STUDENT INDUSTRIAL

TRAINING PROJECT
REPORT
Application Engineering Flow and
Return to Stock Process
SEPTEMBER 2013 DISEMBER 2013
Cohu Semiconductor Equipment Group

Mohamad Amiruzaki Sanip

13517

Mechanical Engineering

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In completion of this Industrial Project for four (4) months, I would like to express
my deepest gratitude to all parties that involve in making my internship program very
interesting and meaningful. Throughout the internship period, I have learned a lot of
new things and gain many experiences that will be valuable for my future career
path.

First and foremost, I would like to thank UTPs Centre for Student Internship,
Mobility and Adjunct Lectureship (CSIMAL) for helping me in seeking the best
placement for my industrial training program.

I would also like to express my gratitude following person for their profesionalism
and contributing to the program

Mr Cheng Kian Aik, Mechanical Design Team Leader (Host Company

Supervisor)

Dr Suhaimi B Hasan (UTP Supervisor)

Miss Mei Ling (HR department)

All staff in Ismeca Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Last but not least, thanks to my family and friends for their support and
encouragement throughout this internship. I really hope that I could apply all of the
skills and knowledge that I have gained during my internship for my future career.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HOST COMPANY VERIFICATION STATEMENT .............................................

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................ #
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. #
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... #
INDUSTRIAL PROJECT REPORT ...................................................................... #
CHAPTER 1 :ABSTRACT AND INTRODUCTION ............................................ #
SECTION 1.1:OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................... #
SECTION 1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY ................................................................................... #
SECTION 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................... #
SECTION 1.4 THE RELEVANCY OF THE PROJECT ......................................................... #
CHAPTER 2 : BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ........................ #
SECTION 2.1 FEASIBILITY OF THE PROJECT WITHIN SCOPE OF TIME ............................ #
SECTION 2.2 CRITICAL ANALYSIS LITERATURE & CITATION & CROSS REFERENCE ..... #
Subsection 2.2.a. Toyota Production System ........................................................ #
Subsection 2.2.b Identify 7Muda(Waste) ........................................................... #
Subsection 2.2.c Lean Manufacturing .................................................................. #
Subsection 2.2.c Excess Part Management .......................................................... #
SECTION 2.3 RELEVANCY AND RECENTNESS OF LITERATURE ..................................... #
CHAPTER 3 : METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... #
SECTION 3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................... #
Subsection 3.1.a Project Activity .......................................................................... #
SECTION 3.2 KEY MILESTONE................................................................................... #
SECTION 3.3 GANTT CHART ....................................................................................... #
SECTION 3.4 TOOLS REQUIRED .................................................................................. #
CHAPTER 4 : RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................... #
SECTION 4.1 FINDINGS ............................................................................................... #
SECTION 4.2 DATA GATHERING ................................................................................. #
Subsection 4.2.a. Percentage of Items VS Project................................................ #
Subsection 4.2.b Percentage of RTS VS Module .................................................. #
Subsection 4.2.c Project VS Bulk items ................................................................. #
Subsection 4.2.d Number of parts VS Time taken ................................................. #
SECTION 4.3 PROJECT DELIVERABLES. ..................................................................... #

CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................... #

SECTION 5.1 IMPACT .................................................................................................. #
SECTION 5.2 RELEVANCY TO THE OBJECTIVES .......................................................... #
SECTION 5.3 SUGGESTED FUTURE WORK FOR EXPANSION AND CONTINUATION ......... #
Subsection 5.3.a. Drawings .................................................................................. #
Subsection 5.3.b Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) ..................................... #
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... #

Introduction and Abstract

Manufacturing is one of the branches of engineering that involves the process
of making goods from raw materials like metal and copper into useful products that
can be used to ease our everydays life. Some countries like China uses manufacturing
as their main economic activity which helps their economic to grow rapidly. As a
result, nowadays, China is the famous country for manufacturing and most of the
products used by us are made in china.
Since the basic principles of manufacturing engineering are applied in all
industries, they work in numerous sectors including food and drink, oil, plastics, and
pharmaceuticals. Big companies play the role during the industrial revolution, where
the manufacturing sector becomes essential in all countries. Toyota motors is one of
them. Toyota has practiced so called Toyota Production System. It introduces the
management philosophy about organizing manufacturing and logistics for the
automobile manufacture. One of its key principles is 7 'Muda',the Japanese term used
by Toyota to signify a non-value adding process or waste.

Figure 1.0- 7 wastes by Toyota Production System

Cohu Semiconductor Equipment Group (COHUSEG) is also one of the manufacturer

which contributes to the economic growth in Malaysia. COHUSEG also facing the
problem with the several waste that stated in the Figure 1.0. Over production,
Inventory and Rework is kind of the waste that COHUSEG encounter. All these
problem can be seen during the Return to Stock process.

Returning to Stock process is important for the company because if the parts are not
properly returned to the warehouse, it would be disposed and it will cost a big lost for
the company which is not beneficial. Other than that if the process is not carried out
properly, for example wrong part numbers for the parts, it would result in the
dissatisfaction of customers. It is because, when the part number put by the respective
engineers is wrong, the parts would be put into the wrong storage. In future, when the
customer order the parts for their project, the person in charge would take out wrong
part from the wrong storage. Thus, it would cause a big problem for the future projects.

