Managing Automation - December 2007 - (Page 39) tegrity of your product,” he says. The solution, according to Travis, is to achieve supply chain transparency, a state in which there is open flow of information in real time among all the parties, with no silos, or departmental or organizational boundaries. While the concept might seem more aspirational than achievable in the real world, Travis says manufacturers need to implement technology and processes to come closer to that ideal to safeguard their brands and avoid costly warranty claims and recalls. A QUALITY CONTROL FRAMEWORK Many different types of software exist to help manufacturers better manage quality in a CM situation. Solutions range from quality modules in ERP applications to track-and-trace functionality, supply chain execution and planning, and business/manufacturing intelligence. It can be difficult to know where to begin. According to AMR, despite the plethora of quality applications on the market, current IT architectures are often not equipped to foster the communication of critical data to all stakeholders in the value chain to reduce detection-to-correction (DTC) times and improve overall product quality and reliability. Often, for example, large companies use multiple databases to collect manufacturing, test, quality, shipping, and warranty information. Usually, this is siloed by group or company. To achieve better quality management, Jacobson says, manufacturers need a sustainable framework to connect all business processes and technologies that control quality and relate forward-looking quality management information with actual field event data. “This can then lead to a closed-loop process with the key stakeholders in manufacturing, quality assurance, and product design across the entire supply network, not just within a specific-tier supplier or OEM,” he says. A first step, Jacobson says, is to implement composite metrics that multiple sites can buy into, such as DTC. That requires timely access to critical quality data. Manufacturers should also determine what the functions of quality for their organization are and how to propagate quality data out to the extended supply chain. SigmaQuest is one software vendor that offers on-demand business intelligence software that monitors and analyzes supply chain quality. “It’s difficult to get to the root cause of quality issues,” says Nader Fathi, president and CEO of SigmaQuest, whose customers are mostly in telecom, consumer electronics, and medical devices. “The time to react kills disparate views 56% 33% 48% 38% CHALLENGES IN MANAGING THE CM RELATIONSHIP CMs and brand owners cited their top technical and business challenges: PLANNING AND MANAGING INVENTORY THROUGHOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN Brand owner: Contract manufacturer: MANAGING PRODUCT QUALITY Brand owner: Contract manufacturer: PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Brand owner: Contract manufacturer: 8% VISIBILITY OF DEMAND SIGNALS Brand owner: Contract manufacturer: MATERIALS SOURCING Brand owner: Contract manufacturer: SHARING INFORMATION ON PRODUCTION Brand owner: Contract manufacturer: 11% Source: AMR Research 35% 29% 26% 29% 40% 25% quality. That is a disaster for the companies.” “We have built analytics on top to convert the data into actionable information,” he says. IQS and EtQ are two other software vendors that ser ve the enterprise quality and compliance management area in manufacturing. managingautomation.com Reducing warranty claims is an easy place for manufacturers to beRELATED ARTICLES: gin justifying investments in quality If It Ain’t Broke, Fix It? analysis software, Fathi adds. “If www.managingautomation.com/warranty you can reduce your warranty costs Creating the One Enterprise 5% to 10% because of better inforwww.managingautomation.com/integrate mation, that ends up being a lot of Boeing’s Big Supply Chain Wager money. You have put in place soluwww.managingautomation.com/boeing tions to help you sleep better at Reporter’s Notebook: Contending with night. At the end of the day, what China’s Supply Chain Challenges www.managingautomation.com/china you really own is your brand.” Using this type of technology can Regulate This www.managingautomation.com/notes42 lead to competitive advantage, according to AMR’s Jacobson. “ComCOMPANIES MENTIONED: panies are succeeding by tying quali2 ity management to warranty or www.managingautomation.com/i2 supplier management. This is one SigmaQuest way to become a performance-driven www.managingautomation.com/Sigmaquest organization.” ■ maonline 39 December 2007 http://managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/warranty http://www.managingautomation.com/integrate http://www.managingautomation.com/boeing http://www.managingautomation.com/china http://www.managingautomation.com/notes42 http://www.managingautomation.com/i2 http://www.managingautomation.com/Sigmaquest
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