Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1088168
MARCH 2019 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 19 Barry: I bring this up because after recently touring the new GreenSource Fabrication fa- cility designed by Alex Stepinski, it's a smart factory designed to produce any panel at a lot size of one. Mauro: If you are making prototypes, that could make sense. ___________ Every company needs to tune their factory to meet their specific requirements. DSG is a high-mix, low-volume (again, for China) PCB manufacturer, and their smart factory will give them a lot of advantages. They produce a wide range of products that include demanding quality standards. Barry: The product mix you're producing here includes high layer count, high-density work, and rigid-flex, correct? Mauro: Yes. We're up to 26-layer rigid-flex dissi- paters, which are complex boards; it's also chal- lenging to manage them. High-end rigid-flex is a fast-growing demand for us, and a very good market. Of course, what is driving technologies is high frequency, high speed signal, signal in- tegrity, special materials with low loss applica- tions, embedded capacitors and resistors, tight registration, and heating dissipation. Cosmetic requirements are also an enormous challenge. This year has been the best year ever for the company. We reached record sales. The group and we're going to combine some process, this will minimize the utilization of AGVs. Barry: So, it can just be a simple transport con- veyor? Mauro: Whenever possible because AGV im- plies a longer distance to travel. From my view, AGV is the last option. If you cannot have an optimized layout, then you go to AGVs. Even more important is automation; without exten- sive automation in place industry 4.0 is mean- ingless. ___________ One key benefit of a smart factory is that it allows you to make process adjustments on the fly to improve yields and the overall quality. As a board goes through each step, the machines can automatically adjust based on real-time data it receives, allowing it to optimize each panel. This is a strong argument to build a fac- tory that produces at a lot size of one. When we stepped into the impressive drill room at DSG, I asked Mauro if he planned to retool the multiple spindle drills with single-head drill machines. This was his response: Mauro: No, we will use multiple heads. Barry: But don't you get more flexibility with single-head drill machines? Mauro: We are not planning for a lot size of one; our lot is mainly 40 panels. The cost dif- ference between a single-head and a six-head drill machine is approximately 35–40%. The footprint is much bigger with a single head. Barry: When you're doing a 4.0 factory, doesn't it make sense to consider building lot size of one because it gives you more flexibility? Mauro: I still believe that we'll work out an algorithm, but as I said, our ideal lot size is around 40 panels—not one. When you say a lot size of one, it is very theoretical. When you go to practice and make the data analysis, you can see that the ideal lot is 40 panels.