Name:       Ari Flores

Date Submitted: 4/19/08
Class:        IE-673
Serial No: IE673-Spring 2008-61-39

Contents

1. Introduction and Objectives of the Project

2. Descriptions of the Methodologies Applied

3. Main Body of the Project

3.1 Added RFID tags and RFID processing power inline operations to increase traceability in TQM terms.

3.2 Revised CORA requirements analysis.

3.3 Revised PFRA analysis

4. Summary

5. Further Work Needed

6. References

Introduction and Objectives of the Project

The objective of section five, part one, of this project is to incorporate RFID technology into our fifth company service to increase traceability. The fifth company currently uses RFID technology as part of their business. Fifth company uses RFID technology to identify inventory levels. The inventory levels, sales record and production level data are collected and are used with an algorithm to determine minimum number parts GM needs to order from Teleflex.

Now the fifth company will use RFID technology in General Motor and Teleflex’s line processes to increase product traceability and quality control. In addition, the fifth company will use their RFID technology with Integra table software to develop an electronic Kanban type system between GM and Teleflex. The electronic Kanban process will be set as a three bin electronic system where Kanban electronic cards will be used with the advances in RFID.

According to Website Wikipedia, there is a simple “three bin” Kanban process. The process is a “"three-bin system" for the supplied parts (where there is no in-house manufacturing) — one bin on the factory floor (General Motors), one bin in the factory store (General Motors Stores) and one bin at the suppliers' store (Teleflex factory).” Instead of the Kanban card, with the advances of RFID and software development, the fifth company will replace the card and make into an electronic Kanban type card.

Furthermore, New CIMpgr, CORA, and PFRA modeling have been developed to analyze the fifth company’s new improved service. The objective of this project is to show thru CIMpgr, CORA, and PFRA how the fifth company has improved using RFID technology and TQM.

Methodologies Applied

The fifth company will use RFID technology and offer it to customers General Motors, Teleflex, AIM, and MDSI. The RFID technology will be analyzed for our customers using the following: CIMpgr, CORA, and PFRA. Below is a brief description of each.

My integration service attempts to apply following standards and policy which I found in Professor Rank’s E-Text Book: standard ISO Customer principle and customer requirements analysis modeling using Component Oriented Requirements Analysis (CORA). CORA is an “established method to find out what customers want, need, and or require and is a team oriented problem solving method aimed at minimizing dissatisfaction, financial loss due to in adequate requirements specification, and poor communication with customers and provider (Ranky).

CIMpgr is a modeling tool used to model total quality systems and process. The modeling tool uses the following methodology as described in Professor’s Ranky E-learning text book”

·        Prepare story, and

·        Identify the major actions, or processes, describe as objects and their processes in the CIMpgr diagrams, and

·        Create the data sources and sinks, and

·        Conclude with the data flow (the navigation path between objects), and the data stores and iterate a lot as you build such models.

The risk and failure analysis was performed using Process Failure Risk Analysis (PFRA) modeling on RFID hardware technology. PFRA analysis is normally conducted using a cross-functional team; however this analysis I performed the analysis on my own. The methodology used to perform the PFRA analysis for this section of the project was based on the methodology provided by author Professor Ranky found in the E-learning text book. The methodology found in the E-learning text book is the following:

                                                               i.      Define Scope, Function and Purpose, and

                                                             ii.      Identify potential risks failure modes and their effects, and

                                                            iii.      Prioritize potential failure modes, and

                                                           iv.      Select and manage subsequent actions, and

                                                             v.      Observe and learn, and

                                                           vi.      Document the process, and

                                                          vii.      Enter the values into a PFRA/DFRA spreadsheet on a relative scale.

Main Body of the Project

3.1 RFID Added CIMPgr Model

Briefly, two new CIMpgr models were added and one CIMpgr was revised. CIMPgr model A6 was added to show RFID technology with software was used to create an electronic simple three bin process Kanban type system. CIMpgr model A6 is still a third layer process model. The new process model inputs and outputs are in red. On the electronic Kanban pad, the following will be able to be provided because of RFID technology and our new process model:

·        What to produce, and

·        When to produce, and

·        In what quantity, and

·        By what means (i.e. resources), and

·        How to transport.

Based on my reading of Kanban on Wikipedia and –learning text book, above are items that would normally be on a Kanban card. According to E-learning text book Kanban system is an “automated directional method and device system (Ranky).” In addition, the e-learning book continues to explains the added benefits of The Kanban system was design to: “apply standard operations at any time, give directions based on actual conditions existing in the workplace, prevent addition of any unnecessary work for those engaged in start up operations, and prevent a deluge of paper which cannot serve as future source of material. The other function of Kanban is to move information with the actual material, component or sub assembly (Ranky).” RFID technology is a great way to capture and move the information as described above with the actual material.

In the three bin system, my understanding is when the amount of supplies has depleted; the Kanban card and the bin would go from the store to the floor or supplier to the store. Now with RFID technology all the information that is on the Kanban card with the bin can be replaced with RFID tags and readers. Furthermore, this information can be web-based and circulating within entire manufacturing company, so all can take ownership of quality. In addition, the quality information on each part will also be provided to the stakeholders.

The two new CIMpgr models A7 and A10 show how the fifth company applies RFID technology to General Motors and Teleflex’s respective assembly line. See CIMpgr A7 and A10 below. Each line now has RFID redundant readers through out the process to increase traceability. The RFID tags used by the fifth company are writable and readable tags. Tags can have inputted information such as supplier’s parts quality data and as the parts move down the assembly line new tags can be put on to capture results such as acceptable tolerances, torques use, acceptable process variable and limits. The intent to have readers down process is to ensure quality is high and therefore ensuring customer satisfaction and eliminate defects. For example, as the RFID readers pick up information down the process or assembly line readers will pick up quality data and ensuring process and assembly are using conformed parts. In addition, years down the road if the company is in a legal suit because a customer claims that the car had defective parts. The car manufacturer can terrace back the entire process line and show in court the quality results and link test methods. For the most part all the new RFID customer requirements had an importance rating of 5. Because of the new customer requirements four new additional engineering an/software solution responding to customer were included.

