Abstract
The longer defective units are in the manufacturing pipeline before they are detected, the more expensive it becomes. Economic pressures drive the requirement to capture failures and perform root cause analysis further upstream in the product manufacturing cycle. This places greater emphasis on the ability to identify failures and perform value add analysis to drive product improvements as early as possible. This paper describes the method used to develop a reliable Unified Data Stream (UDS) that feeds the failure analysis process which in turn provides actionable information to product development teams in the Personal Computer (PC) environment. This manuscript describes the development and implementation of the Unified Data Stream designed to replace ambiguity and uncertainty with a defect trend and symptom pareto that drives action upstream. Focus will be on the output of UDS enabling the prioritization of product defects that feed the failure analysis system. Additionally, this paper will touch on the application of the UDS system for different types of pc components. The future of UDS is without bounds as it can also be applied to a wide range of products.
