Mario, Hi,
basic point about all quality systems, is the cost justified? Traceability is just one aspect coverage in the quality system.
As a pointer, is your diploma project research might focus and narrow down into tracability in high-end product industries (eg. Aerospace, military, medical) applications where cost of quality (ie. traceability requirement) can be swayed into the mindset of top management that "long-winded" procedure gates imposed are needed and beneficial to the company in the long-run.
In such high-end arena, traceability can be as fine-comb as to item-serial no. traceability that includes info such as individual datecodes of IC, PCB, etc...and other components that went into the manufacture of this said high-end product.
On the otherhand, for large-scale commercial products such as handphones and TV sets, traceability for electronic modules can be linked to batches' traceability. We might even expect to see only serial-no. in the very end-end-end-product handphone/TV set. Supposed this reason is why (from my experience) the electronic board is usually just swapped for a new board when the functional verification (by the repair guy) confirms the set as faulty.
Bottom line, any business in manufacturing of a product can dream up all sort of traceability and quality gates to produce a world class quality product, with full-proof traceability right down to the individual screw, nut and bolt purchased and built-into the product. However at what cost???
Its a realistic world and even us engineers these days get dragged from our ivory towers away from our fun-gadgets and electric-toys to answer "financial reduction schemes" questions by the top boss(es). It is just called by different names in the search to improve quality.
My advise, traceability is linked to cost. Cost must be kept minimal; else if it hasn't yet been transfer to customer in the sales quotation, then it becomes a financial burden to the company itself. Either way it has to be resolved in the continual improvement program to improve the lives of everyone involved.
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