ABSTRACT
In support of Total Manufacturing Assurance (TMA), it is necessary to collect pertinent data and information and then utilize it to improve corporate management, engineering, and the overall manufacturing system. This requires having in place a disciplined, dedicated program for (1) organizational data communications including the common types of technology used to collect data and (2) the mechanics of a failure recording, analysis, and corrective action (FRACA) system to support timely and meaningful data recording and feedback. An organization-wide data recording and feedback system (DRFS) enables all persons involved in manufacturing operations to feed the TMA data system with timely and accurate data. This leads to having a common, universal database as a resource for sharing in real-time, current and new data and information when generated. Numerous automated technologies are available to collect data in real time, referred to as automated identification (AID) technologies and include bar code, optical character recognition, voice entry, radio frequency, vision, magnetic stripe, and programmable logic controllers.
