Non-Conformance Reporting: Efficiently Create Reports and Immediately Block Component Usage
How can you help your organization minimize the chance of inadvertently releasing non-conforming products?
Imagine it is near the end of the 2nd shift at the end of the week. The team member installing a critical component notices there is a defect and decides to consult with their supervisor. The supervisor asks that the component be tagged, along with the hand-written details of the situation. Following the standard, the team member then walks the component to the ‘defect cart’. Monday morning the Operations Support team is back in the facility.
When the process is followed as intended, Operations Support will then hand key the details of the situation into the Non-Conformance Reporting (NCR) system. The NCR workflow is executed to determine the scope of the issue, identify the root cause, coordinating CAPAs with the supplier, and ultimately establishing a disposition status for the components covered by the NCR.
Proplanner’s Shop Floor Viewer helps organizations efficiently initiate NCRs and immediately block the impacted serialized components from being installed. The defective components are blacklisted from use on the shop floor, helping to address one of the flaws in ‘hand initiated’ NCR processes:
The MES system must always know – including immediately after a defect is found – the disposition status of components. Is it ok to install it?
NCRs can be initiated within the SFV via a variety of mechanisms:
Direct NCR Creation allows for Operations Support to add component serial numbers and supporting information. The live status of the components will be displayed, allowing the user to take the necessary action.
Work Instruction Initiated NCRs are entered by shop floor team members who are executing the build process via the SFV. NCRs are one of the exceptions that can be filed directly from the instruction screen, without needing to leave the build process. Additionally, the SFV is able to take the known information about the location where the operator is working to feed into the NCR.
Test Failures provide an interesting opportunity to leverage the unit repair process to identify likely defective components and immediately file an NCR. The Test Failure exception within the SFV provides a controlled environment for privileged operators to perform and track ‘actions’ needed to resolve failed tests. These actions include component removal/replacement, which likely means the component is defective. The operator simply checks ‘File NCR’ and the serialized component is immediately blacklisted. This is an important aspect because repair operations are high risk, oftentimes associated with specialized operators working at general-purpose workbenches/stations as opposed to normal assembly line stations.
Proplanner’s SFV is intended to be the NCR initiation and disposition handling system. The NCR module does not currently support communication with suppliers and CAPA assignment/tracking. The NCR data created within Proplanner is communicated to the QA modules within PLM and ERP system via a web API.
As the disposition status of the NCR, either the entire set of impacted components or only specific serial numbers, the status information is returned to Proplanner.
Proplanner is able to update the blacklist/whitelist status for each component. Additionally, privileged users are able to override the block against a component to release for use in advance of the official disposition status reaching the system. This allows for management to fast track critical parts to the floor after they have been released, all with the appropriate audit trail being collected.
Users can quickly search through the NCR history, locating the NCRs associated with certain part numbers or serial numbers. The data table can be exported to Excel for further reporting or analysis.
The Shop Floor Viewer is able to help manufacturers efficiently create NCRs, immediately prevent usage of the component, and integrate with supplier management QA systems.
As always, let us know at info@proplanner.com if we can help answer any questions.
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