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Streamlining SMT Production Through an Open Interface
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
To streamline production, modern manufacturing must move toward total integration of every key process in the enterprise. This develops flexible, centralized programming, control, monitoring and troubleshooting of equipment on the production line while eliminating paperwork, duplication of tasks and waste.
By Vern Harrison and Doug Johnson
Tapping into key processes from anywhere in or on the factory floor delivers immense benefits. But this is difficult to accomplish if equipment and systems do not collaborate.
Information is the enabler in today's world of fast changeovers and diminishing product life cycles. In the past, companies had one option: create fixed applications to provide data to, or use data from equipment on the production floor. This forced the creation of redundant and parallel systems to bridge the gap between planning and execution. Data went untapped because it was simply too difficult to integrate from machine to machine to factory in a seamless central system.
Traditionally, SMT capital equipment has been built on the legacy system concept, whereby supplier proprietary systems force this chain of non-value added (NVA) activities onto the user's already overfilled plate. Third party, multi-vendor tools are available; however, they require a significant amount of data mapping to be developed in house in order to properly map the proprietary system to the programming tool.
To counter this painful process of continual "patchwork upgrade programming," as well as unleash the free flow of production data, some SMT capital equipment manufacturers are offering systems built on the "open interface concept," designed to eventually break this non-productive chain. Open interfaces may use many different technologies, including SOAP/XML, COM, DCOM, Java, .NET and Web services.
Studies have shown that for every $1 spent in software, users typically spend $2 in system integration. With system integration consuming up to 60 percent of the cost of project, open interfaces greatly reduce amounts of NVA time and money.
Figure 1. Third party multi-vendor programming tool.
Open interfaces eliminate special patchwork programs to enable free data flow across systems. All data formerly trapped in proprietary systems are thus available to the user, unencumbered and unmodified. Conceivably, a third-party multi-vendor programming tool could be tightly coupled to exploit an open interface, resulting in a unified data source. The third-party multi-vendor programming tool would use the same database that the equipment uses to ensure unencumbered data flow. Copying or importing data, manual data mapping, and back annotation/synchronization are eliminated (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 2. Equipment suppliers programming tool.
By unifying the data source, the need for critical resources to validate and manipulate legacy data continuously to match current needs is virtually eliminated. Maintaining data mapping tables between suppliers and manufacturing systems becomes unnecessary. The user can use data directly from supplier's equipment in real time. The data are never out of date because the links never expire.
Cases for open interface from the SMT line include:
- Troubleshooting. Data is available from all key machines on the production line, allowing alarms to alert the user to out-of-control situations. Open systems allow expansion to suit ever-changing business needs, while also facilitating quick customization.
- Data preparation. The ability to get real-time data from placement equipment and integrate this with the data from the ERP/MRP system's bill of material (BOM) allows users to validate that the parts ordered are those being placed.
To further illustrate its effectiveness, suppose a user has a predominant machine that uses a factory-standard naming convention for vision data. An open interface system will allow the same standard naming on other equipment. One vision name can be referenced on different supplier equipment. Naturally, the data content will be different for each provider; however, the part name will be the same. This helps technicians troubleshoot because they can use the same name to identify any vision object.
- Monitoring. A part can be rejected on a placement machine for many reasons. It may not be presented correctly in the feeder, or it could be a vision error, where the machine evaluates and rejects the part, throwing out the whole lot. Or it could simply be the wrong part. In some cases, 1 to 5 percent of the components may be rejected and must be accounted for manually by filling out scrap reports. An open system allows for automated scrap reporting, eliminating the need for manual reporting and reducing material variances.
If open interfaces are such a good solution to data duplication and redundant workarounds, why aren't all capital equipment and systems manufacturers embracing this concept, and why are users not demanding it? The answer to the first part of the question is that sometimes the cost of developing new procedures and software systems is difficult to justify. In addition, there is reluctance to give up the status quo that appears to have worked well for a long time. There is also the belief that one's proprietary system is in some way making the equipment unique or better than the competition.
When developing a capital equipment interface, manufacturers either do it the quick, easy way for now, or expend the time and effort to develop and maintain an open interface. Open interfaces are not always the easiest road for the supplier to take because they require extra cost and effort. They also represent a major shift in the supplier's thought process when changing from a proprietary system.
Users need to educate themselves on the possibilities available and make well-informed requests from suppliers. The user should not be forced to create an archaic format and continually maintain it for each machine on the production line. Open interfaces provide value to the user, which readily presents itself when viewed from the deeper systems approach.
Conclusion
Incomplete information stored as master data can lead to the inability to build a product right the first time. Additional scrap, effort, delay, rework and waste often are the result of missing or inaccurate data.
Systems developed with an open interface allow users to tap the data that helps provide a competitive advantage. On the data preparation side, the process of synchronizing data from the ERP/MRP, programming tools and factory equipment ensures the user can execute properly. The ability to view equipment information across multiple systems and to manipulate it via disparate programs is at the heart of open interfaces. Users must understand this new paradigm that will save time and effort. They must require their suppliers to move beyond developing systems that interface in the old manner (Figures 3 and 4).
On the operational side, users can link factory equipment into their existing systems, allowing problems to be pinpointed and corrected before money is lost. If a company has a central monitoring or quality control system, the company should not be forced to change their system when they purchase each new piece of equipment. Open interfaces are a way to reduce adaptation and implementation costs while maximizing the value of existing central monitoring.
Figures 3 (top) and 4 (bottom). Open interfaces allow manufacturing visibility.
Constant efforts to validate and modify data are in themselves non-value added, but necessary . Data has an intrinsic value. Unleashing additional value within the data requires ubiquitous access across the organization.
Unleashing this potential value requires freeing data held hostage by the user's equipment and system suppliers. Equipment suppliers provide the equipment and the systems, but users provide the knowledge. The data belong to the user, not the supplier.
Vern Harrison and Doug Johnson, software product managers, Americas, may be contacted at Siemens Dematic Electronics Assembly Systems Inc., 3140 Northwoods Parkway, Suite 300, Norcross, GA 30071. Vern may be contacted at (770) 797-3000; Fax (770) 797-3432; E-mail:Vern.Harrision@siemens.com. Doug may be contacted at (770) 797-3381; Fax (770) 797-3432; E-mail: DouglasJohnson @siemens.com.