-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC 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.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Equipment Sets vs. Operational Strategies
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Form follows function in the world of lean PCB assembly. Manufacturers typically purchase SMT placement equipment for one of three reasons.
By Jeff Timms
The first reason driving equipment purchasing decisions is the desire to handle a new technology or component architecture beyond the capabilities of the current equipment set. As the industry continues to mature, new component or technology introductions that push the envelope of accuracy and mechanical handling capabilities of production gear are less common than those that push the envelope of process control, development and implementation/commercialization. This places less strain on the equipment supplier to provide more accuracy or machine capability, as well as more emphasis on the equipment supplier to provide technical expertise with the equipment (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Advanced packages.
The second, and perhaps more common, reason for adding placement equipment is that of general economic expansion and growth driving the need for additional capacity. Since 2000, however, the need for additional capacity simply for the sake of increased demand has diminished significantly. This period presented the end of Y2K activity, as well as the collapse in the telecom market combined with the dot-com implosion and the exodus of general manufacturing to China.
The third reason equipment is being added is the need for equipment that fits into today's operational strategies of lot size one, build to order and lean manufacturing. Historical manufacturing trends reflect an evolution. The old days of building to forecast, consignment manufacturing and quality circles are moving to a world of mass customization and global fulfillment, built right the first time. Even if decisions to buy were fundamentally driven by capacity need, manufacturers are realizing the importance of making such purchasing decisions based on whether the equipment fits into the long-term operational strategy of their companies (Figure 2).
Figure 2. The evolution of manufacturing practices and principles.
The six fundamental principles of lean manufacturing are:
- Workplace safety, cleanliness and orderliness;
- Building products only to customer demand (lot size one and integrated logistics);
- Six Sigma quality;
- Workforce empowerment;
- Visual management/visual factory; and
- Continuous pursuit of perfection.
All six principles are significantly influenced by the choice of gear on the floor. This article concentrates only on the top two bullet points.
Beginning with the first point, workplace safety, cleanliness and orderliness, how can equipment sets influence this attribute? The answer lies in the following aspects of design:
- Solid ergonomics. Is there clear, open access and visibility within all aspects of the gear on the floor (with the covers still closed)?
- Is the system "idiot proof"?
- Are tools or components lying around that later can cause mistakes or problems that should be accommodated through machine design?
- Proactive maintenance procedures, safety procedures and contingency protocols. Does the product take the guesswork out of operation, maintenance and recovery?
- Environmental stewardship and MSDS. How "green" is the equipment's construction?
- Overall factory layout. How well does the equipment lend itself to factory layouts conducive to ease of physical navigation through the factory, reducing unnecessary steps by operators and technicians? Can workers see from one side of the factory floor to the other?
- Small and modular by design. Can a factory be redefined for optimum process flows?
- Low noise and vibration. Do operators experience fatigue and unnecessary hearing loss?
- Off-line setup and self-verification. Is the process self-managing, or is it another place to build work in progress (WIP)?
- Is one program managed per machine with separate vision files, or is one program managed per product build, reducing complexity and opportunity for errors?
All of these points contribute to a reduction of real costs by making the environment orderly and manageable on a daily basis. These issues also have an impact on employee morale and, ultimately, the quality of the finished product.
Figure 3. Understanding and enabling effective supply chain management.
Often implied when using the term "high-mix manufacturing," building only to order is a major challenge to all (Figure 3). Some areas worth investigating include:
- Takt time. Is Takt time being measured in terms of components per hour only when the lines are running? More importantly, how many good boards are built per hour, per shift, per day and per week?
- Continuous flow production. Is there seamless switchover from job "A" to job "B"? Can multiple models be produced on the same line without concern for their sequence on the line? Does the line need to be purged before starting the next product? Is the machine programmed for the product being built? Can it be optimized on the fly? Can the user optimize the sequence of products to be built?
- Straight lines, U-shaped, other configurations. Is the factory laid out in straight lines, or is there another, more suitable layout? Can the existing equipment set accommodate non-traditional cells or line layouts?
- Balancing and rearranging lines. Can lines be reconfigured quickly and easily to add capacity or functionality? How are placement programs managed on a newly configured line, or is this automatic? Can existing programs be run on newly configured lines without extensive modification?
- Pull-scheduling/Kanban system. Does the current equipment inhibit or enable the effective use of Kanban systems? Or can the equipment set manage the Kanbans?
- Start of the pull process — the customer link. Can the line be tied into the front end of the order entry process? How about the back end? Can suppliers be back flushed and paid at point of component consumption (at the machine), or must they be paid when parts are pulled to the floor?
- Dealing with erratic customer orders. Can the manufacturing process accommodate widely fluctuating customer demand? Are the right things being measured for the current environment? Can dependent and independent demand streams be measured simultaneously?
- Dealing with manufacturing resource planning (MRP). Does the line update the MRP system, or is there a shortage of material due to invisibility of shrinkage and WIP? Is there accountability for parts once pulled to the manufacturing floor? How often are there delays on the line stemming from parts not requested soon enough?
- Quick changeover. Does the equipment set allow changeover on the fly without line stoppages? Does the equipment force purging of the line before a changeover is initiated? How are programming changes and optimization issues managed?
- Production predictability. Are production floor results predictable? Is the line talking to the inventory system in an integrated fashion? Is the line included as part of the inventory system? Can the entire factory be optimized based on current demand and production requirements, or is there only machine/line level optimization? Does the existing equipment set provide material and production transparency that allows proper integration of sub-suppliers in real time?
If full transparency is achieved at the assembly point on the manufacturing floor, sustainable, world-class manufacturing results can be achieved on a day-by-day basis with some level of enabling process adoption and the right hardware set. This includes all elements of Right First Time Manufacturing, New Product Introduction, Invisible Product Changeover, New Customer Introduction to the Manufacturing Process (BOM management and Cross referencing, Test Parameter Management, etc.), Kanban management, continuous flow manufacturing, lot size one, visual factory management, em-ployee empowerment, and a continuous improvement culture.
In 1996, a concept called "best in class lines" was born as a result of significant performances in equipment capability within a single supplier line. Customers essentially picked and chose the best "boxes" from more than one supplier. By 2000, the differences in performance characteristics significantly lessened and in some cases changed the landscape of competition, leading customers to favor single supplier lines once again. By this time, both third-party and OEM software was managing the line's day-to-day activities.
The machine set on the floor must enable manufacturing transparency. Traditional mechanical machine architectures and non-sensor/software-based machines do not have adequate data mining capabilities.
This concept leads to better product life cycle management, faster time to cash, and the ability to better control the upstream and downstream of the supply chain (Table).
Conclusion
Equipment sets must be an integral part of the overall manufacturing and material management process. Equipment must talk to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, warehousing systems and even disaster recovery planning (DRP) systems. The world has changed from one of equipment suppliers focusing only on "speeds and feeds" to that of equipment suppliers needing to provide totally integrated logistics solutions. The higher the velocity of inventory through the manufacturing center, the more opportunity for good profit margins. The capital equipment supplier must be able to take on the challenges associated with assisting customers in the design and execution of strategic operational initiatives (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Overall manufacturing and material management process.
Jeff Timms, senior manager of sales and marketing, may be contacted at Siemens Dematic Electronic Assembly Systems for the Americas, (770) 797-3060.