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38 SMT Magazine • December 2014 mizing the three dimensions related to machine performance, and then thinking secondarily about delivery requirements, optimize the top three most significant dimensions first, leaving the relatively trivial SMT machine program as the second step. This approach crucially al- lows the simultaneous optimi- zation of the product mix for delivery and optimization of material grouping, qualified against the constraints and capabilities of the specific lines. The final optimization for the SMT machines can be performed with minimal risk of failure and high degree of expectation for machine se- quence efficiency. In this way, the focus of the optimiza- tion as a whole is product de- livery as it should be, but in this case of SMT, it is no lon- ger hindered by assumptions and constraints made at the machine and line optimization stage. This type of specialist SMT shop-floor plan- ning optimization software is now available, made possible by the access to key information about the operational status and progress of the shop-floor, materials availability, the engi- neering setup of each product, and the current customer delivery requirement. Having this in- formation available electronically means that planning is not something that is done perhaps once every month or three months. Instead, it can be incrementally changing, a rolling plan repeated every day if necessary, bringing the flexibility to respond to changes in require- ments almost immediately. Limitations in the availability, accuracy, and timeliness of data on the shop-floor have thwarted the creation of such live planning optimization technology in the past. It has led to the momentum of the machine-centric optimization model that actu- ally does not make sense because it is rarely an optimization of the factory based on what the customer needs. This is the critical issue that now has been solved. The New World Orders You might be thinking that this seems like a fairly insignificant change, not really something grand enough to trigger a change in the way that the market works, even where companies choose to be located. Wrong! The ability to model and optimize the SMT fac- tory based on customer needs is the solution to the trend in the market where the factory is now expected to be responsive to customer delivery demands, brought about by the many fac- tors including the reduction or elimination of the distribution chain. Saving costs of distribu- tion in a way that allows the fac- tory to remain efficient exceeds in many cases the incremental costs of labor, comparing low- and high-cost locations. This is the key initial factor to allow manufacturing to come back on-shore, which could make manufacturing "sexy" again. With amazing strides in automa - tion (the real robots are coming!), the streamlined flexible operation making fash- ionable electronics products based on latest tech- nologies is an exciting place to be. Whether existing OEM companies take this initiative, or once again creative and competi- tive EMS companies provide opportunity, or indeed like the Chinese entrepreneurs, the ad- vantage is taken by new players coming into the market, we can start to establish a new para- digm of on-shore manufacturing. The whole in- dustry could be reborn. Just as well if you think about it because there is already a great deal of labor around now that the distribution side of the industry has been waning rapidly. This is where it all comes together again. SmT THE ESSEnTiAl pionEEr'S SurvivAl guiDE THe FUTUre OF SmT: WeLcOme TO THe 4 TH dImeNSION continues Michael Ford is senior marketing development manager with valor division of Mentor Graph- ics Corporation. To read past columns, or to contact the author, click here. The ability to model and optimize the SMT factory based on customer needs is the solution to the trend in the market where the factory is now expected to be responsive to customer delivery demands, brought about by the many factors including the reduction or elimination of the distribution chain. " "