Paperless Manufacturing at JAVAD EMS
JAVAD EMS (JEMS) is a San Jose, Calif-based EMS company founded to focus on low- to medium-volume, high-mix applications for customers needing prototype through volume production levels and wanting it from one source. Today, the company is a thriving, full-service contract electronics manufacturer providing leading-edge, high-quality products for its customers.
As a high-tech, high-mix EMS company, JEMS’s needs to run as effectively and productively as possible. To help accomplish this, the company has embraced paperless manufacturing and has noticed numerous long-term benefits in the form of efficiencies and productivity boosts gained from improved workflow throughout the entire electronic manufacturing cycles. So it is not only an economic benefit that the company is realizing but it also directly ties into the quality of the products that are produced daily.
JEMS has been continuously improving the manufacturing process to reduce the use of paper since 2010, the year company was founded. A number of improvement projects have been completed to eliminate the use of paper in following areas.
Production Preparation and Scheduling
JEMS’s own smart material-manufacturing management and handling system was customized to optimize its product introduction and material planning processes that simultaneously enable different users to access and update the manufacturing data on one platform. By using this innovative system, JEMS eliminated shop order status reports, engineering checklists and forms as well as those non-value-added communications during production preparation and scheduling. The software interface can be customized to each user so they can complete their individual assignment and update them on the software instead of using paper forms and print-outs. The platform also can provide real-time dashboard reports on the software for managers to remotely monitor and control their respective manufacturing activities.
Manufacturing Shop Floor
The system is also used by all the material handlers throughout kitting, surface mount operators, feeder setup, work-in-progress (WIP) replenishment and final assembly for paperless WIP material tracking.
All the standard operating procedures (SOPs), work instructions, forms, checklists and flow charts are not only easily accessible through the tablets and touchscreen computers on the shop floor but also have been broken down into individual sections and embedded in different software operating interfaces for different user groups.
JEMS’s paperless smart material-manufacturing handling system brought tremendous value to the company as it helped to keep operators away from those cumbersome paper forms, checklists, instructions and non-value-added movements that allowed them to focus on their value-added manufacturing activities.
Additionally, the paper on the shop floor can be a note for transferring information between processes or a form for documenting manufacturing records where human error can cause misinterpretations. By using the customized material handling and manufacturing system, the risk of human error is significantly reduced at JEMS.
Document and Quality Data Management
The latest version of Aegis Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) software Factory Logix ensures all the work instructions, drawings, part lists and ECOs are easily accessible from every single work station in JEMS. It also automatically collects quality inspection data at predefined stations instead of manually collecting quality data on paper forms.
JEMS’s entire quality management system (QMS) is paperless-based. An online document signoff system was created to cover all the required quality segments including order review, purchasing, shipping, receiving, and all other quality documentations.
JEMS runs multiple products in varying volumes on its four surface mount lines every day. Many of them are for customers in military, aerospace, medical and high-end industrial segments. With paperless electronic document management and user right control throughout the factory, ensuring the data integrity of important documents as well as proper retention (for regulatory and disaster recovery purposes) is far more reliable when files are put into one organized, easy-to-use central information repository, compared to the paper-based document environment.
Storage and WIP Carriers
At JEMS, electronic tags (e-tags) were assigned to every storage box and WIP carriers. Powered by e-ink technology, information displayed on the tags can be remotely updated from any work station through the brilliant tag management system. The key information uses barcodes to eliminate the potential human errors. The e-tags can be customized in different sizes and colors, ensuring the contents are legible from different distances.
The project to eliminate the use of paper throughout JEMS’s factory has been a journey; however, the final destination of improved efficiencies, data entry error elimination by operators and the complete ability to track and trace products has made all the time and effort to get to this destination very rewarding.
For more information, contact Gary Walker, Vice President, at JAVAD EMS (JEMS) at 900 Rock Ave., San Jose, CA 95131; 408-770-1700; E-mail: g.walker@javadems.com; Web site: www.javadems.com.
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