Here we go again. Another merger of companies with significant overlap of portfolios. In the past when this has happened, as in the case with Technomatix, Unicam, Fabmaster etc., many customers were confused about how any “new solutions” would appear. Would there be a move to one standard system, would the systems co-exist, how would they connect? These were initial questions. The next questions were … Read More
Hi there
I have been posting comments on my blog now for a number of months. The topics have been based on the feedback and conversations I’ve had with many users of Process Engineering software, both Mentor Graphics and non-Mentor Graphics products, all around the world. Many of you have also taken the time to add comments on these postings which I really appreciate.
I’d like to open … Read More
mixed vendor, Flying Probe, AOI, ICT, BOM, boundary scan, AVL, bill of materials, documentation, data preparation, Design For Test, Planning, testability, vPlan, stencil, programming, process
Hi there
We released our Valor MSS Stencil Design module a few months ago and have received positive feedback which resulted in a number of major enhancements that will be part of our up-coming release. However, a topic that I have discussed with a number of our users involves the use of a stepped stencil. Standard stencils have a single thickness across them meaning that paste volume can only be controlled … Read More
Hi there
The configuration of SMT lines has changed a number of times over the years. A few years ago lines were configured with a best-in-class requirement, where the line was configured with the chip shooters being supplied from one vendor and the fine pitch machines being from another vendor. In recent years though, may be with the introduction of modular machines and dual line capability, there … Read More
process, programming, BOM, mixed vendor, vPlan, data preparation
We learn different things in different ways. Which are the ways in which we learn that we enjoy and more importantly can trust?
When I was at school, I veered towards the sciences, especially physics, electronics and maths, I guess very much in common with those of us in this industry. I steered well clear of subjects such as history and geography. For me, there seem to be four elements that contributed … Read More
I still get surprised, and occasionally disappointed, when I talk to production folk about quality. I still hear comments like, “our quality team deal with that”. or “we should talk to our Quality manager”. when what we are really talking about is making products error free.
I guess we don’t help ourselves by using terms like ‘right first time’ & ’zero … Read More
PCBA, Quality, corrective action, Defect opportunities, CAPA, Route cause, Manufacturing execution system, Yield, Defects, zero defects, lean manufacturing
Hi there
I spent last week in the wonderful town of Zug about 45 minutes from Zurich in Switzerland. My European colleagues organized a two day seminar for over 60 of our Valor MSS Process Preparation customers at the Siemens facility in Zug. The agenda consisted of some Valor presentations, Valor demostrations of the upcoming software, presentations by actual users of the Process Preparation software … Read More
programming, AVL, process, AOI, data preparation, documentation, Flying Probe, bill of materials, ICT, BOM, Design For Test, vPlan, testability, VPL, stencil
Hi there
As a follow up to my posting last week on measuring test coverage, which you can read from the following link:
http://www.mentor.com/pcb-manufacturing-assembly/blog/post/how-do-you-measure-test-coverage–77cbb106-851f-4f26-a548-4857098f23d4
I would like to hear from test and process engineers on what types of equipment form part of your test and inspection strategy. How do In-Circuit … Read More
Design For Test, Flying Probe, AOI, testability, vPlan, ICT, data preparation, BOM, programming, boundary scan
Hi there
With the Design For Test capability in Valor MSS Process Preparation, read details and see a video by clicking on the following link, we can analyze a board and determine the amount of physical test access to it.
http://www.mentor.com/pcb-manufacturing-assembly/solutions/process-prep
However the question of how to compare test coverage across multiple boards comes up from customers I talk … Read More
Maybe it is just me (but I think not). It is the kind of thing that everyone assumes everyone knows, but they don’t. As a school-boy, at high school, the young Michael had to wear the school uniform. Nothing fancy, blazer, trousers, normal regular stuff, and I had all the gear. What I could not get my head around though was how come that every ten minutes I was being told off for having my shirt hanging … Read More
I hope to see some Mentor customers at the SMTA conference this fall in Florida. I have the privilege of presenting a paper on Failure Mode Effects Analysis and how we can apply this methodology in electronics manufacturing.
Its a specialist topic, but has great resonance with what we are trying to achieve in manufacturing. Allowing us to produce higher quality products from the analysis of potential … Read More
Manufacturing execution system, corrective action, zero defects, Defect opportunities, CAPA, FMECA, PCBA, Quality, lean manufacturing, Route cause, SMTA, FMEA
Hi there
Although the Valor MSS Process Preparation solution can handle most types of data that are passed it’s way, intelligent design data brings a wealth of benefits to its users. The import process is typically a few seconds for most designs as opposed to multiple hours to reverse engineer Gerber files to a sufficient level to be useful for manufacturing. Having to support electrical test … Read More
ODB++, bill of materials, documentation, programming, Gerber, BOM, VPL, data preparation, vPlan
Hi there
For the many years I have worked in this industry one of the most common complaints from SMT engineers is related to position and rotation errors that were found during the first article inspection of a PCB during the sticky tape run. The programs would then be tweaked and the sticky tape board ran again to confirm the changes. This resulted in a significant loss of line down time while the … Read More
programming, data preparation, virtual sticky tape, pick and place, vPlan, mixed vendor
It amazes me that for a couple of weeks every four years, the world is suddenly interested in sports. Not just the popular sports like football, but all kinds of sports, many of which we have only ever otherwise experienced while at school. Not fond memories of that in my case it has to be said.
For athletes, it is wonderful sense of achievement to be seen and acknowledged as the best in the world. … Read More
Hi there
I have covered a number of areas of process engineering in this blog over the past few months and there is now an opportunity to see how these areas all come together next week in our Webinar titled “World Class Process Preparation”. We will be discussing a number of ways that the users of Valor MSS can streamline their process preparation tasks to make them more efficient and … Read More
Planning, AOI, mixed vendor, BOM, data preparation, documentation, AVL, Flying Probe, bill of materials, ICT, Design For Test, process preparation, vPlan, Webinar, testability, stencil, programming, Sequence