The traceability system tracks the rubber and manufacturing process for components in vehicles like the Dodge Ram

The manufacturer makes precision rubber components for the automotive industry. The plant runs 24x7.

Production process

1. Receive special rubber mixes
2. Mould rubber into parts.
3. Automated inspection of every part
4. Sample testing in a laboratory.
5. Box, label and ship to automotive assembly plants.

Customer requirement

Their major customer required the company to implement end-to-end traceability.

Parts failure could cause accidents. The company and its major customer could be held liable.

The customer demanded traceability be operational in nine months.

Choice of BellHawk

The company selected BellHawk because they were able to implement a track and trace solution in nine months.

The BellHawk system offered most of the features the company needed, out-of-the-box. BellHawk were able to make quick modifications for their special requirements.

System

1. Track the receipt and put-away of raw materials.
2. Track the materials to the extruding and molding machines
3. Check the materials for each batch are correct.
4. As products come out of the moulding machines place in containers with barcoded tracking cards.
5. Scan the cards to track the containers through quality inspection and into barcoded boxes in pscking.
6. Track and control which boxes are picked, packed and shipped to each customer.

Most of the tracking is performed using PCs equipped with corded or cordless scanners. Wireless mobile computers are used in a few locations.

Oracle integration

BellHawk used its automated data exchange connector to integrate its system with the company's Oracle manufacturing system.

Purchase orders and work orders

Oracle exports data to BellHawk about vendor purchase orders and batches of parts to make.

Receipt and use of raw materials

BellHawk tracks the receipt and consumption of raw materials and reports this back to Oracle.

Production of intermediates and finished ggods

BellHawk tracks the production of intermediate materials and finished goods and reports the inventory changes to Oracle.

Shipments

BellHawk exports shipment data to Oracle. Customers are notified by EDI.

Quality control

Extensive tracking of the quality control status of each batch of parts is a key part of the system.

• This enables the company to prove no defective batch was shipped.
• It also proves every reworked batch was tested before shipment.

Results

1. By choosing BellHawk, the company was able to meet its customer's demand for end to end traceability.
2. BellHawk implemented the system well within nine months.
3. The company's quality assurance and control capability played a major role in winning a major new contract from a European automotive manufacturer.