1Factory allows its customers to connect with their suppliers and access quality control plans and inspection data from across the supply chain.
The purpose of these data sharing features is to provide early visibility to data before parts are shipped, and to ensure alignment between supplier and buyer on what to measure, how to measure it, and what the analysis shows.
This article will help you understand how to share quality data, whether it be from a Customer to a Supplier or a Supplier to a Customer.
Note: In order to share plans and inspections with a customer, both you and your customer must have 1factory accounts, and must be connected over 1factory. Please Reach out to support@1factory.com to have the accounts connected.
Structure:
In your 1Factory account, you will notice separate tabs for "manufacturing", "receiving", "customer" and "suppliers" functions. Each of these generally contains the same tiles for plans, FAIs, inspections & messages, but they differ in use case and responsible parties.
Manufacturing Tab:
The manufacturing tab is utilized by the manufacturer of the parts to create quality requirements and then share them with the buyer of the product.
Sharing Plans:
1. To start, create a plan click on the Plans tile within the Manufacturing tab. There are two ways the user can create and share a plan to a customer.
The first way will follow the normal steps taken to create a Manufacturing plan from (Scratch, PDF drawing, new revision, .xlsx or clone).
The second way is to create a plan that has been shared to you by your customer using the "from Customer" tile. Simply click on the "from Customer" tile and choose your customer and their part number from the drop downs to clone the plan into your manufacturing plans library.
2. Once you have created a manufacturing plan, assure you have chosen which customer the plan pertains to by choosing the customer in the customer tab.
3. Once the customer has been identified and the plan is complete, click the share but on the left sidebar.
3. Once shared, a message is sent to your customer and a communication thread is created. The message will show up in the customers Suppliers "Messages" tile. To access the message thread click on the message button on the left slide bar
Note: Messages will be further defined later in this article under the Messages section of Customers and Suppliers Tab..
Sharing FAI's & Inspections:
Once you have shared a manufacturing plan, the supplier can now create and share FAI's and production inspections with the customer.
1. Upon the completion of the inspection, the supplier shall click the manage tab of the inspection and make a disposition on the inspection (Accepted/Rejected). This will notify the customer as well as help identify which inspections are awaiting their approval.
2. Once you have made a disposition on the Inspection, you can now share the Inspection with your customer by clicking the share button on the left sidebar within the inspection.
Note: If you have auto share setup, you do not need to follow step 2 as your inspections are automatically shared with your customer upon the inspections being initiated. See below for instructions on how to set up auto share.
Automatic (vs. manual) inspection sharing
1Factory gives you the option to manually or automatically share inspection data. This is a setting that can be toggled by the administrators in your 1Factory account:
When auto sharing is enabled, 1Factory will automatically share inspections with the customer selected on the corresponding manufacturing plan. You will still need to click "share" to share your plans, as shown in the previous steps, but once that is completed, every inspection will automatically be shared once it is created.
You can still tell if an inspection has been shared if it has the "unshare" icon in the left-hand sidebar, or if the "shared" column is checked on the list of inspections page.
Suppliers Tab:
The supplier tab is utilized by the customer (buyer) of the product or service being made giving them easy visibility and seamless communication throughout their supply chain.
Suppliers (AVL):
The supplier AVL has been moved from the "Master Data" tab and is now a tile the "Supplier Tab" There has been no change to the functionality of the AVL. For a more in depth help document please refer to....Supplier-Management-Collaboration
Reviewing Suppliers Plans:
As a customer, you have the ability to review and give feedback to your supplier regarding the plans they have shared with you.
1. Click on the Plans Tile to see a detailed list of plans that have been shared with you. In this screen you can filter by part number or the supplier. You will also be notified once a plan has been shared with you ONLY if you are subscribed to the supplier within the Suppliers AVL using the "subscribe" tab.
2. Choose a plan you would like to review. Within the plan you can communicate with the supplier and give feedback regarding the plan that was shared using the messages button on the left side bar.
Note: Messages will be further defined later in this section under Messages.
Reviewing Suppliers FAI's & Inspections:
As a customer, you have the ability to review and give feedback to your supplier regarding the inspections they have shared with you.
1. Click on the FAI or Inspections Tile to see a detailed list of inspections that have been shared with you. In this screen you can filter by part number, supplier, pending/accepted/rejected.
The inspections which are ready to be reviewed will have a status or Accepted or Rejected. Pending Inspections are still in-process at the supplier facility.
2. Next the customer can now make a disposition on the completed inspection in addition to giving feedback to their supplier through the messages button on the left side bar. To make a disposition, click on the manage tab and either accept or reject the inspection based on the data provided.
Messages:
As a customer, you now have the ability to seamlessly communicate with your supply chain through the messages tab under your suppliers tab.
1. To start a message, navigate to a source (Plan, FAI, Inspection) of the message in which you would like to communicate with your supplier about. In each source, the message tab will be on the left side bar, click on this button to send messages to your supplier.
2. Once you are in the message thread, you can now send messages to your supplier and review messages from your supplier. You will also have the ability to attach documents to the message such as photos or controlled documents.
The subscribe tab within the message will notify those users which have subscribed to the thread each time a new message is received from the opposite party.
3. To see a top level view of all the communication with your supply chain, click on the messages tile within the suppliers tab. Once you are in the messages tile, you can now filter by supplier, part number, source type, origin of message, who the message is from, subscribed, sent/received/active/archived.
Note: To know which messages pertain to you use the subscribed filter. This will only show the messages that pertain to the user signed in.
Receiving Tab:
With the performance data provided by your supply chain, you can now use that data to increase or decrease your facilities IQC based on the risk that is identified in real time.
The main functions of receiving have not been changed, however we have given the customer (buyer) the ability to now share plans to their suppliers.
Sharing Plans:
1. To start, create a plan by clicking on the plan's tile within the Receiving tab.
2. Once you have created a plan, assure you have chosen which supplier(s) the plan pertains to by choosing the supplier in the suppliers tab.
3. Once the supplier has been identified and the plan is complete, click the share but on the left sidebar.
3. Once shared, a message is sent to your supplier and a communication thread is created. The message will show up in the suppliers Customers tab within the "Messages" tile. The plan will show up in the suppliers Customers tab within the "Plans" tile.
Customers Tab:
As the supplier of a product or service, the customers tab allows you to review plans shared with you as well as communicate with your customer regarding Plans, FAI's and inspections.
Messages:
As a Supplier, you now have the ability to seamlessly communicate with your customers through the messages tab under your customers tab.
1. To start a message, navigate to a source (Plan, FAI, Inspection) of the message in which you would like to communicate with your supplier about. In each source, the message tab will be on the left side bar, click on this button to send messages to your customer.
2. Once you are in the message thread, you can now send messages to your customer and review messages from your customer. You will also have the ability to attach documents to the message such as photos or controlled documents.
The subscribe tab within the message will notify those users which have subscribed to the thread each time a new message is received from the opposite party.
3. To see a top level view of all the communication with your customers, click on the messages tile within the customers tab. Once you are in the messages tile, you can now filter by customer, part number, source type, origin of message, who the message is from, subscribed, sent/received/active/archived.
Note: To know which messages pertain to you use the subscribed filter. This will only show the messages that pertain to the user signed in.