-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueIPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
The Cost of Rework
In this issue, we investigate rework's current state of the art. What are the root causes and how are they resolved? What is the financial impact of rework, and is it possible to eliminate it entirely without sacrificing your yields?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Big Data Can Bring Your Business Back
April 20, 2022 | Zac Elliott, Siemens Digital Industries SoftwareEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Let’s face it, in the past, electronics manufacturing has not been a big business for North America. A majority of electronics are assembled in Asia where supply chains and operating costs offer many economic advantages. In North America, the electronics manufacturing industry has been generally focused on lower volume, high-cost devices, while higher volume products are produced elsewhere. However, the COVID pandemic and various legislation in the U.S. are changing the situation, making electronics manufacturing in North America a more attractive option.
How can factories in North America compete for the same type of manufacturing traditionally performed in lower-cost regions? The answer is that they will not be competing, because they will not be performing the same type of manufacturing. Manufacturing is changing, and companies in North America are well positioned to work differently and surpass their global competitors.
What’s changing in manufacturing? Consumer trends related to the specialization and customization of products are moving the industry toward much smaller lot sizes. With a historical focus on higher mix production, manufacturers in North America have mastered the ability to provide their customers with responsiveness, flexibility, and quality. Carrying these capabilities forward is important to support the next generation of manufacturing.
How do manufacturers adapt? On the shop floor, manufacturing lines will become more modular to accommodate a higher mix of product on the same equipment, but what will really differentiate manufacturers is how they use data to support their operations. Leveraging data and digitalization will be the only way to maintain responsiveness, flexibility, and quality while supporting an increasing volume of high-mix products.
Boosting prediction accuracy is one of the key benefits of using data effectively, but this requires domain expertise and a deep understanding of the data. It also requires access to the data in the first place, and this is not always a trivial task. Many intelligent machine interfaces today will describe the processes and production operations occurring on the machine and allow for interlocking the equipment with external management systems. Most machines today do not provide information about their internal operation, and it is this detail that is needed to drive the next level of performance improvement, where a motor drawing extra power or a sensor operating marginally can signal a problem with the performance or reliability of the equipment. If that data is not available, companies can invest R&D resources to determine how to get to it.
To differentiate themselves from their competition, companies must provide intelligent, responsive, and supportive productization. Effectively balancing customization with complexity costs will allow companies to maintain profit margins significantly higher than their industry peers. Utilizing improved workflows and technology to maintain high output can provide a cost savings as compared to a mass production environment.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the April 2022 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Devan Iyer, Industry Leader on Chips Packaging Technology, Joins IPC
03/18/2024 | IPCDevan Iyer, Ph.D., one of the semiconductor industry’s leading technology experts, has joined IPC as its chief strategist for advanced packaging. In this newly created role, Dr. Iyer leads IPC's work with leading electronics companies and governments to identify and deliver news solutions to IPC members and the industry.
ROCKA Solutions Expands into Brazil
03/15/2024 | ROCKA SolutionsROCKA Solutions is thrilled to announce its expansion into Brazil. With a commitment to serving the growing needs of the Brazilian electronics manufacturing market, ROCKA has established new distribution and manufacturing services in the region.
Altium to Exhibit Latest Innovations at Embedded World 2024
03/15/2024 | AltiumAltium (ASX: ALU), a global leader in electronics design systems, will be at Embedded World 2024 to reveal its latest innovations across its ecosystem, spanning Altium Designer,
Northrop Grumman Honors Suppliers for Excellence
03/14/2024 | Northrop GrummanNorthrop Grumman Corporation honored more than 70 suppliers for their outstanding contributions in 2023. In an annual recognition event, the companies included women-, minority- and veteran-owned small businesses as well as those operating in underdeveloped areas.
Indium Corporation Celebrates 90 Years of Materials Science Innovation
03/13/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation will commemorate its 90th anniversary on March 13. Indium Corporation’s innovative products, especially its advanced soldering solutions, are found in many common consumer electronics and high-reliability technologies such as electric vehicles, mobile devices, life-saving medical devices, and emerging 5G technology to name just a few.