In conclusion, this project is about how we can improve the Return to Stock process
so that it would be more efficient in terms of saving cost, time and its effectiveness.
Other than that, in this project, it also would analyse the engineering flow which means
the process started after the customer made and order until the product or the machine
is tested before it being sent to the customers.

1.5.9.1 Objectives
SIP Objectives
Purpose of the Student Industrial Project (SIP) is to expose students to the real working
environment so that they can relate theoretical knowledge with application in the
industry. SIP also let the students to develop their skills in safety environment, work
ethics and communication management. SIP will provide opportunity to UTPs
students to build solid understanding of the fundamentals of business and organization
performance such as economic models of business, competitive positioning and
strategy execution. With this real life experience, students can develop their ability in
assessing performance, interpreting trends, exploring the sequences of change and
making better decisions. Briefly students should be able to:
I)

Investigate theoretical knowledge in industry

II)

Analyse complex engineering/technical projects in industry

III)

Evaluate and propose solution for given complex project or problem

IV)

Communicate effectively on complex engineering /technical activities

Project Objectives
Based on the objectives of the Student Industrial Project (SIP), the best project is the
project that can fulfil the objective of SIP project regarding Engineering Flow and the
process of Return to Stock which is part of the engineering flow. The current process
of Return to Stock might time consuming especially when it is gave to the Engineering
department since the process to find the part number is time consuming. Thus it is best
if that process can be improved so that the process would be well-organized. Thus, to
sum up at the end of the project, student should be able to:

i)

Analyse the engineering flow from the order until the machine is sent to
customer relate it with Toyota Production System and Lean manufacturing.

ii)

Define Return to Stock (RTS) and importance of it to the engineering flow.

iii)

Analyse the current process flow of the current RTS and state the
advantages and disadvantages of the flow.

iv)

Propose the solution to improve the RTS process so that it becomes more
easier, save time and efficient

v)

Reflect the relevancy of the new solution to the current engineering world.

1.1.5.9.2. Scope of study

Scope for the projects refers to the boundary or limits within which the study needs to
be kept. It is essential for the study to keep the projects stay in focus and exhausive.
So, for the projects , basically the students were asked to analyse the application of
enginnering flow. So that the students understand and learn something from the
process of product making. Students should suggest some improvement to the
engineering flow. Basically, engineering flow start with the order from the customer
who intrested in the product. Then they would present what kind of semiconductor that
they created with the detailed specification of what kind of turret-based testing
machine that they want. Then Centre of Excellence (COE) of mechanical would make
the layout to pass to the Hardware ,vision and T & C can start work after machine
layout was complete. Then they would make the Bill of Materials (BOM) which list
all parts needed for the project. The process would undergone several other process
and then before it is send to the customer the project would be fine tune by us so that
it really meets customers specification.

After the products were completed and being tested for its capability, the excess spare
parts would be collected in a box according to the projects. All these excess spare parts
either need to be scrapped because the part was specially design for that particular
project or need to be return to the stock. Others would be listed according to part
number and bill of material before the list being analyse by the other department. All
these processes were referred as Return to Stock (RTS) process. The students were
required to ensure that the process of RTS is improved with the new method that is
more time saving. The students also should consider either the method is practical for
every department or not.

1.5.9.3 Problem Statement

Return to Stock (RTS) plays important role in the application flow at ISMECA
Semiconductor. It determines how much the loss that need to be recoup by the
company. The more excess parts in the project the more loss we need to recoup.
Therefore, RTS should be taken seriously so that we can analyse carefully the reasons
of the parts return to be avoided in the future. Besides, we should ensure the part is
return to the right place with the right part number as it is important if the parts are
needed to be reuse for the next time. Following figures was the current brief RTS flow
that practiced by ISMECA.

Start

Gather all parts in a box

Identify the part that need

to scrap

Record all the part that

already has part number

Find the missing part

number in SAP or BOM list

Figure 1.3- Process

flow of RTS
according to the
student

Record the new part in

the RTS List.

Attach the list with the

box

Send to the Person in

Charge of Warehouse

End

As an engineer, it is important for the student to look at any process positively and
negatively. So that, the student can improve any negative sides of the process to
become positive element and maximise the positive side of the process so that it would
become more reliable and effective. The advantage of this process, it separate between

the usable part and unusable part. Not all the excess part can be reuse or resell to the
customer because some of them are custom made for only certain project. Once the
project is completed, means the unusable parts become completely useless. Besides,
in the process flow the spare parts was completely taken care of. This is to ensure that
the spare parts free from cosmetic and labelling defect. Thus the part would be as good
as new spare part when it is brought out back to be reuse or resell.

However the disadvantages of the process of the flow is the real problem. One of the
disadvantages is, the part that without the part number. In the process, we just need to
find the part in the BOM list or SAP which contains thousands of parts. Thus,
sometimes, the engineer faces a problem like where to find the product number for this
part. Based on the students opinion, this is the most time consuming process in RTS
because the process is really complicated. The student needs to open the drawing,
module by module, part by part, which sometimes take about a day or two.

Besides, the other disadvantages of the flow is the number of spare parts high or too
many. According to the students supervisor, a great RTS is when RTS with less parts
in it. Thus we need to add some new process in the RTS so that it would lessen the
number of spare parts in the box.

Last but not least, the problem can be seen in current RTS is sometimes the part from
the other project was thrown in a box. This result in when we key in the part number,
the BOM or SAP shown that the part is not belong to that particular project. This
problem can be taken by ensure the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the RTS
was followed after any project or machine has been shipped.

