In an independent global survey of SMT manufacturers (Independent customer survey carried out by the international management consultancy firm Arthur D. Little for Micronic Mydata AB), Mydata found that many of the classic production challenges facing low-volume, high-mix producers have now reached a “tipping point” for higher volume producers as well. The survey revealed that several key challenges are common to low-, mid- and high-volume producers: changeover efficiency, quality, line utilization, stock accuracy and reducing the cost per mounted component. The findings underscored the fact that the traditional path toward higher productivity – longer runs, few interruptions – was becoming a thing of the past. The findings also revealed that many producers using traditional high-speed equipment had lower productivity than others using flexible equipment designed for high-mix production. Based on these insights, the global innovator of surface mount solutions presented new solutions to meet these growing challenges at Productronica 2013 in Munich, Germany. The company showed a new series of MY200 placement machines that elevates the level of performance offered by the company’s pick-and-place solutions. Equipped with new high-performance vision systems and mount heads, the new machine series enable highly accurate placement repeatability of chip components below 30µm at 3-sigma. Hardware and software advancements that combined provide higher throughput, higher accuracy and improved line utilization. The study indicated that, irrespective of production volumes, global electronic producers are continuously working on ways to improve efficiency through the reduction of excess stock, just-in-time production and integrated software tools. Many noted that these factors are key to handling a greater number of job changeovers every day, while still maintaining high line utilization with favorable profitability.
“Today’s electronics producers do not want to make trade-offs between speed and flexibility,” says Robert Göthner, General Manager Business Area SMT at Micronic Mydata. “Many have expanded their customer bases to include a diversity of customers with wide-ranging needs. In the morning, they’re mounting ten high-value boards for a demanding application; the same day they’re doing a thousand PCBs for mainstream electronic products.” According to Göthner, the issue is not about “high speed” or “low speed.” Instead, producers are being challenged to be responsive, flexible and productive – no matter what the batch size or type of product. He adds that tomorrow’s production lines will need to “shape-shift” from small-scale new product introductions (NPI) to full-scale volume production – and back again.
“We see a perfect match between this growing need and our fully integrated automated factory solutions,” says Göthner, who points out that customers are becoming increasingly demanding. “There is no room for excesses – nobody wants to be stuck with excess staff for kitting, excess components or excess downtime.” High-mix thinking is coming into its own, says Mydata, whether manufacturing for the medical or aerospace industries or communications and automotive sectors.
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