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44 SMT Magazine • March 2016 Racks and standard shelving cannot do too much to streamline the above process. The ro- botic systems and Inovaxe's InoAuto system can eliminate the flow chart operations highlighted in yellow. The challenge with the robotic equip- ment is their size, which makes it impractical to place stock right next to the machines on which they are needed. The Inovaxe smart carts are ideal for point of use inventory storage be- cause they can hold over 3,300 reels in an 11'L x 1.25'W x 5.3'H space. One of InoAuto's clev- er features is that it can identify the parts you need in their feeder order. It can also identify the parts you need before a reel runs out on a feeder. The ROI on this type of automation can pay back the investment in less than six months in many cases. This product substantially im- proves the efficiency and throughput of loading the feeders, and running the SMT line. The next area with significant opportunity for improvement is returning reels to stock after the kit is finished going through the SMT line. I call it the material "black hole." Figure 4 shows a typical flowchart of this operation. The return of parts back to stock can often cause the most problems. Typically the job is done, the pressure of meeting demand is re- duced, and returning parts may have to wait until the material people are not very busy, so they have enough time to count parts and finding bin locations. This is a time-consuming and slow process for a typical shelf and bin op- eration. In the case of using vertical or carousel storage systems, the problem is the bottleneck. The input and output is typically through one person and the bottleneck can back up returns. It will take anywhere between 4–10 minutes per reel to count the inventory correctly, find the location, and place the parts in the bin. This is where the problem starts, as the parts that are not returned may be needed on another job, and, in some cases, they are all in a pile. Finding a particular part number in the pile is like find- ing a needle in a haystack. This operation typi- cally gets the least attention because everyone is working on new jobs. This is also the area in which, depending on the way WIP is accounted for, you may buy the same parts that you have in the pile, because you need it in your new job, and your MRP has lost track of it. Now, this has created more work for buyers to bring the parts in, and the program manager has to determine when you can ship the product and call the cus- tomer to reschedule the delivery, of course, af- ter expediting the part. Are they a true program manager, or an expensive expediter?! All of these also affect the accounting pro- cess, as the operation has to buy more material, Figure 3: Typical process chart for reloading feeders on the SMT machine. a PraCtICal guIdE to ManagIng MatErIal CoSt IMPaCt