1.5.9.4 Relevancy of the project

This project would help the manufacturing company especially the company that tried
to improve on their inventory management system which facing similar problem with
ISMECA Semiconductor. Since nowadays technology keep on improving thus many
new manufacturers company start their operation. Thus this excess spare part
management is important for them to know or to do proper ways to recycle the spare
parts not just blindly scrap them which might cause big loss to the company.

Background and Literature Review

Feasibility of the Project within Scope and Time frame

This project is considered feasible to the project within the scope of the
study because most of the information for the project is kept inside the company. Thus
the student just needs to think about the great solution that can solve the problem.
The project also can be said feasible in term of the time frame since the
time given to complete the project is more than enough. The project has been suggested
to the student during the second month of Industrial Training (IBB 3037). Thus it gives
the student a lot of time to think about the title though the problem statement has been
given during first day of Industrial Project (IBB 3047). In conclusion, the time frame
given should be sufficient to complete the whole project.

Critical Literature Review,Citation andCross-Referencing

Toyota Production System

Toyota Production System (TPS) is perhaps the most publicized collection of visual
systems. According to the Khanna and Shankar (2008), ideas of TPS generated by Mr
Kicchiro Toyota, founder of Toyota Automotive Industries and his staff , Mr Taichi
Ohno based on the showcase and the automatic machine invented my Mr. Sakichi
Toyoda, automatically stops functioning when the thread on the machine happens to
be cut off. Braiden and Herron (2007) claimed that reasonable response about what is
the goal regarding manufacturing proposed by Taiichi Ohno All we are doing is
looking at the time from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point where
we collect the cash. And reducing the time line by removing the non-value-addedwastes. This response means that the manufacturing company should know the most
important objective is the input where customer placed order and the output where we
collect the cash. Other process which not added any value to the product considered as
waste.

It is important for any company who practices TPS to understand how to identify
waste, so that it can be eliminated. After the waste has been eliminated, the output will
help to increase profitability in manufacturing and distribution business. Hubbard
(2010) stated that a process adds value by producing goods or providing a service will
pay for. Thus any other process which the customer would not pay for it consider a
waste. When the great Italian sculptor Michelangelowas asked what he was sculpting,
he responded he was not sculpting but releasing the figure (value) inside by removing
the unnecessary rocks (wastes). Like Michelangelo, we should
eliminate all forms of wastes in any process or product until only what is valuable
remains. The key is to spot waste and then stop the waste.

Toyota Production System (TPS) key concepts consists of three Japanese words with
prefix mu- which every Japanese know, as product improvement program or
campaign. The first one was called Muri which means overload or overburden and
the second one was Mura means unevenness. Muri refers more specifically to
overloading an equipment, facility or human resource beyond it capacity. This undue
stress may cause downtime, defects, delays and even disasters to the company. An
operator or a machine load is over capacity might harm them. Working for 110 % for
an operator or a machine or a firm is truly heavy. The operator would get sick while
the machine would get broken after a while. With this sick operator or broken down
machine, it would make the production become slower unless the machine is fix or the
operator becomes healthy. Mura refers to unevenness in production volume which is
the extreme difference highs (peaks) and low (valleys) in production schedule. For
example a workload for Monday is 8 hours while the workload on Tuesday is 16 hours.
This inconsistency causes the cause periods of overload and long idle time. It is a must
to prevent Mura and Muri completely in order to eliminate the next waste which is
Muda.

Identify 7 Muda(Waste)
Muda () is a Japanese term for an activity that is does not add any value or is
unproductive or un-useful(). Once the Mura and Muri have been sorted out, it will
be time to identify Muda in all the operations, material usage and defects. It is
important to keep in mind that anything that does not add value is Muda or Waste.
Muda consist of 7 waste which are overproduction, waiting-time, conveyance or
transport, processing, inventory, motion and correction or rework. Overproduction
happens when customer produces more than their needs. For example the customer
order only 3 parts but the operator made 10 parts with hope that the part can be usde
for the other machine. Overproduction was the worst waste because it would cause
the other waste to happen. The next waste is called defects or errors. It means any
activity that causes the product to rework, unnecessary adjustments or returns. Bad
quality or defects does not only result in customer dissatisfactionand damage to
company image, but also in wastes due to additional costs and time to recall, rework,
repair, and replace the defective items. The rest of the other waste was shown in the
next figure.

Figure 2.2.b Examples of Several Waste in a picture

1. Muda of waiting: a waiting employee does not create added value.

2. Muda of transport: products transported from one place to another in the plant do
not create any added value.
3. Muda of inventory: capital unnecessarily tied up, value destroyed.
4. Muda of processing: stress of the work.
5. Muda of motion: no value is created during motion.

Lean Manufacturing

Henry Ford comes out with the concept of lean manufacturing which helps to eliminate
most of the waste. Lean manufacturing is define by Abu Shaaban (2012) as ssa
philosophy based on the Toyota production system to shorten the time line between
customer order and shipment of final product by elimination of waste. Other definition
was made by Liker (2004) who defined lean manufacturing as process which adding
value to eliminating waste which responsive to the change, focus on the quality, and
enhancing the effectiveness of work force. Trying to Imagine, a factory which only
produces only enough materials to produce just that which has no excess inventories,
no scrap, non-value added functions. All orders are shipped on time to the customer.
Such are the desired outcome of lean manufacturing. One of the important steps to
implement lean manufacturing is Just-In-Time (JIT) concept. Monden (1998) and
Levy (1997) are both agree that JIT production is the back bone of the lean
manufacturing. JIT is defined as producing and/or delivering only the necessary parts,
within the necessary time in the necessary quantity using minimum resources.
Therefore, no need for inventory since the appropriate number of parts are produced
and shipped immediately when the customer order is received. However, it is
impossible in practical sense, thus the key to the efficiency to this system is by
decreasing the quantity in the system.

