Koh Young is proud to release their latest case study filmed on location at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL), in Pullman, Washington. The company started in 1984 in the garage of inventor of microprocessor based digital protective relay, now employs more than 5,000 people in 164 countries. After having a single Zenith AOI system on trial for a little over a month, they quickly realized they’d made the right choice and ordered systems for every line at their Washington and Idaho facilities.
The video version of the case study shows excerpt of interviews conducted by four members of the production team. Nick Swan, Lead Process Engineer, said, “SEL is always conservative when looking at equipment. We put the time and resources into evaluating the equipment. I think that the experience with Koh Young has been so easy and so good that there‘s really no question, what kind of SPI or other inspection equipment we‘re going to buy. If you‘re looking at inspection, probably save your time evaluating other equipment. This equipment is going to do everything you need it to do.” Tony O‘Neill, Board and Component Factory Manager (Pullman), added “It‘s made my life very, very easy, because we‘re all about quality. And I don‘t want to send any defects to my internal customers downstream, and this has pretty much obliterated those escapes.”
The team sited numerous benefits since installing the AOI systems, including a 15 % yield improvement, an increase in line uptime, simplified reporting, as well as an improvement in operator trust and satisfaction in the AOI process. As Andrew Packwood, Manufacturing Supervisor (Lewiston), explained, “When we first got the 2D AOI system, it was not highly thought of. It was a burden at that point. Now we see the 3D AOIs as a tool, as something that‘s helping SEL live their values of quality.”
The company sees parallels with Koh Young. Daicheng Fu, Engineering Manager, said, “There is a similarity between our company and Koh Young. It started from an entrepreneur, an inventor! We had the cool technology first and Koh Young has a cool technology.”
