QUALITY DERIVED FROM TRACEABILITY

The foundation needed for total traceability also provides assurance that an Electronic components manufacturer is operatingin the best possible manner with the highest levels of quality.
The first benefit of total traceability is akin to an insurance policy against cost and liabilities associated with product recalls. This is provided by having a complete and accurate record of actual materials used in every product, whichinsures that problems discovered in units shipped to the market are traceable to specific material defects or designissues. This also allows the manufacturer to correctly identify who in the supply chain is responsible, whether due to design problems from the OEM (customer), or due to component related issues from a supplier. The value of connecting product quality as measured in production to the chain of supply can be directly measured against any recovered cost of non-conformance from poorly performing vendors. Or, more productively, by identifying these poor performers and triggering a corrective action process before assembling any potentially defective parts onto orders in progress. This indirect saving can be many times more than any direct cost recovery by avoiding product defects both inside the factory and in the field.
The second benefit of total traceability is the assurance that your manufacturing operation is conforming to the processes and procedures defined by your engineering team. For example, this assures that operators use only the correct materials in the right place at the right time on the correct products, eliminating re-work, reducing the cost of poor quality, and the cost of operational mistakes.
The above benefits roll into a third benefit of total traceability: improved quality levels throughout the operation from a program of continuous improvement. This benefit is achieved by having a comprehensive record of quality data which can be analyzed to find out what unique conditions and variations in the manufacturing processes contribute to unwanted trends, which lower quality levels, or one-off defects that are of high cost and impact. This
quality data, when combined with material traceability data, provides better management of supplier performance
by allowing analysis and reporting about supplier accuracy and quality levels.

Source :http://electronicparts.blogg.se/category/allmant.html