Cohu SEG also practiced the lean manufacturing system. This system is appropriate
to be used in the company since one machine costs around half million. Thus if the
company used the old traditional mass production system, it would cost millions of
loss. That is why the company uses the lean manufacturing system. Initially, the
company would receive an order from the customers which is from the manufacturing
semiconductor company. Then the customers would specify about the machine that
they want with the engineer of the company. If the engineer has a problem with the
specification from the customer, they will discuss the problem together until both sides
are satisfied. Then Centre of Excelence (COE) mechanical would create a machine
layout and pass to other department (Hardware and Vision). After that, Bill of Material
(BOM) would be created after technical drawing and schematic drawing has been

drawn. COE mechanical would validate mechanical BOM to prevent any missing or
additional part creation before the parts can be fabricated by respective manufacturer.
After the parts are created, the machine would be assembly by the fine tuner. After the
machine is completed and shipped, all the excess spare part would be collected in a
box to undergo return to stock process.

Excess spare part Management

Excess parts Management start after the project or machine has been completed and
shipped to the customers. It is comprised in the inventory management. Inventory
according to Investopedia refer to the raw materials, work-in-process goods and
completely finished goods that are categorized to be partial of businesss assets that
are ready or will be ready for sale. It is the most important assets that most business
possess, because the turnover of inventory represents one of the primary sources of
revenue generation and subsequent earnings for the companys shareholders. In this
project, inventory refers to completely finish goods. Jianfeng,Jingying and Xiaodong
(2011) stated that effective inventory management of spare parts is important for
support maintenance operations and protect against failures. For example if a machine
is broken and needed to be replace some of the parts , the fine tuner for the machine
could easily request it from the inventories.

However, having these inventories left idle in the warehouse would cost the company
large amount of money. It is because the greater amount of parts in inventories the
larger space needed to store them. The space that is used to store them considered a
waste since the parts does not add value. Besides the space can be used for other
activities which more profitable like adding the space for assembly process.
Furthermore, the inventories need maintenance so that they stay valuable and does not
broken. For example, the metals in the inventories need to be avoided from water and
air to prevent oxidation which would cause the metals to rust. Rusting would cost the
metals lost in value which is a loss to the company. MPWANYA (2005) stated that
having these inventories on hand can cost around 20 to 40 percent of their actual value
every year. He added that for some company that have poor inventory management
can seriously damage the business

Relevancy and the recentness of the literature

Most of the literature taken was about not less than 10 years. Thus it is still relevant
to the the world of manufacturing. Furthermore, the lean manufacturing is a longterm discussion started after Mr Kicchiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota introduce
Toyota Production System in Japanese and influence to the whole Asia. At the same
time, Henry Ford introduce lean manufacturing that influences the whole West
countries. The literature used in the literature review mostly a paper explaining about
the TPS and lean manufacturing in modern view. Thus it is still relevance to apply in
this new era.

Methodology

Research Methodology
Identify the research
problem
Extensive literature
review on the problem

Collecting the data

Analysis and
interpretation of Data
Design the solution for
the problem
Discussion and
Conclusion

Figure 3.1- Process

flow of Research
Methodology

Project Activities

Identify the research problem

Research problem that chosen for the project is on how to improve on Return to Stock.
Return to Stock is one of the process in the excess part management. After the product
is completed and all the parts were collected in the box, the engineer and fine tuner
will work together in order to find the part number of all the parts in the box. Without
the part number, the warehouse would face a problem in placing the right parts at the
right place. In order to find the part number, engineer should revise the overall drawing
of the project. After they found the similar part, the engineer should double check the
part with the dimension to ensure that the parts number and its revision are correct.
Other than finding the part number, the engineer in charge also should determine why
the products is return. There are several reasons why the product is return:
i)

Purchase Order cancellation The customer cancel the project

ii)

Customer Request Change the customer want to change the part for their
machine with the other part

iii) Engineering Change design change by engineering /wrong revision

iv) Wrong Order the part is not found in BOM thus it is not belong to the project
v)

Bulk item screw , nuts , pins , washer and fitting

vi) Canevas item Additional items that the customer does not want.

Supervisor of the author found out that this process takes a lot of time. Thus the author
needs to improve the process or suggest new process, so that RTS can be done in a
short amount of time.

Extensive literature review on the problem

Literature review is important in any research in order to compare the problem with
the common problem faced by other manufacturing company. For this project, the
author found out the similar problem about taking too many time in the process that
does not add any value or known as muda or waste. The author compared the project
between Toyota Production System. The solution to eliminate the waste is by practiced
lean manufacturing. The author did some cross referencing so that the information is

more reliable. Literature review also important to ensure that the problem is relevance
to nowadays world.

Collecting the data

Data Collection involves checking or logging the data in; checking the data for
accuracy; entering the data into the computer; transforming the data; and developing
and documenting a database structure that integrates the various measures. In this
study, data is gathered from observation and recorded data that had been done earlier.
Observation data is done by analysing the return product sample given to the author
by the operator. Data also had been collected by the author using the RTS product list
for every project.

