Saving Costs with a Part Traceability Program

For industries such as electronics, retail and pharmaceutical, it is imperative that products have complete life cycle traceability. 

Aerospace and automotive sectors have also turned to “mark & read” solutions for engine parts in order to ensure complete traceability. 

Implementing a Product or Part Traceability Program is necessary in order to:

• Improve overall productivity,
• Reduce operating costs,
• Ensure the right part is assembled for the right product,
• Enhance the chance of contract renegotiation, and
• Avoid costly and possible reputation-damaging product recalls.

Cognex systems have proven success in just such applications. 

>Download our product guide to learn about Cognex industrial-grade ID readers
>Read about others who have been successful implementing Cognex image-based ID readers for tracking and tracing parts

Damage Control: Limiting Costly Recalls A supplier of engines to the automotive industry discovered a faulty part in an engine. Each recall cost an estimated $400.  Since each of the parts had been marked with a 2D data matrix code and were traceable using machine vision, the supplier could track the 500 faulty parts from the potential total of 2000, greatly minimizing the total cost of the recall by $600,000. As a bonus, the supplier was able to keep their customer's inconvenience to a minimum. A spoiled relationship could have been even more costly to repair. Calculate your potential savings with our online Cost Savings Advisor

New MP3 players from a global electronics manufacturer like Sony are destined for a demanding consumer market and cannot be compromised in any way. In Malaysia, the company sought a code reading and traceability solution for the PCBs for these MP3 players. This kind of product tracking is essential allowing a company like Sony to protect itself against costly recalls and product mix-ups as well as allowing for "damage control" in the event of a problem. Previously, badly read codes and the resulting rejection rates were costing the company a lot of money in terms of re-work and rejected units. Their old code reading system having proved incapable of rising to the challenge, Sony in Malaysia is now using the In-Sight® 5110 for code reading on PCBs destined for their new MP3 players.

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