Traceability again

Hello everybody,

I already posted in this forum some months ago and I got some useful advices and experiences from the members here, so I thought I�ll post again and see if there are any new points for me. I�m still writing my diploma about traceability in the microelectronic production. The theoretical part is ready (at least I hope so), but the question is as always, is it practicable? Cause it�s everything about costs in this market. So I want to know which sytems are in place in reality. I guess many of you have some. I feel free to ask some questions :-). I know, that you can�t answer in general cause every company has other machines, product mix and stuff. But I want to know something about the real life from experienced people. So here we go:

1) Do you use some sort of commercial software for traceability? Or do you have an huge database and some self programmed data-collection tools for each machine? 2) So just why do you have to trace? Just because you customer says he wants it, because you�re afraid of liability issues or cause you want to have a realtime database to improve your process performance and so you have the needed data for traceability as well. 3) Which data do you collect? Only which material goes in wich lot? Or process data as well? Results of the quality-tests? I guess process parameters are collected by the most, but can you link them to concrete lots? (this is what i define traceability, the ability to link the data to concrete products(lots or unique product)). And in general: HOW DO YOU DEFINE TRACEABILITY? I talked to some people and there are so many different opinions what they understand. 4) Anybody able to tell something about the benefits of their traceability system? I mean not only what the benefits are but also how high the potential is to save money. But it�s also interesting for me for what reasons you use the date (product liability issues, analyse the defect products within the company....).

Of course you don�t have to answer all questions, feel free to select some, or if you feel that you have to say something about traceability (for example: "It�s you a big hype and nothing really new." or "It�s just nonsense cause it only adds costs") then please write it here, I�m really interested in as many opinions as possible. I�ll look foreward to a nice discussion, perhaps even more questions will ocure in this thread. So thx everybody in advance, I hope you�ll have a nice week.

Greetings Mario Schaarschmidt

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