Analysis and interpretation of Data

Data gathered consist of

-

Project number

Product description with quantity

Product module

Several graph are generated from the data collected. The data will be analyse from the
graph to suggest the suitable solution.

Design the solution for the problem

Several solutions would be suggested. The flow for the solution would be drawn so
that it is more understandable. The advantages and disadvantages for each solution
would be determine. The best solution would be chosen for the conclusion.

Discussion and Conclusion

The best solution will be explained and the author would verify why the solution is
given. The solution also would be reflected to the objective of the project and would
be define the relevancy solution to the company.

Key Milestone

Figure 3.2-Key
Milestone

Gantt chart

Table 3.3.- Gantt chart

Gantt Chart
Description of planning
Proposed project topic
Project topic
confirmation
Identify problem
Collecting data
Drafting report
Discussion of problems
encounter
Assessment and
correction on draft
Discussion with
supervisor
Analyze the data
Result and final
findings
proposed a solution
Final report
preparation
Submission of final
report to supervisor
Submission of final
report to UTP
supervisor

Period planning (Weekly)

4
3
2
1

10
9
8
7
6
5

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Tools required

Hardware
-

Portable Laptop To write the Student Industrial Project Report

Pendrive To transfer RTS data from office.

Personal Computer To key in parts in RTS and compare the drawing with
the part.

Stationaries- Pencil to write draft of report and long ruler to measure the long
parts that cannot be measured by using vernier caliper

Measuring tools electronic vernier caliper to measure the parts accurately to

ensure the parts is the same with the drawings in server

Software
-

System, Application, Product (SAP) system to retrieve the Bill of Materials

(BOM) and compare with the order by customers

Excel to key in the part number to RTS list ; to create Gantt chart, Key
milestone and graph to analyse data from RTS list.

Word To write the Student Indsutrial Project Report.

Gmail To communicate with other colleques regarding the project.

Result and Discussion

Findings

Project 3
22

25
20

14

15
10

Value
2

For the graph 2.1-2.3, author analyse which module are the most returnable for
3 random project. As a result for Project 1 (Graph 2.1), total parts available was 389
with the number of parts return are 20. This gave the percentage of 5% . In this 5% of
return product, 35% of it are from Platform module, 30% are from Feeding module,
10% are from Orientator module, 10% are from Taping module and the balance 15%
are from Table module.

With 365 total parts invovled in Project 2 (Graph 2.2), 26 parts or 7%

of it were return to stock. 42% of the return parts in this Project are from Platform
module, 30% are from Adaptation module, 19% are from Tapping module, and 4%
are from Maintenance, Table and Feeding module.

During Project 3 (Graph2.3), total parts that had been returned were 43
parts from 556 parts that give the percentage up to 8%. Platform module produce the
highest returned parts with 44% followed by Tapping module with 33%. For
Adaptation module, Table module, and Test module they covered 5% of the returned
parts each. Vision module with 7% and the lowest are from Maintenance module with
only 2%.

Data analysis

Project VS Percentage of Return Item

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

15.68

7.2

7.9

7.2

Percentage

5.14
2.5

2.5

1.94

3.19 2.84

From the Figure XX , the project with highest percentage of return parts or items was
Project 3 with 15.63% of total items in the project. The lowest percentage was from
project 7 with 1.94% of total items. For the high percentage, it might because of poor
management of the project or the return parts might mainly made up of canevas or
bulk items. In the other hand for the project with the low number of items can be said
well handed project.
However, from the graph we can see the different project has different number of
parts. The graph does not show any pattern that we can forecast for the next project.
This due to various manipulated variable or reasons which cause the quantity of parts
in a project high or low. The reasons are wrong bookings ,engineering related ,
canevas item , bulk item , request from project manager, typing error of project
manager, the item is not belong to the project , and the parts are belong to supplier.
Reflecting the objective of the project,we should reduce all these errors in order to
lessen the quantity of RTS in future. Techniques of reduce the errors would be
discussed on the next section.

For the total 10 projects that had been analyzed, 3673 parts were involved with 196
parts were submitted to the engineer to be store at the warehouse. This shows that for
10 projects that haad been done, 5.34% of the parts were returned to the stock.Though
the percentage is around 5% which looks like it is not significance , each of the parts
that return has high value. Assume that one part has a price around RM 3 , with 196
parts the price for the total parts return are RM 588. Moreover , note that , the price of
part is various from one to another. One might have really high value and another one
might be really cheap. According to last year report , averangely the total price for
return parts for one project is around RM 300 to RM 400. This shown that the return
parts was somehow a loss or a waste to the company if it was not properly manage.

From this 5.34% returned parts, Platform module gave the highest percentage
with 42.86% of the returned parts are from this module. Following is Adaptation
module with the percentage of 14.80% and Tapping module 13.78%. All these three
modules are the critical modules as they are the highest of three by producing return
parts.From 10 projects that were done, some of the module gave the same percentages.
Table module and Test module both have the same percentage which each module
represent 6.12% of the total returned parts, same goes with Equipment module and

Orientator module which also showing the same percentage of 2.04%. Feeding module
produce 7.14% of the total 5.34% of the returned parts while Vision module produce
4.59% from the total parts. Maintenance module is the lowest percentage from all 10
modules that had been analyzes with only 1.02% of product returns.

