Helps manufacturers prevent product recalls

By Gina Roos EETimes Supply Network (10/27/2008 1:47 PM EST)

Sunnyvale, Calif. — SigmaQuest Inc. has launched its Process Flow Visualization (PFV) software that enables users to easily track all phases of product development via intuitive graphical views of data. Because the software is interactive, users can quickly identify process violations and in turn get to the root cause of any potential product quality issues, product recalls or other issues that may cause customer problems.

"Our customers continue to tell us that quality is their number one imperative. They cannot afford to have bad publicity, negative reviews or product recalls affect their bottom line," said Nader Fathi, president and CEO of SigmaQuest. "PFV gives our customers a bird's-eye view of their global product quality and helps them determine if there are any process violations."

Enabling users to visually track each product as it moves through the entire factory floor from subassembly to finished goods, PFV, which is as an add-on module to the SigmaQuest Manufacturing & Test Insight product, presents information in the form of intuitive graphical charts that have drill down analytic capabilities. This means users no longer need to read through reams of spreadsheet data and other static databases. With this approach, military & aerospace, computing, consumer electronics, medical devices, and other product manufacturers can quickly tell if the documented process flow is followed and when and where their supply chain process isn't working, said SigmaQuest.

Fathi believes companies need to have a holistic view of their product quality, which is why the SigmaSure solution enables the collection of data throughout the product lifecycle step by step — from suppliers during design, on the factory floor, repair, and field service or warranty. "We capture the build data, bill of materials and all the parametric and quality data so if you're testing a product in design, in the factory or when it comes back into field service we know what passes or what fails and we know all the failure codes and know every parametric data. The amount of data, which gets collected during the supply chain, is huge."

With this interactive tool, it allows customers to quickly get to the root cause of the issues with a few clicks, and it easily allows customers to make sure they are conforming to the process, added Fathi.

In addition, customers can determine if their products have been built to spec, gone through all appropriate tests, if tests were skipped, if products failed in the test process (and if so where), and how many times tests were repeated, and they get yield indicators at each stage of product development. The software is able to interpret data that comes directly from the manufacturers' and/or suppliers' test floor and points out the flows in the manufacturing process that warrant further inspection or refinement.

Click here to see a graphical view.

Quickly identifies operator and process issues

The software also identifies faulty test stations and unusual operator actions, which can identity potentially defective or aberrant end products.

Chris Rodriguez, global test engineering strategic planning manager at Power-One (Camarillo, Calif.), a user of SigmaQuest's real-time data collection of manufacturing data since 2006, said the new PFV module has allowed the company to quickly see any abnormalities that are otherwise undetectable with static data representation by visually tracking each product as it moves through the entire factory floor.

"It's a graphical representation of the process flow and we can quickly see if products are skipping stations and not sticking to the flow such as bypassing all tests in between pre-test to final test. You can see that much faster — the station jumping and test processes being skipped," said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez also has been able to quantify other process issues that the company has never been able to measure previously.

"What we've been able to see is what I call 'buddy sharing' where you see units come to one particular test station with a lot of retesting, and then somehow we'll see the product jump to another production line to a similar test station and pass. We're able to visually see a lot more product being funneled through the operator's favorite station, which you could never see with static data representation."

This helps Power-One, for example, monitor line unbalancing situations where products are funneled through more popular stations, which can lead to throughput and yield issues. "What happens by the end of the week is we don't meet the numbers so now we have to come in on the weekend or add a second shift. On the PFV module we can see that seven out of ten lines, for example, are used more often than others and that affects throughput. That's because operators are jumping products around and not answering the question why isn't this product passing on this station. It helps balance the lines and understand why you're not making numbers by the end of the week."

The PFV module can also help companies more readily conform to varying compliance and quality initiatives. For example, medical device manufacturers can begin showing compliance with the upcoming Sentinel Initiative, whereby the FDA is seeking to monitor the performance of medical device products, sold in the U.S., throughout entire lifecycles.

Alternatively, by law, any military/aerospace or FDA manufactured product that has failed in the test process more than three times must be scrapped. PFV tracks these failure cycles. The software also tracks the digital signatures used for signoff at the completion of a test, providing contract manufacturers with accessible proof that a product has passed testing in accordance with the OEM's specific directions.

The PFV module will be available as a bundle with other SigmaQuest SigmaSure offerings in 2009. It is available today On-Demand via the SigmaQuest web site and has a monthly U.S. list price starting at $5,750.