Traceability software for sub contract suppliers

[darksupernova]

Hello all,

I am about to start a project to create a shaft with 8 process steps (5 conducted by external suppliers). Each box of parts need to be traceable back to the certificate of each process step. We cannot guarantee first in / first out and each supplier would like to keep a safety stock of parts meaning they do not processed in order. We need to know what we have throughout the supply chain and when each box of parts was processed at each step.

I'm imagining a piece of software with barcode scanners. The supplier scans the boxes at goods in, when they are processed, and at goods out. We have ERP (sage 200) but cannot give external suppliers access.

This does not seem like a new problem but all the software I come across seems aimed at tracking internally and not with external suppliers. Does anyone have any advice of packages we could look at?

Happy to elaborate if required.

Thanks,

Max

 

[drawoh]

darksupernova,

If my shaft requires five vendors, one after the other, then I need five drawings and five resulting part numbers. If the first vendor applies a unique serial number to each shaft, I can track the process with a spreadsheet, or a notebook. It does not matter what order they are removed from the shelf in.

--
JHG

 

[darksupernova]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. I should have mentioned I'm looking for a scalable solution as we will be producing around 250,000 parts. There are roughly 50 parts per box and for each box I need to know when it was processed at each vendor.

I was hoping someone might already work for an engineering company who have tackled this issue and could recommend a software package for us to look at.

 

[drawoh]

darksupernova,

You need batch numbers, not serial numbers. Things will be simpler if you don't break up the boxes. Otherwise, you need to add a number at each stage of your process.

How traceable must this thing be? If I am out in the field with one of your parts, the only reliable tracking system is some sort of number on the part.

There is a DFMA issue here. If your part can be fabricated in one or two processes, you lose all sorts of tracking effort. This may make up for whatever it is you are accomplishing in eight processes.

--
JHG

 

[3DDave]

Normally this is handled by subcontracting the entire fabrication effort. The alternative is to create synthetic part numbers that apply at each stage of processing. None of that solves the real problem which is having a supplier in the middle just take the boxes they got, mark them complete, and sending them back untouched, leaving you with discrepant parts and no ability to trace them or mixing processed items with unprocessed ones and sending those back.

 

[darksupernova]

Hi All,

Thank you for your replies.

We do not need serialisation for individual items only down to box level. There is no risk of companies not doing any work and sending parts on as the process after requires the one before so the supplier would be quickly identified as non-conforming and would lose the contract.

After considering your input and speaking with a number of companies we are going to explore a web portal that couples with barcode scanners. Each supplier will scan the box at goods-in, during processing and at goods-out. It is a semi bespoke portal.

If you know of any software packages out there please let me know.