Altough most of the parts come from Platform module , we can not simply blame the
person in charge for the module. Platform was the big module which consists of many
simple module like Support for PC , Turret or Frame mounted. Platform is the module
which consist the largest number of parts in every module. Other than that , Platform
basically the frame for the other module and it is not assemble by the company. Some
parts like wheel and the stand which commonly return back to the stock because it
might be too old. For the other module , some of the part might need change because
of not fit to the module or need engineering change or the customer himself would like
the part to be change. As a conclusion , the engineer should take note on which kind
of module have the highest amount to be given extra attention when doing the order to
avoid excess parts on that module again.

50

100%

45

90%

Part/Item Numbers

40

80%
65%

35
30

70%
57%

50%

45%

44%

25

60%

20

32%

15

22%

19%

10

25%

50%

Total Parts

40%

Bulk Items

30%

Bulk Item Percentage

20%

9%

10%

0%
1

10

Project

Graph 1.1 showed the bulk and normal parts that are submitted to the engineer
to be stored at the warehouse for every project. As referred to the graph, the author
determined that the bulk parts made up around 9 to 65% of the return items. This shows
only 20% of the total project have a bulk parts more than normal parts to be sent for
Return to Stock.

The bulk parts consist of fittings, screw, nuts and other small parts of the
component. Mostly, the bulk parts can be reused for other projects. This make keeping
the bulk parts in the warehouse are not economic. Other than that, by reused the bulk
parts, the warehouse space can be reduced. The cost to upgrade the warehouse as the
storage of items or part keep increased day by day can also be cut as the minimal usage
of bulk parts space.

From the data analysis, ISMECA Semiconductor can reused about 20% to 30%
of the parts that are submitted to the engineer to be store at the warehouse. By reused
this items, ISMECA semiconductor can reduce the cost of buying new parts. It also
can reduce the production time as if they buy a new sets of parts, they need to order it

and wait for several days before the parts deliver at production line. Different with
reused, the parts can be used on the spot as the parts are already on the production line.
Therefore, in the author point of view, this type of return should be stored at a section
which contains whole set of bulk items to be use. Further clarification about the storage
of bulk items would be explained at the next section.

12

60

10
14

50

40
6
30
20

4
4

7
2

10

9 10

Time Taken

Number of Parts

70

Parts with no part number

Total parts
Time taken to complete
RTS

0
1

Project

Graph show that the number of parts versus time taken to complete the listing of
RTS. The more items in the RTS, the more time taken to complete listing the parts in
the RTS list. For Project 4 and 5, we can see that though the items in the project is
many but the author can finish listing the parts with short amount of time. This is due
to most of the parts already has their part number attached at the package or written
on the part with the tape. Thats why the author only need to key in the number
which save a lot of time.

This graph conclude that the loss of the part number consume lots of time for the
author to complete his job. When the author receive a box with a part which did not
have part number, the author needs to go through the drawing by module one by one.
Some of the drawing of module has too many parts which made the user to disable
some of parts visibility in order to see the inside parts. After the author found the
similar part in the assembly drawings, the author needs to see its technical drawing
and measure the actual part and compare it with the drawings. Some drawing looks
like the same but the dimension is different. This process was the process that the
author needs to improve in order to ensure the process of RTS became much faster
and easier.

Project Deliverables or Suggestion of Solutions.

After the analysis of all the form the Return to Stock list, several problems were
identified. These problems happen because of several reasons stated above. From all
the reason, Canevas and bulk items are the error that cannot be avoided since this
items were compulsory to be ordered but the customer does not want it and the bulk
items cannot be predicted thus it is normal to order the bulk items more than
required. Moreover, reasons like wrong bookings or the typing error were kind of
error which is categorized as human error. Human is not machine thus human are not
perfect. We cannot vanished human error at once but we can minimize the error.
Other types of error considered as technical error that can be avoided with practiced
the right Standard of Procedure (SOP) or improve the process or the system.

Thus , after several weeks of thinking to make the process of RTS easier and lessen
the time taken and number of items for each project , I suggest several ideas.Firstly I
am thinking of using of RFID for each manufactured parts. RFID is the new
technology which has been widely use in many products like vehicles, airline
passangers , Alzheimers patiens and pets. It is kind of tags which attached to the
product and the tracker can easily track it by using special devices. However, after
discussion with the supervisor, this kind of devices is too expensive. Furthermore , in
order to buy the RFID tags and applied it as a part of Industrial Project , it taking too
much time as the author needs to help the supervisor and project manager to finish
the project. Thus for this Industrial Project the author think it is not suitable.
Nevertheless, the tagging of the parts is a good of idea. Previous method practiced by
was by using the labelled and barcode system but then in order to assemble become a
big module the packaging is ripped and thrown away. When the assembler found out
that the part is not fit or not suitable to be assemble or the assembler found out that it
is not belong to that project , the package already been disposed. Along with the
disposed package was the barcode and the number of parts.Thats where the problem
of lost part number started.

Engineering department start to play their role on RTS after the excess part has been
collected in a box. Then , we would take out the parts that cannot be reused to be sent
to scrapped. The remaining parts in the box would be sent to engineering department
be keyed into the RTS list. Before the parts can be key in, the author needs to ensure
that all parts in the box has their part number. If not, the author need to refer back to
the drawings. For the author point of view, this step is the most hardest and time
consuming step in the RTS process. The step might be easier for the engineer who
design the machine or project, but for the author, he needs to randomly check the
drawings. After the author did several projects for RTS , the author realized that the
name of the parts describe the part itself. For example in the return box , there is a
rod which does not have part numbers. Thus the author simply use the find command
in Microsoft Excel to find the word rod in the Bill of Materials. The results varies
from 30 up to 100++ . Next, the author would go through the parts one by one and
compare its features with the drawing in the server.

