Speed, Control and Visibility for Manufacturing Operations
Add Value, Reduce Costs and Eliminate Risk
on the Shop Floor.
The Truly
Paperless Factory
Table of Contents
3 Synopsis
3 When is Paperless Truly Paperless?
4 The Route to Paperless Success
5 The Results Speak for Themselves
7 In Conclusion
7 For More Information
The Truly Paperless Factory | 2
The Truly Paperless Factory:
Add Value, Reduce Costs and Eliminate Risk on the Shop Floor
By adopting a true paperless environment, and not just displaying PDFs, a factory can
increase yields, quality and traceability while reducing costs and eliminating many of the
risks associated with incorrect or badly controlled documentation. This paper seeks to
discuss the benefits of embracing a paperless system to all of the stakeholders in the
processes affected and in the business. The paper also discusses methods and processes
used to move towards a paperless environment where files can be interrogated, updated
and commented on rather than merely viewed.
When is Paperless Truly Paperless?
People’s perception of what constitutes the
paperless shop floor may vary from individual to
individual and indeed from company to company,
but if you are looking to get all the benefits from
going ‘paperless’ it needs to be much more than
just another way of displaying documents that
were formerly printed and held on the shop floor.
Deploying a system that merely replaces paper
with pdf or images of paper documents will most
times result in failure to gain the full benefits of
being paperless. Delivering work instructions to
a screen rather than via a folder full of forms and
drawings may provide some benefit to operators
and line managers, but does not really get to the
core of the far more comprehensive solution that
being paperless offers.
This is all about the delivery of information, or data,
and in a paperless environment that is delivered
digitally. But we need to consider more than
just the method of delivery, we need to envision
the type of data, the interactivity of that data, its
revision control and its adaptability.
When a truly paperless system is put in place that
addresses all of these issues the benefits can be
substantial. When documents are merely replaced
with a digital version, the benefits are much more
limited.
Take for example cost. Top of the agenda for
many companies, particularly those that find
themselves in the competitive space that is
the EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Services)
industry, where quarterly calls for cost reduction
from OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)
are commonplace. In a paperless environment
The Truly Paperless Factory | 3
Interactive Paperless Work Instructions display assembly
activities and track product movement while ensuring the
correct documents are presented at the correct locations.
customer audits, quality audits and regulatory
audits can all be done via a digital terminal and
via a single system, with all revision control and
document management visible. This could even
be done remotely in some cases further reducing
costs. This is potentially a cost saving for the
vendor but also for the customer, something that
they will doubtlessly appreciate and remember.
Another cost benefit comes in the form of reduced,
or even eliminated personnel costs associated
with the maintenance of documents like standard
practice manuals, preventative maintenance
manuals, user manuals and work instructions, all of
which can be managed centrally rather than being
disbursed all over the shop floor.
And finally the obvious cost saving of any paperless
system is paper and the costs associated with
printing and distributing that paper around the
shop floor. It’s not like the work instructions are
static, they change constantly and in a paper driven
world that means reprinting numerous versions,
distributing them around the shop floor, making
sure everyone has seen them and doesn’t use old
instructions. This is time consuming and risky.
And risk reduction is the second benefit worth
highlighting in the paperless environment. The
potential presence of down-revision documents on
the shop floor is eliminated in a well-ordered paperless
system; audits become risk free and operators are not
in danger of building to the wrong document, resulting
in costly rework and/or scrapped assemblies.
Beyond reduction of cost and risk, there are
the improvements in performance and quality
to consider. Optimizing the performance of an
operator is about having them spend as much time
as possible making, testing and shipping product,
not searching for or through documents to find
an instruction or procedure. In a CAD (Computer
Aided Design) driven paperless environment, test
and diagnostic data can accelerate the resolution
of quality issues or the data required to expedite a
repair function.
A paperless system also allows the operator to
become part of the process improvement feedback
loop. Feedback systems allow for fast and effective
improvements in the documentation and more
importantly in the process and multiple operators
on multiple lines and/or shifts can impact upon any
improvement initiative.
Paperless processes also provide interactive visual
data that can guarantee the current and proper
parts list and CAD information is available improving
quality, increasing inspections reliability as well as
raising the accuracy of diagnosis and repair.
The Route to Paperless Success
The route to paperless success requires a holistic
approach that fully embraces many factors. As
mentioned before digital delivery is fundamental
and this needs to be available to each operator on
his or her own terminal.
The type of data must also be considered. The
shop floor portals should be capable of presenting
interactive operator visuals, CAD and BOM (Bill
of Materials) information, revision control data,
analytics regarding processes, as well as supporting
secondary, less regularly used documents like
preventative maintenance or user manuals or
standard practice manuals.
All of these documents need to be more than just
flat representations. They need to be interactive
The Truly Paperless Factory | 4
CAD-aware paperless systems promote efficient and
accurate quality issue resolution and robust analytics.
allowing data to be visually queried by the
operator via a simple user interface that allows
for a deeper dive into data by simply clicking or
touching the item in question. Visual documents
that are grounded in both the CAD and the BOM
and that are interactive can be queried for rich,
always current data that refers back to the central
manufacturing database. The final part of the
interactivity puzzle is the ability of the operator to
redline and provide improvement feedback that can
be assessed and when appropriate implemented
by the engineering team.
Revision control is a cornerstone of any system,
be it with or without paper. The system must
control and be fully aware of process version,
design version and the stations where documents
are to be deployed. The paperless system should
be capable of automatically ensuring that the right
documents and analytics are presented to an
operator in a single scan with zero risk of displaying
the wrong revision of any data.
