Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1541670
DECEMBER 2025 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 19 today, maybe more, but this is the majority. Let's say you have a traditional rack-and-bin sys- tem. Your rack has five rows. Within each of these rows, you have bins. The bin can be a location for a single part number or a range of part numbers. Depending on the situation, that range of part numbers could encompass a hundred different reels, comprising 50 different part numbers. You have to shuffle through this thing, and it's a fixed location for that part number. So, when you receive that reel, you have to go to that bin and place it in the exact slot. What happens when you get new part numbers? You have to move the bins over to create space. Managing the bins is a whole job on its own. It's archaic, disorganized, and laborious. Our system lights up to indicate the current location of the parts listed on the bill of materials. We use a system with sensors; one area is not assigned to a specific part number, but rather to any empty slot. This allows you to scan a part and place it in any available location and virtually eliminates the need to go to a specific bin in a designated loca- tion. You never have to worry about it again. By virtue of our pick-to-light system, the com- pany has a dynamic allocation system. If the slot is empty, anything can go there. Our local airport parking garage features sensors and lights. If a car is parked in a stall, the light above is red. If the spot is open, it's green, so I only bother driving down the aisles with green lights. Is it the same for pick-to-light, where you pull up the bill of materials, and all the current locations for parts light up? Exactly. I was talking about putting parts away, but picking is actually the most significant benefit. All day long, people are pulling from a pick list. They're going down the list in order because they don't know the locations for all 200 different part numbers for this work order. They will find the first part, then move through the entire facility for the second part, only to realize that part number three was back to where they started—they're "sharking" through the facilities. That's why it takes so long; they don't know where these parts are. Instead, we light up all the parts that they need, and they can pick them right there. These systems save space, but they also reduce labor by a sub- stantial amount of time. Rather than two to five minutes to find a single reel, it's reduced to three seconds. That's huge. Once an EMS shop gets produc- tivity and accuracy numbers like these on its shop floor, what's the ROI? It's typically three to six months. We have some customers who will come back and say it took a year and a half. Even still, most people look for ROIs in the five-year range for capital equipment. Based on our case studies, the ROI is within months. For a firm that has none of this sort of material handling automation, what do you recommend as their very first step? If they're not even labeling the reels with an internal number or a serial number, that will cause traceability and material handling issues all the way from receiving to finished goods, and affect every step of the process. If they do not serialize and internally label their parts, it is impossible to make improvements in traceability or process engineering. At the very least, they should be labeling parts with their own internal part numbers and serializing them. They should create a UID or a serial number per package. Once you have package-level traceability, then you can start thinking about how to control and manage your inventory. Once you have traceability, the next common pain point is typically picking from the warehouse. That takes the most time and takes up the most space. Those two improvements are the quickest way to an ROI, for sure. David, this has been very informative. Thank you. Excellent, happy to help. SMT007