Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1508761
32 SMT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2023 inventory management, it jumpstarted our next generation of changes. Now we're in a growth phase. We've nailed down 60% of our processes, and we continue doing that work. Johnson: You just alluded to finding a lot of benefit in digitizing inventory management. You're actively looking at changing inspec- tion. Can you quantify or characterize how this improves your profitability? Vora: Let's just look at AOI. Do we need some- one sitting there, or can it be more "zone" than "man-to-man" defense? When we can make those changes, we'll see improvement. Really, though, the goal is to figure out how we can place more parts. e goal is overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). How do we get the most efficient operation in terms of OEE? We generate revenue when the line places parts. Every single time that machine is down, we stop making revenue. at's why our goal cen- ters around OEE. at is, except for rework, where you want the opposite. If we're super- efficient on the line, but we have a ton of rework, that's not where we want to be. at's where AOI will play a role in real-time factory awareness, so that boards aren't going into rework while the machine is still placing parts. We started by making sure that material quantities were extremely accurate so that the machines could always place parts. Now that we have that wrapped up, we need AOI and MES to really be the players in terms of let- ting us know how the line is performing in real time. How fast can we get it on and off the line without rework? Johnson: Are you doing inbound inspection? Vora: Not as much. We have a lot of faith in our authorized suppliers. It's very rare they send us the wrongly unlabeled NPN with the wrong part inside the sleeve. Carlson: It's almost zero—maybe a handful of times in 10 years. Vora: We do inspection on first-time PCBs; we'll usually get the bare boards inspected. It works out well when you buy from authorized vendors. Matties: When you think of test and inspec- tion, what concerns you the most? Vo r a : I t ' s a s c a r y moment when the first b oard do e s n't pa s s that first test. e big- gest fear is placing the w rong 0201 dow n— the one that's 100 per b o a r d — b e c a u s e t h e resistor looks exactly li ke the o ther re s i s- tor. ose are the fears w e h a v e m o r e t h a n whether it's going to pass test. e first article is a very big deal. We're lit- erally picking up every single part off the board, measuring it with some smart tweezers, and putting it back on the board. We're measuring every single ref- erence designator. We do an initial AMI to match all the publications, all the case mark- ings. First article inspection is where we put a lot of emphasis. Even before that, our incom- ing material station (IMS)—a table with a glass top that has a camera built-in under- neath—is taking a picture of every single reel as it comes in; we're using the metadata off the reel to fill in our database with the data from that reel. We're tr ying to proactively We have a lot of faith in our authorized suppliers.