So, in order to improve this steps, the author suggest to strengthen the engraved
method. Actually, the engraved method has been put into practice on some of the big
parts like blocks and the nest. The disadvantages of the engrave method was it is not
applicable to the small parts or parts which has small flat surface areas like long rod.
The author would like to improvise the engraved method by combine it with tagging
method which is using small coloured sticker like shown in the Figure below.

It is advisable to use this sticker at the module which has many returns part like
Platform and Taping. Platform or Taping is considered as big module or mother
which consist of several small module or children. So we assign the children with
the number while reasons of RTS with an alphabet.

13

Children Number
(for example)
12 - Frame
15 Turret
13 PC kit

Reasons of RTS
(for example)
A Bulk items
C Wrong Bookings
D Canevas

Other than that, author thought that in the description of material in the BOM list is
too little. The author suggested to improvise the database by adding the description
of the item like its weight or the number of holes and types of hole for each items or
material used for the parts. Besides , for the simple parts like block which has
dimension of 20x60x3 and has two holes with diameter., we might can add the
dimension beside the name of parts. This solution needs a lot of work and involved
other department since the database needs to be altered.The alternative for this
solutions is the company should consider making other database other than Bill of
Material which consists of complete description of every product. In order to do this
engineering department should work together with software department to produce
new program to search the parts based on its descriptions. It is tiring and time
consuming but once the part missing its numbers it is much easier to find its number.

Morever, the customer can always refer to this program if they would like to have
part change or module change.
After the analysis of the parts , the author found out that the return items mostly
made up of bulk items or canevas. Bulk items are the items which included fittings,
washer , various types of screw (countersunk, headless), nuts or bolt. Canevas are the
items which included 1.5m 3pin plug or safety cover which is the extra items which
supplied to the customer but they dont want. The analogy for Canevas items is like
the medical kit , jumper , kit to change tyre to the new car. Without all these items ,
the car can still function well but they are important in case of emergency. Bulk
items and canevas made up almost half or more of total of number of parts return.

So , from the analysis the author think we should separate bulk items with the other
parts as soon as it received by the engineer in charge. As stated earlier, the
percentage for this kind of parts to be reuse is high rather than other parts. Thus it
cannot considered waste to the company if it is managed well. In this company bin to
placed all the standard bulk items from BOSSARD and ADAX already provided at
the production site. The author think in order to improvise the system , the company
should provide more bin for non-standard items but they always appear in the Return
to Stock like fittings , amplifier and spacer. So that , the amount of items return
would be less and the common items can be reused for the other projects.

Combining all three solution the author comes out with the new flow of system. This
new flow of system can be said the final solution or the product of this project. With
this solutions , the author hope the Return to Stock process can become easier and
the parts for the RTS would become lesser and lesser day by day.

Start

All the excess part are collected

in the box.

Identify the part that need to

scrap

Seperate the bulk items or

canevas items with normal item

The colour stiker was applied by

the fine tuner with the
numbering and alphabet

The labelled part according to

the module was sent to the
engineer.

The engineer search the similar

looking part in the new program
made for lost part number items.

The engineer check the

dimension for lost part number
items

Record the new part in the RTS

List.

Send to the Person in Charge for

next process

End

Conclusion and Recommendation

Impact
Since the method or new flow still did not applied to the system, thus the results still
undetermined. Nevertheless, according to 28 weeks of working in this company , the
author think this system will be effective to the system .Implementation of the
separation of bulk items with normal items reduce the number of parts that need to be
return and might reduce the number of loss part number items. With the additional of
adding new description which describe each parts in the new program, the user
would easily found the part number for the loss part. Thus , the RTS list might only
taken around 2 or 3 hours. On the other hand , the implementation of the sticker will
reduce the number of parts in module which has large number of return items . In
addition , the engineer or project manager can track the reasons of return item by
simply looking at the sticker. So , process of analysis of RTS reasons can be done
easily in the future. The author hope if the process is chosen to be implement in this
company , the person who involved with RTS can follow the Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP) which is made based on the solution , accordingly so that the
process of RTS become easier and faster.
The impact of the project to the author was the author learnt lots of new things that is
important in future life. The author learnt how to manage time properly so that the
project will be sent on time. This project also teach the author to organize the report
so that it is easier to be interpreted and understand.
Relevancy to the objectives
Before the author discuss the relevancy of the solution to the objective , the author
would like to recap the objective of the project which are :
i)

Analyse the engineering flow from the order until the machine is sent to
customer relate it with Toyota Production System and Lean manufacturing.

ii)

Define Return to Stock (RTS) and importance of it to the engineering flow.

iii)

Analyse the current process flow of the current RTS and state the
advantages and disadvantages of the flow.

iv)

Propose the solution to improve the RTS process so that it becomes more
easier, save time and efficient

v)

Reflect the relevancy of the new solution to the current engineering world.

