carrier and the production unit.

Without a central system such as the MES, identification at a reading point takes place exclusively for the upcoming production process to carry out the work process, i.e. without tracking the means of transport. An MES can also be used to track the recorded information of the means of transport. This enables real-time tracking in production. Additional information (e.g. route, number) supports PU coordination and provision of the means of transport (in the right place at the right time), which in turn improves organizational availability. Insight into the duration and frequency of use also enables improved maintenance in the sense of predictive maintenance.

Click-Demo: Traceability in production

The example shows the use of Track & Trace for tracing production units. The aim is to obtain information on identified production units for the “final assembly” production area in plant 2, to check the quality status and to change the Q status of a PU.

  • Initial situation: Due to problems detected with a tool (screwdriver) in the final assembly of line 1, the affected production units must be identified in the sense of “tracing”.
  • Objective: Identification of the affected production unit(s), inspection and, if necessary, change of the quality status in order to block the corresponding products for further operations (ejection, separate quality inspection, rework, scrap or reintroduction)

Step 1: Selecting the Track & Trace Dashboard "Overview"

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The dashboard provides all information on the Track & Trace reading points (identification points) and the production units identified via them. The navigation tree (logical production structure) is displayed in the left-hand area. There are no reading points for the currently selected node “Plant 3” and therefore no information is displayed in the “Reading points” and “Production units” boardlets.

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Step 2: Selection of the relevant production area

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By selecting the relevant production area (final assembly, line 1) in the navigation tree, the contents of all boardlets are updated. In the “Reading points” boardlet, all reading points of line 1 and the PUs last identified above them are displayed, including the time of identification.
The “Production units” boardlet lists all production units that were recorded at the reading points shown above, with details of each PU ID. The time range can be set as an additional filter criterion (e.g. time of occurrence of the assembly problems and therefore possible affected production units).

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Step 3: Selecting a reading point

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To narrow down the search radius of affected PUs, the list of production units identified here can be filtered by selecting a read point. The PUs now identified (in the example only one PU with ID “PU0000002”) are displayed.

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Step 4: Selecting a PU

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For the PU with ID “PU0000002”, all important data for the current time is displayed in this view (e.g. last identification, status). A detailed view can be opened by double-clicking on this PU.

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Step 5: Detailed view of the production unit

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The detailed view shows the complete tracking history of the PU, which was created based on the identification at the individual reading points in combination with automatically recorded process/machine data and operator input. This means that the entire logged process can be viewed and analyzed in terms of tracing. For better analysis, the view of the “Production unit details” boardlet can be maximized and the side navigation tree can be hidden.

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Step 6: Analyzing PU coordination

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Tracking data can be added or changed with the appropriate rights. This can include changing a quality status in order to block the component for further subsequent processes if it is changed to “not OK (n.i.O.)” and to trigger follow-up actions, such as ejection or reworking in production. Selecting the data record by double-clicking activates an editing mode.

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Step 7: Analyzing the PU history

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In edit mode, it is possible to change the status of the PU (e.g. released, blocked) or the Q status (e.g. n.i.O. for quality inspection), among other things. A preconfigured selection list with the possible states makes it easy to select the parameters. This PU history is updated or extended when the changes are accepted.

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FAQ: Important questions about Track & Trace

What is Track and Trace in production?

Track and trace enables traceability in production. With the appropriate MES software, you can call up the exact production steps and status messages at any time. The term “MES traceability” has also become established for this.

In component traceability, the production units are provided with a so-called PU ID. By recording machine data in real time, you can see the status of a specific production unit at various levels and take appropriate action.

What is the importance of rework in production?

Rework includes all processes that take effect in the event of faulty products and serve to eliminate these faults so that a fault-free product can be delivered.

Reworking in production can be associated with considerable additional work and costs. With the help of a suitable and powerful MES software solution, plant and production managers can track production units and minimize rejects and the resulting costs.

Why is production traceability important?

Production traceability (track & trace or traceability) allows you to determine when and where a product or unit was manufactured and where possible errors occurred at any time. In this way, you can determine the cause of rejects and recall products if unexpected problems occur.

Get in touch!

Would you like to know more about our solutions? Then please write us using the contact form. My colleagues and I look forward to exchanging ideas with you.

Dominik Weggler
Head of Sales Germanedge

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