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Financial Analysis Reveals Lost Production Time
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Incremental improvements affect processing uptime and, ultimately, the bottom line.
By Ronald C. Lasky
Solder paste volume consistency is widely accepted as crucial to high post-reflow yields. In high-value printed circuit board (PCB) operations, yield loss obviously is costly. Accordingly, each board often has its printed solder paste volume measured to ensure optimum yields (see illustration). For example, such a measuring technique was recently used at a facility that featured four SMT lines assembling complex, high-value (>$5,000) PCBs. The lines had been losing some processing uptime, which was traced to the use of a solder paste discovered to have an unacceptable "response-to-pause" between the setups required for assembling new lots.
Example in appearance of a consistent measured printing of solder paste, a strong determinant of a high-yield assembly process.
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The pause time required to set up a new lot of boards to be processed was about 15 minutes, long enough such that the first print of a new lot invariably exhibited unacceptably low solder paste volumes. Result: the boards required special cleaning and stencil reprinting — additional steps costing about seven minutes of production time for each new lot. However, switching to a solder paste* with an improved response-to-pause successfully eliminated the lost time, which prompted the customer to request that a cost analysis be performed to determine the financial benefit, if any, of the improvement in uptime.
The Analysis
In the analysis, non-proprietary cost data from the manufacturer was used with accurate production numbers (those after the new solder paste implementation). To perform the financial analysis, an electronics assembly cost-estimating software** was applied, which included the following metrics: 6,493 boards; production on four assembly lines; 5.4-week duration; average lot size of 34.72 PCBs; two- to eight-hour shifts per day, five days per week; and a 20 percent line efficiency.
In one year (52.14 weeks), the lines produced 62,694 boards (52.14/5.4 x 6,493 = 62,694), or 15,675 boards per line/year. If line efficiency is 20 percent, a 192.15 second cycle time is required for each line to produce that number of boards. To model the "average" line, the setup time required adjustment to achieve the 20 percent line efficiency, which came to 45 hours/week. Other parameters were adjusted to generate $100 million per line/year of product. The result was a financial model that duplicated the metrics of the facility. After implementing the new response-to-pause solder paste, the line at higher productivity became the starting point.
Uptime Savings
With an average lot size of 34.72 boards and each line producing 300.6 boards (15,675/52.14 = 300.6) per week, 8.66 lots per week (300.6/34.72 = 8.66) were assembled on each line. Assuming each lot saved one board washing at seven minutes each, approximately one hour is saved per week/line using the new paste.
The input data for the financial analysis for one line with the old paste is shown in the table. (The only difference with the new solder paste is that setup time [red box] is 45 hours/week.) Note that about 7 percent productivity is lost when using the old vs. the new solder paste. Additionally, at a gross profit rate of 10 percent, a delta profit of $845,000, per line/year can be generated by using the newer material. Thus, at four lines analyzed, the total profit would be $3.4 million.
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Conclusion
A financial analysis concluded that a small increase in PCB processing uptime of one hour/week resulted in a 7 percent productivity increase and a 9 percent profit increase for the high-value board assembly studied. In addition to demonstrating the value of uptime, the analysis also illustrated how important a small improvement in materials selection and procedure can be to the bottom line of a high-value operation.
Ronald C. Lasky, Ph.D., PE, is a senior consultant at Indium Corp. of America, 1676 Lincoln Ave., Utica, NY 13502; (315) 853-1000; E-mail: rlasky@indium.com.
* NC-SMQ92J (Indium).
** ProfitPro (Indium), a trademarked costing software program developed by the author.