No system can work without a degree of built-in
flexibility or adaptability. The system will need
to allow engineers to ‘cut in’ an emergency
engineering change or a process change if it is
required on the shop floor. This will need to
occur digitally, simply and seamlessly, with the
proper documentation and recording procedure
supporting it.
The Results Speak for Themselves
The results of such an endeavor speak for
themselves and can be seen from the experiences
of all those vested in the process.
From the operators point of view they can bring
up the correct revision assembly instructions,
dynamic video assistance, CAD images, BOM
information and all associated documentation and
work instructions with a single scan of the unit in
production. This can be done immediately and
at any point in the manufacturing process. The
operator also enjoys the ability to interrogate the
data provided, rotating or zooming into CAD data
or digging deeper into a BOM to query a particular
part. First article assembly and inspection become
simpler as the operator can receive adapted and
dynamic information. And finally the operator can
close the feedback loop by sending suggestions
to the engineering team from their own terminal
instantly, supporting their value and the continuous
improvement of the product and process. There
is plenty of evidence supporting the theory that
operator satisfaction is much higher when the
data provided to do their job is unambiguous and
when their voice is heard. All lean manufacturing
principles completely support the concept
of operator involvement and the paperless
environment simplifies this process.
Let’s explore how the process engineer benefits
from the paperless experience. Where engineers
are allowed to develop all visual instructions via
a single digital system, first product launches and
subsequent engineering changes are expedited
much more efficiently. Revision control is no
longer a slow, manual and risky process, but a fully
automated simple procedure that can be assured
throughout the shop floor. When the vast majority
of supporting documentation such as user manuals,
maintenance specifications, corporate procedures
and standard practices are maintained digitally
there is no need for the shop floor management
of such documents. Revisions can be done once
The Truly Paperless Factory | 5
An electronic document repository will greatly reduce
the use of large binders and cabinets of seldom-used
documents.
and the engineer can relax in the knowledge that
all copies of that document are updated on all the
relevant workstations and that the revision control
and changes made are duly recorded.
Engineering changes are inevitable. These can
be carried out quickly and can be digitally ‘cut in’
to production where required without the need
for chasing legacy documents on the shop floor
and without costly hold-ups in production. And
most importantly the engineer can get the front
line feedback from the operator digitally, before
processing suggestions and incorporating them
when necessary in the next revision. This creates
a better dynamic between the operator and the
engineer and a clearer understanding of each
other’s challenges.
The Truly Paperless Factory | 6
With a dynamic Paperless Factory, engineering change
notices can be conveyed to the factory floor in real-time.
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Current Revision
Process Engineering
Inspection Stations
Shop Floor
Terminals
Rework
Locations
• CAD-Driven
• Station-Specific
• Version-Controlled
• Interactive Audio/Video
• Operator Redlining
• Centrally Stored Data
• Zero Printing Costs
• Secure Login
The benefits of a truly paperless environment span multiple departments and locations throughout the factory,
delivering increased speed, control and visibility to your manufacturing operations.
For more information:
Aegis Software
5 Walnut Grove Drive, Suite 320
Horsham, PA 19044
Phone: 215 773 3571
Fax: 215 773 3572
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.aiscorp.com
5 Walnut Grove Drive, Suite 320
Horsham, PA 19044
www.aiscorp.com
The Operations Director can also enjoy the benefits
of being paperless. First of all they are ensured
that down revision documents cannot be lost
and re-emerge later on the shop floor. Secondly,
there is no risk of operators building to the wrong
revision. Thirdly, the audit path is hugely simplified
for customers and regulatory agencies and that
audit is wholly visible, so no unexpected surprises
await the Operations Director on audit day. The
whole audit process can be conducted quickly and
efficiently with no shop floor disruption.
New product introduction becomes faster, simpler
and more reliable with a paperless system. Digital
review and approval procedures, using electronic
signatures, are simplified and are more reliable,
ensuring that improper data never reaches the
shop floor, and traceability is absolute in all product
documentation and data. And lastly the Operations
Director can take the majority of the cost of printing
and paper out of his operating costs.
Perhaps the most important person in any value
chain is the customer and the demonstration of
an in-control documentation system is certainly
valuable to them. Risk reduction is hugely
valuable as customers see the risk of product
being manufactured with an outdated or incorrect
specification being eradicated. Customers’ costs
related to on-site audits are also reduced as this
process is simplified. Customers like faster new
product introduction (NPI), they like to be able
to make changes quickly and reliably and they
like to be able to gain full traceability quickly and
seamlessly when they need it. All of this adds up
to improved levels of customer satisfaction and
better customer retention.
In Conclusion
To summarize, the true paperless factory is a
much larger issue than merely digitizing work
instructions and presenting them to an operator.
Managing the entire digital thread from design
data, through revision control and work instructions
and bill of materials to final dispatch, along with
control of revisions and engineering changes, is
the real path to paperless enlightenment. A path
that leads to improvements in manufacturing
excellence, reduced engineering and management
overhead and a more reliably repeatable method of
manufacturing.
Only a holistic approach to the question of
documentation, including version and change
management will provide all the benefits available
from a paperless manufacturing environment.
The Truly Paperless Factory
By adopting a true paperless environment, and not just displaying PDFs, a factory can increase yields, quality and traceability while reducing costs and eliminating many of the risks associated with incorrect or badly controlled documentation. This paper seeks to discuss the benefits of embracing a paperless system to all of the stakeholders in the processes affected and in the business.
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