PCB Manufacturing, Assembly & Test White Papers

The technology that governs and manages product tracking and enforced routing must deliver a net benefit of operational improvements across the shop floor in order for any compliance and conformance initiative to be successful. At first glance this technology may appear to be quite simple and not worthy of a white paper discussion, however there are many complexities that if not properly handled, will render your compliance and conformance initiatives in-effective. In this paper we will show that the way in which tracking is implemented is fundamental to product quality and compliance on the shop floor. When implemented in the right way, tracking and enforced routing brings opportunities for productivity enhancements and other operational improvements which otherwise may not be seen so quickly.

Work orders are a key part of every operation that is performed on the shop-floor. A world-class manufacturing operation is built from a series of smaller, individual manufacturing operations. The intelligence, and therefore the effectiveness, of a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) or Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) solution is directly proportional to the capability of the work order infrastructure. More specifically, we mean work orders that are internal to the manufacturing organization, not commercial contracts between suppliers and customers. In fact, the basic definition of the work order is quite simple. It can be thought of as a group of many units of the same product that will be manufactured together in the same way. What was once a simple production job ID, is now a critical part of planning and execution of any PCBA operation. Understanding and using work orders effectively within an MES solution can reduce process setting errors, operational errors, quality issues, delivery delays, material and product scrap, while at the same time improve your floor’s compliance and traceability data with higher productivity. Understanding of the potential use of work orders is essential when choosing or working with an MES system in order to provide effective compliance, conformance and traceability.

Business Intelligence (BI) is a current hot topic among managers at all levels in electronics manufacturing. Intelligence in business — sounds like a 'must have'; who wouldn't want it? And it's never been easier to add. Great visualization tools like dashboards, dials, gauges and pie charts are common place. However, it is crucial to ask the question "visualization of what"? Otherwise, BI can become just another view of raw data. Effective Business Intelligence must be based on reporting 'metrics that matter' and employ specific 'domain knowledge' to drive the right improvement actions optimized for our industry. In addition, Business Intelligence, correctly adapted, can satisfy the increasing market demands for traceability, reporting and proof of compliance. In this paper we will look at the opportunities for Valor MSS Business Intelligence from Mentor Graphics , to put 'intelligence' into the hands of managers and knowledge workers, and to add value electronics manufacturing .

Compliance is a critical factor in manufacturing operations. In this paper we will look at compliance from a traceability perspective and illustrate several ways that total traceability also delivers benefits to the operation beyond compliance to customer requirements and regulatory standards. Demonstration of compliance to internal or external standards helps manufacturers grow their business considering that work is only placed into manufacturing centers that can demonstrate they have attained the appropriate compliance certificates or approvals. Today compliance requirements extend to all quality sensitive markets for electronics goods such as military, medical, automotive, aerospace, telecommunications, and industrial controls. Even lower-priced consumer goods like handsets, toys, games, and many others, require safety and environmental compliance. Manufacturers who are not able to demonstrate this compliance simply do not win business in these markets. For many markets, compliance includes providing total traceability information about every product that has been manufactured.

The number one cause of down-time on SMT lines is related to material, as either a shortage or a logistical misstep that fails to place the right quantity of the right material at the right location at the right time. From a business perspective, the downtime caused by material problems is often the largest unplanned cost in the manufacturing operation. This paper will review many factors that contribute to the fundamental issue behind the chaos of material related downtime: inventory inaccuracy, and the steps needed to resolve this crucial problem.

Our factories today are picking up steam. As a result, companies are looking for ways to improve performance-to-schedule. The rate of on-time delivery coupled with measurement of actual unit cost compared to planned unit cost, are critical Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the success and profitability of the manufacturing operation. This paper addresses several critical factors in achieving on time delivery and unit cost targets. It all starts with better planning.