Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/674146
16 SMT Magazine • May 2016 spective, what can you say about managing the material components? Naugler: We have large users that have installed our XQuik with AccuCount system in multiple locations that tell us that they see a return on in- vestment from the reduction in actual handling and requirement for a number of operators, and their return on investment is between three and five months, which is very fast. But the other part that is a little more qualitative and hard to track is how does it help them on the production line? But what we see, using the older methods is these reels that need to be counted will sit on the production floor for days, sometimes a week, waiting to go back in inventory. And if that is not going back to inventory, that is inventory that they can't use. With this new technology, they turn this around much faster. It is turned around in hours, not days. So now, they are max - imizing utilization of their inventory as well. Las Marias: You mentioned one of the trends now is automation and Industry 4.0. What can you say about that? Is there hype there? Naugler: There is a lot of excitement; I don't know if hype is the right word, but yes I think it is going to be important that people do address this requirement coming down the road. For us, we've never been mainline. We are not in the produc- tion stream per se, we are always on the side—do- ing repair, doing inspection—so you won't see us the same way that you would see a screen printer or a pick-and-place in-line. But, they are looking for us to do the same sort of thing with automa- tion just to streamline that process as well. I think it gives us a little bit more time to get it done, but it is going to have to happen. Las Marias: So what can you say about the future of your industry? Naugler: That is the $64,000 question, isn't it? It's really interesting. You see the technol- ogy being driven down in terms of component size, and you see people now talking about the 03015 passive components, where just a year or two ago, they were questioning the viability of the 01005s. Now, that has become common- place and they are looking to go smaller and smaller. And the level of integration on some of the active components is going up. So it is really pushing the demand on the equipment supplier to be able to do exactly what's needed to make a reliable product and not even have a small hiccup in the production. It all comes down to accuracy and repeat- ability. I think that is going to be the key to coming up with a successful process, but I think that the automation is going to lend itself in there, too. When you expect an operator to handle some of these smaller components and smaller assemblies and so on, it becomes even more difficult, so we really are going to have to start relying on that automation and inline conveyor and simple motion solutions as well. Las Marias: Don, do you have anything that we haven't talked about that you think we should be talking about? Naugler: Well, I do just want to kind of reiter- ate where we started, and I want to thank you, I want to thank the IPC for another great year. As I said earlier, I think that everything seems to be in a positive direction now. I hope that is kind of an indicator that is going to tell us that we are all looking forward to a very good year. Las Marias: Great, thank you very much. Naugler: All right, thank you. SMT StRatEgiES to REducE Handling ERRoRS in YouR REwoRk PRocESS Figure 2: Installing advanced systems can help companies achieve RoI from the reduction in actual handling and requirement for a number of operators.