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MARCH 2022 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 73 it is ready to use for the customer's next order saves time and ensures accuracy for future orders. Case Study: Improving the BOM Process e following is an example of how this tool has been used by BMK Group, a pro- vider of electronic engineering and manufac- turing services for the life cycle of electronic assemblies. e company's service portfo- lio includes the development, manufactur- ing, and end-of-life management of electronic assemblies and finished units for customers in the industrial, energy, vehicle, telecom, and medical sectors (Figure 2). Headquartered in Augsburg, Germany, the company's oper- ations include facilities in the Czech Repub- lic, Israel, and China. As a pioneer in the field of manufacturing automation, BMK was recently awarded Germany's Digital Cham- pion Prize by Focus Money Magazine for the industrial sector based on its commitment to digitally transforming operations, business models, and company culture. Given the industry trend toward high-mix, low-volume production, BMK faces the chal- lenge of fulfilling more frequent NPIs and engi- neering change orders (ECOs) while attempt- ing to increase efficiency and maintain profit- ability levels. To accomplish this, it expanded its digitization efforts to include manually per- formed manufacturing processes. BMK is a regular participant in Valor's roundtable meetings sponsored by Siemens and its regional partner, CircuitByte, to con- sult with other PCB assembly specialists on how to improve operational efficiency via auto- mation. During these meetings, Siemens and CircuitByte offered to replace BMK's legacy Unicam NPI tool with Valor Process Prepara- tion soware. Robert Rudolph, BMK's head of process enhancement and senior NPI project leader (Figure 3), explained, "e decision to adopt the Valor system was a 'no-brainer' because of its extensive NPI feature set and comprehen- sive parts library." ey integrated Valor Pro- cess Preparation into their process flow for Figure 2: SMT line and production and assembly at BMK Group.