How Requirements Traceability Enhances Accuracy and Reduces Rework

The word "traceability" is pretty self-explanatory, and more organizations strive to improve this in light of recent supply chain disruptions. In the context of printed circuit board (PCB) design requirements, it can provide unique benefits—minimizing the frequency of reworks and encouraging more input from sourcing teams to understand where faults lie. 

Generally, an end product defect falls on the shoulders of its designers, but requirements management considers the vast number of people and variables in the supply chain to be just as important. In order to reap the success of this, though, it is crucial to know what true traceability looks like and apply it to various supply chain contexts. 

All project stakeholders can benefit from a clear method of design and parts verification. Requirements traceability can be a gamechanger for determining the source of defects through the design itself based on a specific feature of the design, but also fact-checking supply chain elements to eliminate cases where production and distribution impact the function and delivery of new products. 

What Is Requirements Traceability?

There are two different ways in which you can trace a component's history. Forward traceability covers the historical changes and impacts from the design phase through the supply chain to the consumer. Backward traceability is the reverse, but what are the use cases for each? 

Forward Traceability

A more effective way to manage requirements throughout the product life cycle, forward traceability puts emphasis on design specification and material selection. In this process, each step adheres to the initial PCB design and drives all actions downstream. 

Further benefits: 

• Compliance with Industry Standards: When developing PCBs for highly regulated industries like aerospace, automotive, and medical technology, forward traceability gives designers the power to track compliance. Designs are able to provide proof of compliance to supply chain stakeholders. 
• Component Lifecycle Management: Forward thinking helps designers recognize when certain components near their end-of-life. This allows a more proactive means of managing parts obsolescence. 
• Supply Chain Optimization: Forward traceability in the event of inventory shortage allows companies to see the impact of a shortage on downstream delivery times. 

Backward Traceability

Flipping the direction allows companies to use backward traceability for a number of things. One of the core actions as a result is defect investigation and root cause analysis. Backward traceability lets designers visualize the impact of alterations from product to consumer, incorporating any issues with manufacturing processes, material, and component selection.

Further benefits:

• Quality Control and Auditing: Backwards traceability is used in auditing to unlock sourcing data from manufacturers, as well as insight into their production processes. This is vital from a quality standpoint but can also be used to report on other factors, such as sustainability and production efficacy. 
• Supplier Problem-Solving: When there are material issues, backward traceability allows manufacturers to see where defective parts arrived from and the affected batch and determine whether they met the requirements for the product or require an alternative part. 
• Product Recall: With various elements to the supply chain, designers must look at both product and development aspects to determine where defects arise. This helps identify the batch of products to be recalled and the nature of the problem with each unit. 
• Customer Complaints Management: The above point is crucial for managing current and potential customer complaints. Identifying the batch will better inform buyers and consumers. 

Best Practices for Long-Term Requirements Traceability

If we were to break down requirements traceability into the three core steps, these would be the main focus points to reduce the number of potential design reworks. 

• Maintain Up-to-Date Records: Ensure that documentation is properly managed on a real-time basis. Without up-to-date requirements, procurement teams cannot properly manage quality assurance across a broad range of stakeholders. 
• Incorporate Regular Stakeholder Reviews: Stakeholders are key in the go-to-market process (likewise reacting to product faults) and, therefore, hold great insights to inform current and future specifications. Requirements management impacts various factors within the supply chain and, therefore, must bring all parties together. 
• Encourage Team Collaboration: More stakeholders involved means greater affinity for improvements, lower risks, and greater quality assurance. Proper requirements management begins internally—and with the right solutions in place. 

Traceability in PCB Design

Not only does traceability aid designers at points where issues arise, but also acts as a preventative measure. Moreover, with a system in place to actively oversee the supply chain, companies can reduce their risks significantly, catching defects as they arise—perhaps even preemptively—and prior to the disruption of downstream stakeholders. 

From a quality assurance standpoint, all the data available to designers give them insight into supplier operations and how they uphold PCB specifications. With this information at hand, designers can hold component suppliers accountable for adherence to the specification and gain better oversight over their supply chain.  

How Does Requirements Traceability Reduce PCB Rework?

Product defects should be prone to investigation, but reworking PCB designs is a burden on all teams, including sourcing departments, as they await the requirements for new components. While it is important to action changes quickly, requirements traceability provides a log of data from previous successes and pitfalls of products. 

In the event of product rework or redesigns, such data proves invaluable for pinpointing problem areas and actioning them as quickly as possible. However, without consistent documentation, risks may occur in the sourcing phase. 

Example

Consider a PCB design where power regulation caused overheating in a previous version. Through requirements traceability, the design team can leverage the specification and quickly identify that the fault is linked to a component that did not meet the required voltage tolerance criteria.

In cases where version history is poorly maintained, the sourcing team could mistakenly acquire a part that was previously deemed unfit for the product, or an engineer may be unaware of the true root cause of overheating. Alternatively, the issue could stem from the parts provider, necessitating a deeper dive into supply chain activities. 

With a clear understanding of the fault and history of previous parts and defects, requirements management can streamline the diagnosis of issues and avoid unnecessary reworks. 

Traceability in Altium Designer and Altium 365

PCB requirements are visible from inside Altium Designer, and with the Requirements and Systems Portal in Altium 365, designers can instantly access them through their web browser. Visibility of requirements is paramount for all stakeholders, which is why Altium 365 prioritizes accessibility to ensure there are no barriers to design data. 

Track and trace functions create a bird's eye view of the entire product lifecycle, creating and documenting a history of adaptations to any given design. With Altium 365, designers can automate their project updates to shared dashboards as they work, which also traces back to the original product requirement. This minimizes the time between conceptualization and procurement deployment while also providing transparency of past changes.

Requirement history works in parallel with version control to compare and contrast designers' decisions. With this, users of the portal can see which design elements have been verified, which passes the buck to the next stage—input from the sourcing team. 

The key to minimizing the number of product reworks, and inevitably saving time and money on costly investigations, is traceability. Adhering to requirements traceability best practices, incorporating various stakeholder perspectives and detailed version control to quickly sift through options and efficiently diagnose problems.