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Test and Manufacturing Software designed to
Support C.E.M's and O.E.M.'s in Electronics Manufacturing
May 2008 | posted by D Claxton
AITOCHU EUROPE plc
Test and Manufacturing Software designed to Support C.E.M's and
O.E.M.'s in Electronics Manufacturing
May 2008
Every C.E.M and electronics O.E.M will be aware of the many pitfalls
along the way in the design, test and manufacturing process. Speed to
market, reduction in manufacturing costs and improved product quality
are a constant in day-to-day operations, especially so with new
product introductions. By minimising the element of human involvement
we aim to accelerate the process, reduce errors and provide detailed
reports on quality and performance.
Itochu Europe now offers the Siemens PLM software for PCB Assembly,
Test (NPI) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), providing both
the product and on-going product support across the UK and Ireland.
Test is a bottleneck in the NPI process. eM-Test Expert helps
manufacturers eliminate bottlenecks in their test processes and speed
time-to-market. It increases productivity and performance by allowing
clients to import CAD data and automatically create test programs for
more than 75 in-circuit test (ICT), flying probe, X-ray and AOI test
equipment and systems in a matter of minutes or hours, rather than the
days or weeks required with traditional methods.
With its fast user programmable nail/probe selection routine and
complementary interactive tools, eM-Test Expert offers complete
flexibility and control during fixture design and flying probe
selection. eM-Test Expert eases access on dense boards with a global
probe offset tool. A nail adviser evaluates fixture cost. Automatic
calibration box generation, coupled with the possibility of
interactive definition, speeds calibration box placement for optical
inspection applications. eM-Test Expert handles variants of a same
board and effectively manages attributes needed for test and
inspection, such as device types, values and tolerances, and package
and pad sizes/shapes, to further reduce cycle times.
The assembly process is often constrained by the fact that assembly
lines are a mix of equipment from a variety of manufacturers which can
lead to extended set up and operating schedules. eM-Assembly Expert
supports a wide range of manufacturers and their systems allowing fast
and efficient process set up. Once the set up is complete and the
manufacturing process is underway, output quality monitoring comes
into play.
Each organisations' quality control procedures possess the same basic
requirements. They are the collection, analysis, action, and reporting
of shop floor data. Often these data management mechanisms are manual.
Manual systems do work, but in order to optimize your Quality System
manufacturers need to implement automated, repeatable mechanisms for
the data collection, management, and analysis. Manufacturers need a
solution that will overcome the problems inherent in a manual system.
The specific capabilities companies will need are:
• WIP monitoring and routing control
• SPC Analysis, trend and yield reporting
• Inspection, repair and rework management
• Automated and graphical data capture
• Real time WEB based distribution of reports and alarms
• Root cause data analysis
The system needs to be easy to implement, be easy to use, and work in
harmony with existing shop floor procedures. It needs to be flexible
and extensible so it can adapt to the changing needs of the
manufacturers.
The eM-Execution Quality package addresses these needs, it is a
powerful, automated data collection, analysis, action and reporting
solution. Implementing the eM-Execution Quality Package will allow the
manufacturer to model their quality system and then prove the
implementation is repeatable – ensuring standards or regulatory
compliance.
However once the product has been through the production process and
has been packed and shipped to the end user, the manufacturer's
responsibilities do not stop there. Products may fail in use due to a
process or component fault – or even through customer mis-use/abuse.
Key to managing after-sales activity, and often key to winning the
contract at the outset, is a company's ability to respond quickly and
effectively to occurrences once the product is out of their hands.
Traceability can be viewed from a variety of angles. Product
traceability allows you to have complete visibility as to the
products’ history. This means that not only can you associate the
product with a particular order, you are able to have a complete
report of all materials that product is produced from. This includes
all individual components (mechanical and electrical), any
sub-assemblies, and any repaired items. You can know the exact lots of
material that were used to produce the specific product. A fully
capable traceability system would also allow you to create
associations between material used to produce a single product and all
other products produced with that material and be able to identify
each product by serial number. This is a powerful tool when dealing
with recall situations. Likewise, process traceability allows for the
same types of linkages between manufacturing processes and the
products produced by those manufacturing processes. Electronics PCB
manufacturers and C.E.M.'s need a robust system to help them perform
full product and process traceability.
The MES for Electronics Traceability solution is:
• Easy to use
• Completely automated with out-of-the box standard Traceability
reports
• User can also build their own reports to create “what-if” scenarios
to evaluate the scope of the problem
• Supports PCB and Final Assembly seamlessly
• Web based for easy access to report data
• Integrates with the manufacturers NPI tool for seamless data
transfer
• Relies on bar codes and scanners rather than manual entry
• Allows for part number cross referencing
• Verifies all steps of the set-up process
• Verifies Material availability prior to build track feeder
maintenance status.
The UGS software from Itochu is a very powerful tool capable of
improving the manufacturing process and is already helping as number
of C.E.M.'s throughtout the world. To discover for yourself the
advantages and benfits such software can bring to your business
contact Graham South at Itochu Europe.
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