Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/579391
32 SMT Magazine • October 2015 just keep on working with our customers so that our equipment will not be the bottleneck. Las Marias: what about cycle time's impact on cost, especially now with the increasing cost of testing or inspection? Koike: Of course, the faster the inspection time is, the lower the cost will be. But also this de- pends on what the customers are manufactur- ing. For example, satellite and aerospace indus- tries—inspection is a must. And they need to see everything before they launch the rocket, for instance. But when it comes to mobile, it's the other way around. They can't see every sin- gle thing in their components. So in that case, we often offer 2D AOI, 3D AOI and if it's 3D AOI, and they only need 2D AOI, the cost will be substantially lower than X-ray inspection. Las Marias: Finally, nori, they are saying that automation will improve the processes in the production line. and i think it will also be able to help manufacturers reduce their cycle times. Can you please give your comments on that? Koike: We keep on developing the latest tech- nologies in inspection. But at the end, I think the inspection will be much closer to the mea- surement. The reason why I say this is because the equipment cost is directly related to the cost of our customers. That's not the only issue. If the equipment is in place, it reduces the cost of labor, then that will be another story. Right now, the inspection needs a lot of pro- gramming and a lot of people surrounding the SMT to actually run the line. But if the mea- surement comes in, it will be much less effort to make the actual programming, and it will be a lot more effort to actually redo all the NG boards. So at the end, if we can start providing the latest technology, which will be the mea- surement, then this measurement technology will start contributing to a more efficient pro- duction, and it will be much more easier for our customers to shrink their cost. Las Marias: what can you say about the future of the aoi industry? Koike: It is very much closely related to SMT and a part of the SMT industry. SMT is starting to go in the direction of a smart factory, with all of the equipment linked together. We will fol- low this trend, not only with one manufactur- er, but a lot of manufacturers, so that it can be linked with any kind of machine. With AOI, it will be the same; AOI is the inspection machine, installed after the printer, after the mounter, af- ter the reflow, so there's basically not only SMT, but the THT process, for a total of at least three, maybe five inspections during manufacturing. But the inspection equipment itself will inspect and that's all that one machine can provide. If you start linking all of these, and have some time for big data, we can analyze what is hap- pening in the line and feedback much more useful information to the printers or mounting machines. So we, and a lot of AOI manufactur- ers, are starting to aim in that direction, to pro- vide a much more efficient inspection result in the line. Las Marias: thank you very much, nori. Koike: Thank you, Stephen. SMt FeATure inTerview cycLe tIMe reductIon In the eye oF AoI norihiko Koike, cOO of Saki co. ltd