Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1508761
36 SMT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2023 Vora: Absolutely. Darren is doing some fun things with changeovers. We're learning that when we get one of our highly skilled operators working as a changeover expert instead of an operator, we see improvements. We don't need him on the line; we need him as a floater. We thought, let's have him be our changeover guy. Matties: Did that change your overall view of employees and how they're functioning? You're talking about upskilling and finding real value in people, and that's the greatest asset you have. Vora: It is slowly changing our viewpoint every day. Carlson: We've moved toward having multi- tasking employees. Even though we might hire them as an SMT opera- tor, we're trying to find this cross-functioning working group that can go anywhere at any time. Johnson: What is your process for selecting new equipment? Vora: We're big on ref- erences. We build up a form and send it to them. It should take about 10 minutes to complete the form. e form handles the typical questions, allowing us to focus on the questions that really matter. Much of it is along the lines of how you rate the installation on a scale of one to five. How do you rate their support on a scale of one to five? If we find that referrals consistently say support is a five, we don't need to ask about it; we know what they will say. en we hone that conversation in on the thing we need to learn the most about that equipment. We're looking at two different manufactur- ers right now; one of them connected us with a company that used to have the same equip- ment as us. It was a very good conversation. We asked about their top three reasons for moving to a new AOI, and we found they had the same problems we had. is machine was solving those problems for them: false calls, good data, good SPC soware. But even bet- ter, they'd already been integrated with a cou- ple of the MES partners we're considering. at's a big deal. We always ask the referral if they have an operator sitting there all the time. Did this new equipment put you in a position where you don't need an operator anymore? is is impor- tant because it means they trust the machine to do its job. If someone is always there, they don't have trust in it. Do they have con- fidence that the AOI equipment is deliver- ing the value that it's meant to deliver? Right now, we're looking at two vendors with very different technologies to interpret the board data. One of them has a unique approach on how to do AOI—laser-based plus 2D. Which technol- ogy offers a better result when it comes to that inspection? Carlson: Our biggest challenge now is self-inflicted. We have four AOIs for three lines. ey're all the same ven- dor, but they all have different field-of-view cameras, and two of them have different so- ware packages. We're looking for continuity between lines; standardization with one pro- gram shared amongst machines. We're look- ing more at the big picture, long-term stuff to achieve that next level. We've moved toward having multitasking employees.