February, 2020
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tech.com
Achieving “QualFiciency” in a High-Mix EMS Environment
By Meng Gao, Quality/Process Engineer, and Gary Walker, Vice President, Javad EMS
customers that need prototype through volume production from a single source. Today, the compa- ny is a thriving, full-service contract electronics manufacturer providing leading-edge, high-quality products. Javad EMS practices “QualFiciency,” the coex-
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istence of excellent quality while maximizing per- formance efficiency in a “smart” way, tailored to its established material and manufacturing systems. In the past, EMS providers have been chal-
lenged with the dilemma of optimiz- ing efficiencies throughout produc- tion, but not at the expense of quali- ty. The wave of Industry 4.0 and the smart factory in recent years has changed in many aspects the way we can integrate material systems, equipment and manufacturing processes. Many EMS companies, especial-
ly high-mix factories, after attempt- ing to embrace this smart technology, found out the costly capital invest- ments and the massive overhaul of their existing material handling sys- tems, MES, and manufacturing processes was not easily achievable. Similar to other high-mix EMS
companies, Javad runs multiple products in varying volumes across five SMT lines every day. Implement- ing a complete, ready-to-use, smart factory system would have required a massive capital investment, with a move away from everything the com- pany has invested in and implement- ed over the past 10
years.The chal- lenge was to bridge the benefits of the aspects of the new smart factory and established manufacturing technolo- gies and processes. The company overcame this challenge by reinvent- ing its existing systems in four areas.
Automated Material Storage Systems
SMT equipment has made signif-
icant improvements in process capa- bilities. However, focus on improving automated material solutions has been lacking. With the miniaturiza- tion of parts and the use of more com- plex packages, it is not possible to re- place machines with people placing parts. But, many feel to this day that more effective materials flow manage- ment inside the four walls of the facto- ry is a matter of throwing bodies at it. EMS companies have had to use
their own material handling systems to manage material movements throughout
the manufacturing
process, including kitting and work- in-progress return. Material picklists in Excel or PDF documents have been widely used for identifying WIP ma- terials in many EMS companies. They must also use the machine manufacturer’s operating systems for the SMT placement programs and feeder set up. By mapping out the manufac-
turing material flow chart, non-val- ue-added processes can be identified easily. At Javad EMS, SMT assembly is considered a value-added process. Material handling processes include kitting, WIP referencing and WIP re- turn, which are unavoidable low-val- ue-added processes. Feeder set up is an improvable non-value-added process, which was
See at IPC APEX, Booth 1851 Implementing smart material handling
systems significantly reduced Javad’s kitting and feeder set up time.
avad EMS is a San Jose, California,-based EMS company founded to focus on low- to medium-volume, high-mix applications for
also found to be a bottleneck for the company. Javad’s operators had to handle each part at least twice, during feeder set up and operation. The first handling step was to search the ma-
chine and feeder positions in the placement pro- gram for each part number. The second handling step was to physically set up the package (reel or tube) on the feeder and place it in the designated position. These two steps were caused by a gap be- tween the existing material handling system and the machine operation programs, such as place- ment and feeder set up.
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