The development of a generic model for choosing a suitable traceability system for use in a manufacturing environment

[摘要] Traceability systems are capable of both tracking and tracing parts. They offer manybenefits to an organisation from assisting with recall applications to monitoring theeveryday workings of a production line or supply chain. There are numerous methodsable to act as traceability systems but only a few can be regarded as automatic andunique identifiers.Automatic traceability of individual entities is the future. It is already widely used by anumber of leading companies throughout different business sectors and wide massadoption is imminent. At present, they are slightly more expensive than the simplertechnologies but once mass produced, the cost will come down.To completely understand how traceability systems are implemented, practicalexperience is required. When starting a traceability project, there are a lot of differentoptions. The different systems offer their own set of advantages and some don't work incertain environments. It was for this reason that The Decision Making Model wasdeveloped to assist users through the difficult initial stages of traceability implementation(i.e. choosing the system most suitable to a particular environment).This model was programmed in Excel and supplies the user with a number of questionsregarding the environment the system would work in as well as the user's requirements.The answers to these questions help the user work through the different types oftraceability options to eliminate unsuitable choices. The result is an easy to use programdesigned with the ability to be upgraded as the technologies evolve.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University