3.2 Revised CORA requirements analysis.

CORA requirement analysis spreadsheet was revised to add RFID technology requirements. In this CORA analysis, one is looking at “customer requirements reflecting component/object behavior related to customer needs (Ranky)”.Based on the new addition of RFID, approximately 13 more customer requirements were added. Based on my reading of E-learning textbook,. “in order to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction with the end product, this activity focuses on the key issues and provides a traceable path from the customer down to the most detailed processes, throughout each stage of the product development cycle Ranky)” Therefore, the absolute importance rating (AIR) number that is the highest should be traced back in the process customer requirements and ensure are met. In this CORA analysis the highest AIR value is 1131. The AIR value is the column with the engineering/software solution response “RFID Integration with new software development”. Therefore, the CORA team will go up the AIR highest column and sure that all the 9 (highest priority customer satisfaction are met for this column. After reviewing the column the CORA team has concluded that yes this has been met. The same approach will be taken to next highest Air values. The next highest air values are 1101, 1095 AND 921. These AIR are following columns 14, 13 and 1 respectively:

Another analysis one can perform on the CORA is to determine how ones product performs regaring the competitions. In this CORA there are two other products the customer can retain based on the customer requirements the company has requested. The two products in this analysis are competitor A’s product and competitor’s B product. The chart that shows competitor shows that company A has two point where competitor A measures higher than fifth company. These two point are cost to install sever/network should be low and report data capability should be flexible. The CORA team would revisit these two customer requirements. One of the evaluations we would want to see is a cost benefit analysis to determine what it would take to get a higher rating. In addition, CORA team would go back to the customer to determine if these two items are deal breakers. Nevertheless, the fifth company is confident that they would get the bid without those two points because the “meat” which is pull data and RFID system and technology the fifth team does a better job. Based on the chart, fifth company has highest quality for all the RFID customer requirements.

3.3 Revised PFRA Analysis

PFRA analysis spreadsheet was revised to add RFID technology requirements. According to E-learning text book, the value of PFRA “addresses negative quality and is primarily concerned with potential events, that can make any process, including service, or even a disassembly process, or the harvested components, fail (Ranky).” This PFRAS is focused on the RFID hardware technology as well as the failure in RFID system, Teleflex part with and without RFID traceability.

My understanding is level of rating risk low or high is determined by “Risk Priority Number (RPN)” which is evaluated by the PFRA team based on following rating: Severity, Detection and Occurrence. Since we revised PFRA to include more RFID fail analysis we observe that six have high RPN and “need immediate action”. Furthermore, RPN chart show these high RPN are the following: ID 7.1, Id 9.1, ID 9.2, ID 9.3, ID 11.1, ID 13.1, ID 13.2, and ID 13.3. The highest risk is ID 7.1 which is RFID paper tag tears and result is antenna and chip may fail. The recommended solution for this is software should be able to balance tags written in equal written tag out, log tags, and numerically determine where in the process this tag should be. Also, additional protection should be put over tag to make tag more durable. The PFRA below shows the other high RPN IDs and recommended actions.

Another advantage of using PFRA is PFRA can be revised after recommendations are analyzed and decided upon. For example, in this PFRA we see a potential risk reduced by the fifth company because the fifth company is using RFID technology. In the PFRA spreadsheet when a Teleflex product produced under RFID (ID 10) compared to a Teleflex product produced without RFID (ID 11), one can see that risk is reduced when Teleflex product is produced under RFID technology (ID 10). This risk reduction is important because then General Motor has reduced risk from one of their suppliers and therefore ensuring quality of their product is high and associated liability as legal settlements for failures is reduced. In addition, reducing this risk is important because name brand is associated with high quality. When Teleflex is produced without RFID technology the increase that General Motor will more likely receive a defective part is higher, as a result,  the PFRA has identified PFRA ID 11 is high RPN and immediate action is required. The PFRA identified a potential risk and identify areas where customer requirements may have risks and need to re-evaluated and solved.

4. Summary

In this project, we showed thru CIMpgr, CORA, and PFRA how the fifth company has improved service by using RFID technology and TQM. RFID was modeled using CIMpgr and customer requirements were also identified with CORA. CIMpgr process model allowed us to develop requirements. In CORA we determined all RFID customer requirements high AIR numbers were met. In addition, with a PFRA analysis we determined six items with high risk that fifth company must address. In addition, with PFRA we identified risk was reduced when producing Teleflex product with RFID technology.

5. Further Work Needed

I think there are three areas where further work is needed. In CIMpgr modeling further layers should be developed.  Also, in CORA analysis, the CORA team should determine how to improve quality in the areas where competitor A offered better quality. Lastly, the PFRA analysis performed the PFRA team should find alternatives to reduce risk and ensure these alternatives are within the customer requirements. Therefore, possibly another CORA analysis and PFRA analysis is needed to ensure high product and service quality.

Bibliography:

Heizer, Jay. Operations Management, Prentice Hall, 8 edition, 2006

ISO website: http://www.iso.org/iso/about/discover-iso_what-standards-do.htm

Ranky, Paul. Total Quality Management E-Learning Text Book, CIMWare USA

Ranky, Paul , http://www.cimwareukandusa.com/CIMpgr1.html#CaseStudSeque

Wikipedia: