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22 SMT Magazine • March 2016 or at least a limited common setup where the more variable materials would be available on a "hot-swap" basis. This compromise, however, is often no better than the problem. With multiple trolleys dedicated to differ- ent individual products or groups of products, the amount of material on the shop-floor in- creases rapidly. This additional material needs to be paid for, and it also needs to be managed. Those materials cannot be stored on the shop- floor on trolleys for a long time because many components being sensitive to moisture. De- fects caused by moisture-sensitive components increase significantly when materials are stored on the shop-floor trolleys, again often hidden from management reporting because of the variable nature of defect symptoms. Additional material management and logis- tics are needed to manage materials, including baking and taking them to and from the dry store. The space required to store all of the trol- leys on the shop-floor reduces the space avail- able for additional SMT machine lines. Even the investment in the additional feeders that are required to hold the materials on all of the trolleys, which can cost around $1,000 each, is a significant additional cost. No matter what clever ideas come along, one way or another, the cost to the SMT op- eration of high-mix production with smaller lot sizes is extremely significant, resulting in over- all manufacturing cost contribution that can be double or triple the cost compared to the time when automated SMT production lines were dedicated to high-volume products without fre- quent changeovers. Is this the kind of environ- ment into which we can simply introduce more automation and expect to have a genuine and swift return on investment? automation needs computerization to work smarter and faster Introducing a new piece of automation into SMT assembly is like trying to drive a Ferrari though a major city center at rush hour. With all of the traffic competing to get ahead, and the multitude of stop lights, the performance and capability of the Ferrari is not going to help much. Haven't we all wished at some time or another that we had one of those fabled "click- ers" that can be used to change the traffic lights to green just as we approach them? That would certainly speed up progress through the city, while adding only a mild inconvenience for ev- eryone else. This is actually analogous to what needs to happen in SMT manufacturing. With communication between all devices and processes on the shop-floor (an Internet of manufacturing), software computerization can take all of the relevant information, such as the progress of production, the status of the pro- cesses, and even process data such as test results and inspection images, to start the automa- tion of various management processes. It can also take information from the supply chain, engineering, and quality. Computer software can then do in a few seconds what would likely cause a nervous breakdown for a human plan- ner: create live optimization and simulation of the whole shop-floor operation. This would ensure the best flow of products through all of the automated processes, grouping products based on delivery schedule, while ensuring or- ders were completed on-time and that all ma- terials and other resources were available when needed. The computerization is able to go far further that any human would be capable of, even with the aid of Microsoft Excel, with the ability to look at future delivery demands, simulate run- rates and changeovers, and compare machine and line capabilities against the different prod- ucts to intelligently "direct traffic" around the " Even the investment in the additional feeders that are required to hold the materials on all of the trolleys, which can cost around $1,000 each, is a significant additional cost. " thE buyEr'S guIdE to autoMatIon