Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1505694
AUGUST 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 19 ever, with their environmentally friendly fac- tory, the city officials have welcomed SEL, and the facility has already been honored with the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry Environmental Excellence Award. e manufacturing area is set up on an open floorplan with only a couple of processes— drill and route—in closed rooms. As you would expect, data automation is in full use here. Each panel starts off with a serial num- ber read by scanning equipment that con- nects with the MES to identify the job and program, and then loads that program onto the machine. SEL's in-house soware team builds and maintains these systems. ey also employ automation/integration soware engineers as well. Now, the goal of automation here was not to reduce headcount? John Hendrickson: Correct. at's not why we focused on automation; we automated first to drive quality. e number one defect at board shops is typically handling damage. So, how do you reduce that? You put in equipment, like we have from GreenSource and others, to help eliminate handling. Quite frankly, now our operators aren't just feeding panels on a line. ey're managing an entire line, and they're learning more about how those lines work and From left: GreenSource Engineering (GSE) double loader, photoresist strip line, GSE unloader. Laser etched barcoder for material traceability.