The first and second objective has been achieved when the author write literature
review which reflected the engineering flow and RTS .RTS and its importance has
been during the problem statement along with the flow. After the author analyse the
data from the RTS list , the author found out the solution for RTS which is further
explain during the project deliverable.
For the last objective , for the author point of view , this solution Is relevance since
the method use is simple and can be implement to other factory of manufacturing
company who overcome the same problem. But , the author think there is better way
to solve the problems if the author given more time . The author would discuss more
about this better way in the next section. In conclusion , most of the objectives is
relevant and the project meet its objective.
Suggested Future Work for Expansion and Continuation
Drawings

From the author opinion , this kind of drawings is much easier to be refer for the
engineer to do RTS . This kind of drawings was called exploded drawings.

Compared to current type of drawings which gather all the parts together in the
drawings , this kind of drawing is gave more wide vision on the parts. With this kind
of drawings , each of the part can be trace and be located. It is better if the drawings
is made according to the module and documented for reference of engineers and the
customers.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID)

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying
on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or
transponders. An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to anything including
animal, any product or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves.
Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the
reader. For passive RFID tags, it have no internal power supply while and active
RFID tags have their own internal power source which is used the power of
Integrated Circuit(IC) to broadcast the signal to reader.

RFID is the most suitable methods to solve this problems. This RFID tag contains
tiny semiconductor chips, miniaturized antennas and sometimes a battery. The tag
can be in many forms depend on the type of object that the user want to track. The
author ideas was to attached every parts with the passive tags of RFID which is
cheaper, smaller and thinner . This kind of RFID do not have internal power source
thus they rely on the signals by RFID reader.

In order to use the RFID tags in the warehouse and make the process of RTS more
easier, my suggestion is we used the strip type of RFID and we attached it on every
manufactured product. However to save cost , the author suggest to act according to
the analysis of RTS which means we only attached the RFID to the module which
have highest amount of items. After that , after we scan it for Return to Stock , and
the parts safely placed in the warehouse , the RFID tags can be detach and attached it
to the new project. This kind of method might have chance of RFID broken during
the transportation of parts of during the assembly. Therefore to avoid this situation
from happen it is advisable for the handler of the parts from the fabrication of parts
until the person in charge for warehouse.
Recommendation for UTP

Industrial Project (IP) is the course that is compulsory for each student of UTP to
take this course in order to graduate .It is the new version of normal Student
Industrial Training which the previous batch enrolled a semester before. Thus the
author would like to suggest a few recommendation for improvement of this course.
First of all, the author would like to suggest for student who would like to intern in a
company to ask about the training that he or she might undergo. The student should
ask the detail of the training and what kind of work that he or she would do. Some
company take for granted that the UTP student has long period of training and they
just ask them to help them doing simple things which is not worth to be done by real
engineer. CSIMAL should provide a guideline that needed to be undergone by the
trainee before they finish the training.
Next, for the Log book, the author think it is too burdensome to do the Logbook
every day. Some of the trainee might undergone similar routine for several days.
Thus the author thing the Logbook should only be written every week.

Lastly , before the student going for industrial training , CSIMAL should organize a
short course or workshop on how to do proper technical report. It is true that during
first year every student is compulsory to take academic writing course but in that
course does not included on how to write technical project report . For example , how
to write great methodology, impact or discussion.It is important for the student to
learnt about all these to produce great report.
Other than that ,the Industrial Project is a good platform for every student
experienced to handle a project as a preparation for his or her Final Year Project
during Final year. The period of 7 months is just great which enables the author to
experience a lot during industrial training.

Safety Training and value for practical experience

Lesson Learnt and Experienced Gained

During the industrial internship, there are many things that the author learnt and
experience new knowledge especially during the completing the task given by Host
Company and completing the industrial project. The surrounding of the workplace also
teaches the author about the work environment. Industrial internship program is made
to help students in exposing themselves to the real working environment. It acts as a
bridging to connect the knowledge that has been taught in UTP with the reality of the
working. From here, the author was able to acquiring vest of knowledge that related to
manufacturing industry to build the knowledge and be able to get sense of what its
like working in a particular career field. During the internship, most of the time, the
author did the office works. Thus it is important for the author to learnt about time
management.

Time management
Industrial Project teach the author to manage the time really well compared to the
Industrial Training , the first part of the Internship. For Industrial Project , the student
needs to come out with a project and a report which solve problems face by engineering
world . It is count as additional work which the author needs to do after office hour.
This project considered as university project and the author was told that the student
cannot mixed the university project and work task that given during office hour. The
author has been paid to complete the work task during the office hour and the company
disallow the student to do the project during office hour. For the author this is a big
challenged since he needs to manage time after office hour to do the project.It is
challenging since the author cannot staying up to late as tomorrow he needs to wake
up early for work. Sometimes the author need to wake up in the middle of the night to
work on the project.

Besides, sometimes the author has been given the two works in a time. For example
when the author finding the part number in the drawings the project manager asked to
help him design a cover for the machine. The author learnt that in this kind of situation
the author needs to know the level of urgency which mean which one is more
important.In the working field , work task were given constantly. It is a common when
the first task was not done yet but the second task was received. Thats why the level
of urgency is important.
Lastly it is important for the author to learn that in the working field , last minute
working is a really bad ideas. Working life is really different in university life. In the
university life if you given an assignment which needed to be sent on Friday , the
student always start working a day before. Then if the assignment is bad , the biggest
punishment that the student will get is low of marks for that assignment.on. Despite of
working field , if any of the work done badly , the company would face a loss or the
customer might get angry. If it keeps on happening the risk of the worker fired from
the work Is really high. Thats why in working field we need to work every project
starting from the first day task was given to retain the quality of the work.
Self discipline

References