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GES Helps Electronics Firms Manage Risk
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
SAN DIEGO — Everyone involved in the electronics industry appreciates that it is cyclical, with up and down markets. If your expertise is in managing an OEM or EMS supplier firm, where do you go for help through the financial morass that represents this volatile industry? One company that reportedly is organized around financial assistance is GE Global Electronics Solutions.
On April 25, 2002, GES Commercial Equipment Financing (CEF) acquired the majority of assets from what was the Comdisco Electronics Portfolio. A new company, Global Electronics Solutions, was created to serve the semiconductor, automated test and PCB assembly industries with financial assistance, and to help with equipment optimization and remarketing or disposition (AOD).
Despite the semiconductor industry working through one of the most dramatic slowdowns in history, companies spent upwards of $129 billion on capital equipment over the last three years, making it one of the world's most capital-intensive industries. Couple this with industry data claiming that as much as 20 percent of all installed semiconductor and board assembly equipment is underused, idled or warehoused, and this presents more equipment challenges than just finding the hottest tools to keep pace with technology changes.
GES is one of many financial management companies helping customers plan strategies. For instance, they offer a sales lease back of existing equipment to remove capital equipment ownership from a manufacturer's balance sheet. They assist in asset planning, review the acquired asset disposition, identify underused assets and dispose of old equipment. Equipment lifecycle management has become an important issue when purchasing equipment comes at such a high price. GES concentrates on serving in the wafer fab, ATE and SMT areas for global electronics firms.
Cookson Ties It Together with Common Threads
FRANKLIN, Mass. — With all the companies Cookson Electronics Equipment has acquired in recent years, as well as its participation in the alliance with Aegis Industrial Software Corp. and Assembléon, the company needed a common architecture for machine control. They got it with Benchmark software.
"We wanted one architecture, a common look and feel," said John Ufford, VP of research and development for Cookson. "We wanted to develop it once across the enterprise."
Benchmark software, released by CAMALOT in 1998, runs on a standard Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. With a common user interface in Benchmark, the customer realizes the ability to add common functionality across varying platforms. For Cookson, the added advantage is integration with its Alliance partners.
With Benchmark's common look and feel, and basic components, whether controlling anything from a big board stencil printer to a dispenser to a reflow oven, personnel training software use across the enterprise also is simplified, Ufford added. Statistical process control (SPC) gathers historical data on top of the machine and compiles it into a database that can track productivity and other benchmarks.
Security features on the machine can limit access to this collected data based on an engineer's position in the company. For example, only a process engineer may be able to see certain information, and so on down the line, Ufford explained.
In another effort toward standardization, Cookson has adapted to IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries' CAMX standard, which defines an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) encoding scheme, enabling a detailed definition of electronics inspection and test equipment messages. The standard means that Cookson can integrate with vendors and other companies, so important in this day and age of joint ventures and agreements.
Cookson Electronics Equipment will be displaying Benchmark software and their new CAMX programs developed jointly with Aegis, as well as a host of new products, at APEX 2003, taking place March 29 through April 2 in Anaheim, Calif.
IPC International Symposium on Flexible Circuits and Chip Scale Packaging
February 10-12Tempe, Ariz.Nilda Mendez, (847) 790-5329;E-mail: NildaMendez@ipc.org;Web site: www.ipc.org.
Solder Joint Reliability
February 12-13Dallas, TexasHobbs Engineering, (303) 465-5988; Fax: (303) 469-4353;E-mail: learn@hobbsengr.com; Web site: www.hobbsengr.com.
Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium & Exhibit
February 18-20Kohala Coast, HawaiiJoAnn Stromberg, (952) 920-7682;E-mail: joann@smta.org; Web site: www.smta.org/pan_pac/index.cfm.
NanoTech 2003
February 23-27San Francisco, Calif.Nano Science and Technology Institute,(508) 357-2925; E-mail: nanotech@nsti.org; Web site: www.nanotech2003.com.
GlobalShop 2003March 16-18Chicago, Ill.VNU Expositions, (866) 933-1001;Web site: www.globalshop.org.
Test-Expo
March 18-21Las Vegas, Nev.Lee Wombold, (800) 318-1225;E-mail: lwombold@test-expo.com;Web site: www.test-expo.com.
IPC Printed Circuits Expo
March 23-27Long Beach, Calif.Jean Hebeisen, (847) 790-5338;E-mail: JeanHebeisen@ipc.org; Web site: www.ipc.org.
IPC SMEMA Council's APEX
March 29 to April 2Anaheim, Calif.Lisa Griffin, (847) 790-5379;E-mail: LisaGriffin@ipc.org; Web site: www.goapex.org.