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WIP-TRAK: Work In Process Tracking in the Cloud

On Monday morning, your customer service line rings and your service agent logs a call about a product failure with your new laser-turbo Diffendoofer. Someone was almost injured! By the end of the day, you receive seven more similar calls. Your QA team immediately suspect a cluster of product failures, and frantically begins researching root cause and potential scope of impact.

Sometimes root cause analysis is easy. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone and Hoverboard fails can be quickly linked to a lithium ion battery. But wait, is this really accurate? Is it the lithium ion battery, or the charger? Is it a certain brand or manufacturer of battery or charger that is consistent with the product failures, or really something else? If you are like most manufacturing companies, you use multiple vendors for different components, and each manufacturer may deliver slightly different variations of components over time as they evolve their own production processes. Linking specific components and materials to a finished product is nearly impossible.

Quickly understanding and addressing product failure root cause can be the difference between a great public relations turnaround success story or an epic company failure ending in crushing lawsuits and bankruptcy.

eChain WIP-TRAK

eChain Technology has developed WIP-TRAK to address traceability and compliance needs for manufactured and assembled products. WIP-TRAK is a module of the eChain Global Business Manager solution. If your company was using eChain WIP-TRAK, your customer service agent could quickly and easily check the failed products to identify common components, materials, machines, and even specific workers who touched or inspected the product.

eChain WIP-TRAK supports UDI (Unique Device identifier) or Serialized materials and parts used in the manufacture or assembly of a finished product. Using an extremely simple interface (4 fields), workers log each step in a work order process with barcode scanner, or automatically using RFID.

At each station, the worker would:
1) Scan the new component barcode (beep!),
2) Scan the work order barcode (beep!),
3) Scan the employee’s badge/ID (beep!),
4) Scan the location/station (beep!)… Done.

That’s it! In seconds, the new component (or machine or assembly or quality check) and its specific cost is linked to the finished good and time-stamped. As the work order moves from station to station, we generate a transfer transaction and track time-in-station, worker and items physically located at each station at that time.  Reports show how long jobs/items and assemblies are held at each station, and where a specific work order is at any point in time. Monitor the quantity levels of assemblies or materials by station to ensure no disruption or delays. Monitor that each Quality Check has been performed.  Track specific machines that were used on each product or job.

Diffendoofer Defect

Using eChain WIP-TRAK, you can clearly identify that your new laser-turbo Diffendoofer product failures appear to be related to a specific batch of flux capacitor manufactured by Yekko Inc. and your potential impact is 500 products. Because the eChain Global Business Manager manages unique devices, you can further identify the specific customers who purchased the 500 units in question within minutes. In the same day as the product defects first appear, you can identify root cause, common components, and customers who purchased the defective items using eChain Technology.

Real-time COGS

Managers can quickly and accurately track specific Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for each specific finished product, or generate aggregated profit/loss reports.

Many companies do not have quantitative information on product cost and need to better track and manage specific costs associated with the products they manufacture and sell. Using eChain Global Business Manager with WIP-TRAK, companies can review profit/loss reports by item, by category, by location. This real-time information can help companies fine-tune their pricing model to maximize profitability.

Manage Machine Use and Maintenance

eChain WIP-TRAK tracks each specific machine used for every work order or job.  Some machines are used more often than others.  Some machines break down more frequently than others, and some machines are simply better than others.  Use WIP-TRAK to identify specific machine defect rates.  Track how many times specific machines were used, and schedule periodic preventative maintenance based on usage or defects using eChain WIP-TRAK.

About Global Business Manager

eChain Global Business Manager is a low-cost, cloud-based solution that enables your entire organization to quote, sell, purchase, locate, track and manage inventory and assets in facilities and locations across the planet and in local languages. The solution is completely RFID-enabled using the eChain RFID Enterprise Connector and RFID Tech.  Provides enterprise Order-to-Cash capabilities, Unique Device Management/Serialized stock tracking and Work-in-Process (WIP) tracking in an affordable and easy to use package with graphical user interface and rich reporting.  Enables companies to purchase, manage, track, sell and report items globally using fewer employees and systems. Supports inventory, asset and employee tracking, rental, service, manufacturing/assembly and retail applications.

About eChain Technology

eChain Technology specializes in RFID, supply-chain and enterprise solutions that immediately address business cost areas and improve operational performance. We offer innovative applications, system integration, full service consulting, and custom application development.