The electronics production environment is changing at an unprecedented rate – the driving force behind this transformation of industrial manufacturing is automation with a clear and overriding vision for ‘smart manufacturing’ – and automation is set to lead transformation trends throughout the electronics manufacturing industry for the foreseeable future. The EMS industry moves fast and those that do not move at similar speeds are likely to be left behind.
On the 16th June 2016 the first InnovationsForum Hungary took place at the prestigious Academy of Sciences in Budapest. The event brought together leading industry professionals on key industry topics which explored and examined how automation in the electronics production industry is set to drive competitiveness in the region. Over 120 executive level delegates from EMS & OEM companies located in Hungary, Romania and Poland filled the impressive and historically important Ceremony Hall at the Academy of Science, which is located alongside the Danube in the heart of Budapest with views directly over the Palace on the other side of the shore.
Industry leaders from Aegis Software, ASM Assembly Systems, Christian Koenen, Fuji, Kimball Electronics, Kurtz Ersa, Koh Young, Indium and Vi Technology followed with concise technology focussed talks, on many topics, including:
- Low cost manufacturing – is it sustainable?
- What role does Industry 4.0 play?
- Mass-customization – challenges for the future
- Supply-Chain Transparency – tools & trends
- Miniaturization & complexity – requirements for manufacturing equipment
The conference opened with a Keynote by Dan Copocean from Kimball Electronics Romania who shared his extensive experience with establishing an EMS facility in a competitive environment and provided considerations for automation strategies along with examples of how such measures can be implemented successfully. Dan set the scene for the ensuing technology focused presentations, by highlighting the key challenges and considerations his company had to face as a start-up operation.
With a growing trend for smaller lot sizes, Dr. Friedrich Nolting from Aegis Software focused on the benefits of a holistic data- & document management approach, including version control and change management. He advised that the only way to achieve a truly flexible manufacturing environment is through complete digital data management of design data, revision control, work instructions, bill of materials and shipping, whilst also monitoring revisions and technical adjustments. He went on to illustrate how it was also a solution during planning, that would lead to quality improvements, reduce engineering and management overheads and achieve reliable, repeatable manufacturing processes.
Andras Kozma from ASM Assembly Solutions examined the role of material management in a Smart SMT manufacturing environment. He explained how to provide transparency across the production process and how supporting them with modern material management systems could open the door to new opportunities. He argued that these systems are vital for Industry 4.0 factories by introducing more efficient warehousing processes and the minimization of material-related downtimes. Gains in flow of material, flexibility and process reliability on the shop floor would be even greater.
The programme continued with a closer look at possibilities for achieving greater economies in a small volume/high mix environment. Claus Schulz from screen and stencil printing specialist Christian Koenen reassured the audience that stencil printing allowed for the efficient production of any batch size provided the aperture layout had been adapted to the requirements of the product. For small and large product volumes, it was vital to choose aperture ranges that ensured a constantly high print quality from the first to the last substrate. The right stencil options would help achieve this goal.
Kurtz Ersa, one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of soldering systems was represented by Tom Berx who highlighted that customers should invest in solutions, providers and partners who offer technological leadership and innovation in order to sustainably optimize production processes with regard to quality, cost and delivery services. Particularly European manufacturing, which focuses on high-quality industrial products, often in low volumes and many versions, require flexible production systems, which can handle frequent changes and still economically produce small batch sizes with high quality.
Fuji‘s Jonas Ernst explained the demands of low volume/high mix manufacturing on the surface mount equipment capabilities, highlighting short changeover times and flexibility as the most important requirements. Any machine stoppages caused by setup changeovers will affect the performance of the whole line negatively. Selecting the right solutions in order achieve faster time-to-market, more cheaply, in smaller lot sizes with consistent quality is therefore key.
With the eastern European region being an important centre for automotive electronics manufacturing, Karthik Vijay of Indium provided an insight into current and future developments within the industry with his presentation on dendritic growth and corrosion under low-standoff components. Karthik illustrated how low-standoff components, such as double-MOSFETs and power QFNs, are proliferating in automotive electronics for reasons of cost and functionality. Although soldering them with solder paste is the most cost-effective option in high-volume PCB assembly, alternative methods were presented which would avoid dendritic growth and corrosion for demanding electrical reliability requirements in harsh conditions.
Wolfgang Runte of Koh Young focused on theimplementation of measurement data analysis methods for effective production control. By highlighting manufacturing trends, Wolfgang provided real life scenarios in which can lead to significant error prevention within the manufacturing environment.
The grand finale was delivered by François Amblard of Vi Technology, with his presentation entitled “Leveraging inspection data in the industry 4.0 era”. Françoishighlighted the opportunities that have resulted from developments in computing power, data access and storage, making it possible for Giga bytes of data/images to be shared and analyzed through simple web access and thus transforming data into smart actionable process information that improve quality.
“We were pleased to hold the first InnovationsForum Hungary at the prestigious Academy of Sciences in Budapest,” said Andreas Hugel, Konradin Verlag. “We hope the conference provided attendees with important insights into the trends that are shaping the electronics manufacturing industry and also provided key networking opportunities.”
The InnovationsForum Hungary is one of three focused industry events organised by EPP & EMSNow, with the next one taking place on 21st September in Guadalajara Mexico, followed by the 5th InnovationsForum Boeblingen, Germany on 9th March, 2017.
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