PREAMBLE – A solution providing digital – traceability that uses IoT, machine data to record, and later track critical process parameters that makes use of Industry 4.0 and Blockchain to provide that robustness and a single source of truth and sits over the organization’s ERP is the need of the hour. This will answer and cover all the gap-situations. The traceability solution should cover all special requirements and expectations of OEMs and Quality System Standards notably the traceability of 4M and changes thereof. Additional benefits accrued to the organization would be
- Assurance and linked record for Product Performance – e.g. emission specifications, critical graph outputs
- Long term validation for complex combinations of parameters – e.g. Welding or any other special process
- Limit batches in the event of a recall
VEHICLE RECALLS – We looked at the Recall statistics based on currently applicable and adopted standards for Voluntary Recall. This data indicates problems escaping the system-Q gates in vogue presently and illustrates the necessity of a new system and controls. This provides valuable insights and Input Data for the solution of what needs to be corrected or modified in our existing systems and controls. The data organized in multiple ways (Defect wise Data, OEM -wise Data, Process wise Data) gives us items that are relevant for the vehicle segments viz. OEM, Tier I, II, and III. We invite Industry Professionals to engage with us for a detailed discussion on this.
STATISTICS – Relevant conclusions and points to ponder from the Data:-
- The recall numbers are fairly high at ~ 3.2 Million reported up to the end of July 2020 from 2012.
- We also look at high numbers in later years than earlier years; possibly indicating better coverage by the OEMs and awareness of consumers
- Another pointer in the numbers is that issues are almost equally present at OEM and Tier I/II processes.
- The number is quite high yet recall has not been applied across the segments for all types of vehicles and for issues not affecting safety. What will be the number, all considered?
The reasons for which recall was adopted by the Industry were the ones jeopardizing safety. Typical reasons and effects indicated by the OEMs at the SIAM website and listed in the Voluntary Recall Draft Regulation are: Possibilities of fuel leakage, Electrical short-circuit-fires, failure of critical links /locks/ structural elements to quote a few. The causes are well understood by the engineers but still have seen these surfacing a few times as the existing controls may be manual or not noticed /missed inadvertently/ and not recorded. Further, the reasons are predominantly for inadequate process controls for special black-box processes and or milestone controls missed.
The Impact of recall is felt at a severe intensity by the weaker links (Tier II and III) in terms of work and costs. But at higher levels (OEM and Tier I) the impact is felt in terms of the value of the brand and loss of time or business or both. The impact is also felt in being required to recall bigger numbers as one cannot be too sure of when the problem deviation occurred in the system.
The solution should thus concentrate on effective control and reducing the impact and applicable across the value chain. We will take you to this end objective in our next blog!
Author Details –
Alka Pande.
Automotive Industry Solutions Advisor at Sapours
40+ years in Engineering, Development, and Quality functions in Tier 1 organizations in the Auto Industry. The last 5 years contributed to setting the framework for skilling in ASDC.
