Auditing PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Assembly Lines - Fire And Safety Systems

Hi I am new to this.

I need sopme guidance. The company I work for is approved to ISO 9001 2000. They manufacture fire and safety systems. This means the populate PCB's.

They have different manufacturing lines which populate differnt PCB's which get builti into one larger PCB which then get placed into a case at the finished assembly.

Can anyone give me any guidance on how to carry out audits. Do i have to audit each cell (20 cells) or is there another way. I have just joined the company and have been told by my manager to construct a schedule.
But I am totally lost on how to do this.

Do I have to audit each cell.

Re: Fire And Safety Systems

joebrown said:

Hi I am new to this.

I need some guidance. The company I work for is approved to ISO 9001 2000. They manufacture fire and safety systems. This means they populate PCB's.

They have different manufacturing lines which populate different PCB's which get built into one larger PCB which then get placed into a case at the finished assembly.

Can anyone give me any guidance on how to carry out audits. Do I have to audit each cell (20 cells) or is there another way? I have just joined the company and have been told by my manager to construct a schedule.
But I am totally lost on how to do this.

Do I have to audit each cell?

Click to expand...

Hello Joe! Welcome to The Cove Forums!

Look at clause 8.2.2, (2nd paragraph) in ISO 9001:2000. That will give you some idea on how to plan an audit program (including the audit schedule).

A key phrase is: ".........taking into consideration the status and importance of the processes and areas to be audited, as well as the results of previous audits." So the decision is yours.

Using the information in your post: "20 (manufacturing) cells"; keep in mind that these cells can be sampled. You do not have to audit each cell each time. You can spread that out over a pre-determined time period.

It can also depend on how much these cells have in common.

If each cell is significantly different, they should all be audited, but again, not all at one time. If the cells are pretty much the same, you can sample.

Again, your decision.

Keep in mind what the true purpose is of an internal audit: Finding out how well each identified process is working. Meaning: is each process capable of delivering the "goods."

Please come back with more questions.

You can also do searches here. Lots of great info. For free!!!

Stijloor.

Re: Fire And Safety Systems

I am having a brain dead moment. What is a PCB--polychlorinated biphenyls?

Re: Fire And Safety Systems

Jennifer Kirley said:

I am having a brain dead moment. What is a PCB--polychlorinated biphenyls?

Click to expand...

Jennifer,

Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

Stijloor.

Re: Fire And Safety Systems

Thank u for the reply. I have another question.

Should I carry out system audits on the cells or process audits?.
My boss keeps saying to me he wants me to do process audits.
I am a bit confused what he he means. Carry out system audits on the process or process audits on the process.

Re: Fire And Safety Systems

joebrown said:

Thank u for the reply. I have another question.

Should I carry out system audits on the cells or process audits?.
My boss keeps saying to me he wants me to do process audits.
I am a bit confused what he he means. Carry out system audits on the process or process audits on the process.

Click to expand...

Joe,

There's a wealth of information about process audits here on The Cove Forums. You may want to do a search on this topic. When you study the various threads and posts, it will make sense to you. It takes some effort on your part however...

By the way, have you spoken with your Boss what s/he means by "process audits?" Sometimes, honest and open conversations can provide the intended interpretation and clarity of communication.

Keep us posted.

Stijloor.

Joe Brown, welcome from a fellow (tho' ex-pat) Brit.

One place you could start is your own procedure - since the company is registered you must have one and, rather than what the manager tells you (they often don't follow 'procedures') you should look there to see if the author wrote anything about audit scheduling.

Stijloor is correct - there are a ton of posts & threads about audit scheduling and auditing process vs area etc. Basically, you should chose the things which are giving poor results, scrap, test failures/rework, warranty/customer issues, as a priority to see what part the assembly process(es) are playing in those issues.

I'm very familiar with printed circuit assembly (did it for a few years for a company in Cheltenham) so, if you have very specific questions regarding how to audit this, please feel free to post them.

Re: Fire And Safety Systems

Stijloor said:

Jennifer,

Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

Stijloor.

Click to expand...

Doh!! Thank you.

I would consider auditing the PCB line in its sub parts. I would first do a thorough process audit of the entire process and get a feel of what to focus on in more detail, then the next sub-process and the next etc. For example, while doing a first-through I might decide I should pay special attention to the FIFO and expiry dates of the solder paste. On another day I might train a focus on recipe controls when flowing solder. But I would prioritize based on what I learned on the once-through.

I hope his helps.

Hi Andy.

I would welcome any help in this area. e.g, how to set up an audit plan for process and system and anything else would be a great help..

Thank You
Paul.

The NADCAP PWB audit plan is fairly comprehensive, IPC also has some good information available (IPC 1730 and IPC 1710 may be of interest). DSCC's (www.dscc.dla.mil) QPL checklist may be of some help.

An article that may be helpful
www.thetestlab.com/data/fab2.pdf

Regards,