Qualcomm manufactures communications electronics on highly automated, surface-mount electronics lines. Due to a highly competitive market, Qualcomm wanted to improve process and product quality with an inspection and information system that could efficiently perform plant-wide quality control tasks, including quality information feedback and tracking work-in-progress and material consumption.

After performing a detailed needs assessment to develop a logical, cost-effective strategy, PEER Group developed a pilot quality system. The extensible three-tier architecture of the pilot system provided all the required functionality.

The system performs the following tasks:

• Tracks products and controls operation routing.
• Communicates with an existing material tracking process.
• Collects defect data from assembly-line operations.
• Charts statistical process control (SPC) data in real-time.
• Provides engineers with a facility-wide view of process quality.

Due to the successful implementation and early success of the pilot system, Qualcomm installed the full-scale quality system throughout their entire plant, far ahead of schedule. Now, with real-time defect detection widely available, our solution gives Qualcomm a way to monitor and correct all costly quality issues on the spot.