From the inside: STI ElectrInterviewonics
product versus the drive to miniaturization fewer issues in first article inspection to provide designer and manufacturers
for a bleeding edge cell phone or PDA and therefore higher asset utilization and complete visibility to their processes, in a
design. The design rules are very different overall quality. simple and flexible software environment,
and while Valor is considered to be experts so that key process indicators can be
in design to manufacturing processes, it Q6. vPlan takes this one step further tracked and process improvements
would be impossible to develop one set of and optimizes multiple lines in a factory. and adjustments can be made quickly,
rules to meet everyone’s needs, hence the How does it handle different lines efficiently and in the areas where it will
flexible tools to allow our customers to configurations with different equipment have the most benefit to the efficiency and
develop their own DFM constraints to be vendors? productivity of the operation. It really is
used in our software. about visibility and this is where Valor is
The Valor vPlan solution is fully capable
focused, to be able to provide this visibility
of optimizing and line balancing on
Q4. You have products called vPlan and to our customers so they can make sound
mixed vendor lines. This capability
Trilogy 5000. Is vPlan an alternative to decisions on how to improve operational
is unique to the Valor offering and is
Trilogy 5000? efficiency, in real time.
a result of our partnerships with the
Not exactly; while the two products many SMT vendors in the market as
Q9. You were always identified as a high-
are highly integrated, today they are well as our internal developer’s intimate
end, tier one supplier, but your latest
independent products serving different knowledge of SMT machine modeling and
advertising campaigns are emphasizing
purposed in the NPI process. Trilogy optimization algorithms. We have some
the fact that Valor software is affordable
5000 is the most comprehensive design very smart people in Finland that develop
for smaller EMS companies. What is the
for manufacturing or “DFM” software optimization algorithms that make an SMT
smallest size of company that would be
available in the market. It is the machine and complete mixed vendor line
able to afford Valor and what would they
industry standard for analyzing a PCB really hum.
get for their investment?
design to verify the manufacturability
of the bare board and the populated Q7. vCheck and vManage are your latest Historically, the cost for the Valor
board. The system has over 700 unique shop floor control and quality MES solutions was prohibitive for smaller
checks; ensuring printed circuit boards systems. Can you explain how they work? companies to engage with us. It is a very
are developed and introduced into important part of our strategy now to work
vCheck is a software application that is
manufacturing with the highest quality and with small and medium size EMS and
used directly on the factory floor in a PCB
yields. OEM companies market. We have found
assembly manufacturing operation and
vPlan is Valor’s new product the smaller companies very often have
provides capabilities which include work in
introduction software, reading CAD files, the same challenges and goals for process
process tracking, enforced routing control
Gerber files, bills of materials and a whole improvements as the big boys. To this end,
for all processes, quality data collection
host of other CAD and CAM formats and the functionalities in the products have
directly from machines or manual stations
producing all of the necessary parametric been focused on value for both the small
and data analysis and comprehensive
information to drive the factory floor. and large customers and as important,
reporting.
This includes, machine programming, we have recently introduced several new
Our vManage application also is also
optimization, line balancing, product commercial pricing models with the goal
used directly on the factory floor and
grouping for minimizing changeovers in simplifying the products and of being able
provides complete materials management
high mix environments, a virtual sticky to provide solutions that are scalable in
control, production monitoring, SMT
tape application and a complete system for price and function so that companies of
setup verification and full process
creation and paperless delivery and viewing all sizes can benefit from the software we
traceability.
of work instructions and documentation. develop.
The combined vCheck and vManage
So in summary, Trilogy 5000 is
solutions provide our customers with a
a software solution for DFM analysis Q10. Do you have data showing the
comprehensive shop floor control and
and vPlan is a software solution for performance improvements for smaller
quality management solution that gives
machine programming, optimization and EMS companies and the likely ROI?
them the visibility and control of their
documentation.
manufacturing operations with the goal of We promote and then substantiate that
achieving the highest asset utilization while any company should be able to have less
Q5. The virtual sticky tape module
maintaining the highest possible quality than a year return on investment after a
provides corrective action for equipment
levels. successful implementation of our software.
on the line. Is this optimization done
Many times we see a ROI period of six
automatically, or manually?
months or even less. It depends on the
Virtual sticky tape is a functionality in Q8. In today’s dynamic environment, scale of the problem the customer is trying
our vPlan software that allows a user to do you think that having an enterprise- to solve.
simulate the machine part placements with level production software is essential to
the goal of performing first article debug driving up efficiencies in productivity and Thank you for your time, Dan.
off line and not tying up valuable machine lowering scrap?
time to check component offsets and Trevor Galbraith.
I do, Trevor. In today’s market everything
rotations, common problems seen in a new
is driven by efficiencies. Margins are so
product introduction. Our vPlan software
tight, especially in the EMS sector, and to
allows the user to perform this verification
be efficient an operation needs to have
up front in the process, resulting in
visibility. It is Valor’s goal to be able
www.globalsmt.net Global SMT & Packaging – August 2009 – 31
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