Materials Tracking and Traceability Systems for
Advanced Manufacturing and Repair Organizations

The BellHawk software platform is used to rapidly and cost-effectively implement defect tracking and materials traceability systems for advanced manufacturing and repair organizations, including those in the aviation, transportation, aerospace, DoD, and chemical manufacturing industries.

These systems track which materials went into which products and which customers those products were shipped to. This enables complete forward and backwards materials traceability so as to enable the rapid identification of sources of defects and the minimization of recalls in the event of a problem.

These systems replace the labor intensive and error prone use of paper forms and manual keyboard data entry with the use of barcode and RFID data collection technologies. This enables the traceability history data to be automatically saved in an electronic database from which traceability data can be extracted at the push of a button.

Systems provided by BellHawk Systems meet the tracking and traceability requirements of the DOT, FAA and other US Government agencies, as well as that of standards organizations such as ISO.

Systems based on the BellHawk software include the following tracking and traceability capabilities:

1. Tracking the receipt of raw materials, including tracking lots, serial numbers and expiration dates of materials.

2. Tracking quality control (QC) status of all materials by item, container and lot.

3. Ensuring that all materials that are required to be QC inspected are quarantined and approved before use.

4. Tracking put-away of material in a stock room or warehouse so the exact locations of all materials are known for inspection and recall purposes.

5. Tracking expiration dates on all lots and containers to make sure that materials are used before their expiration dates.

6. Tracking the movement of materials to and from the production floor.

7. Tracking the consumption of materials on each operation of each work order, including tracking which lots and serial numbers from which vendors were used.

8. Tracking work-in-process inventory from one operation to the next.

9. Tracking which parts and sub-assemblies, by lot and serial number, were used to make assemblies

10. Tracking Bills of Materials and warning operators if they attempt to use the wrong components to make a part

11. Tracking work-in-process as it moves from production operation to operation, including tracking the quality control status of work-in-process and not allowing it to be used on the next step until it passes QC inspection.

12. Tracking which people processed and handled materials.

13. Tracking which machines and equipment were used including tracking any problems.

14. Tracking scrap and rework operations.

15. Tracking return and put-away of unused materials from jobs.

16. Tracking the quality control inspection of finished goods.

17. Tracking the exact locations and expiration dates of all finished goods in the warehouse.

18. Enabling material handlers to quickly find and use the oldest material in stock first to avoid wastage and spoilage.

19. Tracking warehouse operations including picking, packing, and shipping. This includes tracking which containers and lots went to which customers.

20. Providing real-time information as to the status of each container of material and individually barcoded item.

21. Producing one-step-forward and one-step-backward traceability reports for rapid recall and regulatory compliance.

22. Providing detailed actual versus planned costs for jobs.

Please click on the following link to learn more about How BellHawk Tracks the Processing of Materials.