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"The backbone of Radley's WorkForce Productivity Solutions is x/DC, a .Net, XML based
data collection development and integration platform. x/DC’s client/server architecture offers scalability,
performance and availability unachievable by other solutions."
Source : Radley Corporation
Meeting the Challenges of Product Traceability with Automated Data Collection
Data Collection is also known as :
Data Collecting,
Data Collection Analysis,
Data Collection Assessment,
Data Collection Challenges,
Data Collection Company,
Data Collection Definition,
Data Collection Devices,
Data Collection Efforts,
Data Collection Equipment,
Data Collection Examples,
Data Collection Forms,
Data Collection Guide,
Data Collection Issues,
Data Collection Management,
Data Collection Methods,
Data Collection Module,
Data Collection Package,
Data Collection Paper,
Data Collection Plans,
Data Collection Platform,
Data Collection Problems,
Data Collection Process,
Data Collection Products,
Data Collection Programs,
Data Collection Projects,
Data Collection Questions,
Data Collection Report,
Data Collection Service,
Data Collection Sites,
Data Collection Software,
Data Collection Solution,
Data Collection Specialist,
Data Collection Steps,
Data Collection System.
Whether you are a manufacturer, a fabricator, a food processor, or even a raw
materials provider, there is a good possibility that you either already have or
will soon be required to provide product traceability information to your
customers. Product liability and risk management are now a corporate reality
spreading rapidly across industries.
WHAT IS PRODUCT TRACEABILITY?
- Product traceability is not only the ability of a manufacturer to trace
a product through its distribution network to the end customer, but also to
have the ability to retrace a product backwards through its manufacturing
processing history, and back even further to the component level to its
suppliers.
- Product traceability systems are commonly implemented by the Quality
Control Department; thereby gaining visibility into the product’s
manufacturing history.
- A traceability system can be critical when a product is recalled, has
failed after use, or when other manufacturing problems are detected either
before or after the product enters the supply chain
- The ability to view manufacturing process history data allows
manufacturers to identify potentially compromised products by lot, batch,
assembly, kit, revision, component, etc. Recalls and customer notifications
can then be limited to only the affected products.
TRACEABILITY CHALLENGES:
Building an effectual traceability system involves:
- Determining what product and manufacturing process attributes to collect
and maintain in history
- Determining when during the manufacturing process to begin collecting
what attributes
- Begin with raw material attributes from supplier?
- At inspection? At assembly? At shipping?
- Understanding the magnitude of data that needs to be collected and how
that will be done – This Is Critical!
While some ERP systems accommodate limited forms of traceability, the
variable data attributes that need to be collected (based on customer
requirement, product type and industry) make it difficult for an ERP system to
meet a specific traceability requirement out of the box. Some examples of the
very long list of data attributes that may need to be tracked include; job,
material, heat/lot (or other raw material characteristics, serial, pallet,
container, part (item), each part produced by shift, line, machine, tooling,
worker, expiration date, use by date, truck temperature, or QA results.
Collecting traceability data needs to be an integral part of the same automated
data collection system that is used to collect transactional data for the ERP
system such as receiving, inventory movements and counts, work order processing,
labeling, shipping, etc.
An often overlooked challenge of increasingly complex business applications
(ERP and others) is the impact on data entry requirements. As business systems
have become more complex, the amount of data needed to drive them (including
traceability) has grown exponentially. This need has outstripped many
organizations ability to manually input the data at the rate necessary to keep
pace with needs of the business system coupled with the velocity of material
movement. A well integrated, enterprise-wide data collection platform not only
provides the inherent ROI found in automated data collection, it also enhances
the usability and provides significant residual ROI for the business
applications themselves. Radley’s data collection solution also provides the
other Workforce Productivity modules, including Product Traceability, that
support a lean manufacturing environment.
Automated data collection can also reduce or eliminate human error at the
point of execution, such as shipping errors, or picking the wrong material for a
work order, printing the right label at the right time in the right quantity
automatically to eliminate labeling errors. It can also consolidate and
streamline business processes; direct workers to perform the most important task
first, update multiple applications from a single collection point as well as
provide many other benefits that may be specific to a company’s business,
industry or compliance requirements.
WHY RADLEY?
