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August, 2018
The Hybrid Digital-Physical Future of Electronics Assembly
T
he majority of today’s consumer electronics are supplied from Asia, primarily through contract manufacturers who rely heavily on
manual assembly. This is a ripe market for automation, and a clear trend. As Chinese labor costs continue to escalate in
a similar way to Japan’s manufacturing landscape in the 1970s and 1980s, more offshoring is being transferred to lower-cost labor markets in Southeast Asia. In particular, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam are seeing a growth in manufacturing volume. However, as these coun- tries begin to experience the same kind of labor cost increases, the market will inevitably demand the use of higher-level automation and the use of collaborative robots.
Reshoring Opportunities The development and advancements made
in robotics and automation are presenting new opportunities for U.S. reshoring. This can be seen in the recent decision by Foxconn to locate a major manufacturing facility in Southeastern Wisconsin, with an additional facility planned for Michigan. Foxconn, along with five other contract
manufacturers, supplies more than 60 percent of the electronics market and works closely with
As labor costs increase, the
electronics manufacturing market is demanding the use of higher-level automation and collaborative robots.
leading consumer device OEMs, such as Samsung, Apple, Huawei, and LG.
The Siemens PLC factory in Amberg, Germany, is a fully digital factory, where production is automated and the products communicate constantly with the machines.
Mechatronic Concept Designer, which allows the creation of a “digital twin” to pretest manufactur- ing scenarios in the real world. In cooperation with the Siemens PL
Electronics team, the company’s partners will ben- efit from the increased value added by virtualiza- tion and simulation. Coupled with strong application engineering
and support teams, such approaches enable full simulation of a manufacturing and material han-
By Phil Aponte, Business Development Manager — Electronics Assembly, Siemens Digital Factory In response to this trend, Siemens and sever-
al other companies are establishing technical cen- ters to work closely with Silicon Valley innovators, right at the source. The Siemens Technical Center will offer programs to provide proof-of-concept val- idation and fully leverage the company’s automa- tion and digitalization tools. These include the
dling flow, before the first machine frame is formed. As a result, new concepts are pioneered and proven with full repeatability and faster return on investment.
Cloud-Based Support Today, many end users are seeking a com-
plete machine solution, including full-line inte- gration for brownfield installations, cybersecuri- ty, networking of the entire process chain, including legacy equipment, as well as increased data analytics. This can only be accomplished through strong partnerships with key system integrators. To support these partnerships, Siemens
offers its cloud-based Mindsphere program, where a global base of installed machinery and equipment can be monitored for performance, process validation, comparable machine metrics and information gathering for predictive main- tenance. