By Dirk Dean, Field Quality, Hitachi Computer
Products America, Inc.
Who We Are
Hitachi Computer Products America, Inc., located
in Norman, OK., is a supplier of storage arrays
and NAS subsystems for Hitachi Data Systems.
Hitachi Data Systems, headquartered in Santa
Clara, CA, is Hitachi Ltd.'s focal point for
storage infrastructure solutions, storage management
software and storage consulting services. Hitachi,
Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading
global electronics company with approximately
384,000 employees worldwide. Hitachi Computer
Products America, Inc. also offers Electronic
Contract Manufacturing Services for a broad
range of industries demanding the ultimate in
quality and reliability. The company specializes
in PCB assemblies, box builds, build-to-order
and configure-to-order products for computing,
networking, communications, medical and security
industries.
The Problem
A challenge facing Hitachi Computer Products
America, Inc. was the availability of information
on the historical quality performance for the
product being run at the time of the run. The
production schedule calls for a low volume high
mix of complicated circuit board assemblies
(PCBA), and recollection of the historical defects
and potential risks is difficult. The historical
information is available but is trapped in databases,
reports and other electronic data storage locations
and is not easily available to the line operators.
If the "Quality Performance History"
information could be available to the operators
as it was needed, it would allow them the opportunity
to prevent potential future defects.
The Wish List
In assessing the solution, the following were
important requirements.
 |
Available at Location of Need |
|
Very Accessible and Visible |
|
Available at the Time of Need |
|
Latest Up-to-Date Data |
|
Easy to understand |
|
No Operator Interaction |
|
Accurate |
|
Flexible and Adaptable |
For this system to be worth the effort, Hitachi
Computer Products America, Inc. felt that there
would have to be no impact to the operator's
activities. The information would need to be
immediate and be useful at a moment's notice.
These needs were the primary guiding factors
in determining what the solution would be.
The Solution
The solution started with large display monitors
suspended from the ceiling in the production
areas to display the required information.
Each production line has its own monitor and
displays its specific product performance information.
When the first PCBA is scanned to start the
production process, a database is fed with the
product, production line and other relevant
information. In the background, an independent
query also searches that same database to determine
what PCBA is currently running on all lines.
This information is sent to a Statit macro and
triggers Statit to run a U-Chart, Pareto Chart,
and a Raw Defect Data spreadsheet for the product
specified. Those three "Graphs" are
placed in a file location which feeds the scrolling
display monitors communicating the historical
defect information data directly to the operators
on the floor. Now, all the operator has to do
is read the display to see what the past issues
were for the product currently running.
The Impact
The quality of the production lines has been
significantly improved for defective PCBAs since
the implementation of the Statit production
line reporting system. How much impact can be
attributed to the "real time knowledge
of past defects" is hard to quantify due
to implementation of other continuous improvement
activities. But there is no doubt that this
information has been used to verify the presence
or absence of past problems which has led to
reduced defects downstream.