Radley Corporation has been delivering ERP integrated data collection
solutions since 1992. We have successfully built solutions for 7 different
ERP/MRP software systems. A couple of ERP companies have been OEM’s our
solutions. You can bet that our 7th ERP integration was much different than our
first. Why? Well between 1992 and 2008 a thing or two has changed in IT
infrastructure, data collection hardware, and software development tools. Having
deployed over a 150 systems across 7 ERP’s, across many manufacturing
industries, we’ve learned a things about developing and deploying ADC solutions
over the years as well. As a collaboration partner with Radley, you will benefit
from our years of experience. We know how to design ADC business process
execution down to the transaction level, how communicate with the database and
validate data as it is collected to prevent errors in the process before they
occur, and also how to update the ERP with a completed transaction. We also have
proven implementation methodologies that start with setting the right
expectations in the sales cycle, a comprehensive SOW development template
including what to ask during the onsite analysis, project management procedures
and processes. Our comprehensive project management process oversees resource
scheduling, solution configuration and customization through QA to delivery,
training, deployment, go live, and support.
SOME RADLEY TRACEABILITY FEATURES:
- Trace quality problems, warranty issues, safety incidents, customer
quarantines and recalls
- Traceability by job, material, heat/lot, serial, pallet, container, or
part
- Trace each part produced by shift, line, machine, tool, worker
- Complete history of receipt, production, movement, inspection,
genealogy, and customer shipment
- Trace by finished good, component or raw material
- Every touch point is time/date stamped WorkForce Director
- Trace the location and status of any pallet, container or part
containing a certain material or component
- Suspect product raw materials or lots can be put on QA hold before they
are shipped or delivered
- Trace by attribute downstream or upstream from any point in the process
BEYOND JUST AUTOMATING ERP
Radley’s platform, x/DC server, also includes modules (some optionally) that
provide specific functionality not typically found within the ERP but
significantly enhance ROI especially the workforce productivity and
accountability they include;
Product Traceability
Quickly respond to critical business events and take immediate, proactive
action using highly visual, personalized dashboards and reports. Radley’s
Productivity Monitor provides graphical displays of your key performance metrics
plus real-time alerts and displays event data from x/DC or your other key
applications.
Product traceability is a requirement for many products, and
the list grows longer every day. Having a place to store traceability data is
straightforward, but the collection of that data is an enormous task that is
usually overlooked until too late. By integrating traceability into your
business processes using automated data collection, volumes of data can be
collected quickly and efficiently without an army of data entry personnel.
Tracking lot and serial numbers alone is no longer adequate in today’s risk
management environment. Radley’s traceability module with its dynamic XML data
base structure allows ANY product attribute to be tracked.
Work in Progress
How long does it take to get an accurate view of your work in progress? For
most companies, tracking production is a manual process. By the time the
information is gathered, it is no longer accurate. With x/DC, completed
assemblies are scanned from anywhere in the shop and are immediately recorded in
your Business System via a wireless network. You have a real-time view of what’s
going on in the shop.
Time & Attendance
Clocking-in and clocking-out is a very common business process. What goes
unnoticed is the amount of time and effort needed to set up and monitor shift
schedules, handle vacation time proactively, and track overtime properly.
Radley’s Time and Attendance makes it simple. With less paper, fewer mistakes,
and free from manual time management tasks, your key supervisors and
administrators become revenue-generators who can get more product out the door.
Labor Tracking
A large part of your costing process depends on how accurately you can
calculate labor costs. If you are like most companies, you rely on your worker’s
to “guesstimate” how much time they spend on each task. Over time, even small
wrong guesses can have a large effect on your numbers. Radley’s Labor Tracking
eliminates the need for guess work. You will have actual start and stop times
scanned during production. Supervisors can review and, when necessary, edit the
labor information for their employees.
WorkForce Director
x/DC will monitor your systems and operating conditions and push tasks,
activities, or status’ to operators, users, and managers based on a
predetermined set of business rules. You can automatically direct workers to
perform the highest priority tasks first, those most critical to your operation
on the plant floor or in the warehouse. WorkForce Director can extend the
Business System (ERP/MRP) to the warehouse eliminating the need to purchase a
separate WMS with a separate database. Define your picking process requirements
such as wave, directed, by carrier or customer priority. Consolidate inventory
locations and force cycle counts as needed.
Productivity Monitor
Quickly respond to critical business events and take immediate, proactive
action using highly visual, personalized dashboards and reports. Radley’s
Productivity Monitor provides graphical displays of your key performance metrics
plus real-time alerts and displays event data from x/DC or your other key
applications.
ATTEND A WEBINAR' LOOK AROUND
We encourage you to look under the hood at Radley’s solution platform. And,
we urge you to look at other products and platforms. We believe that we offer
the most complete and comprehensive package of product, procedures,
implementation methodologies, technical expertise and experience. And our new
device UI is just plain hot!
If you are serious about making a commitment to automating data collection in
your facility, meeting your customer’s traceability requirements, and
leaning-out your enterprise, Radley can put you in business.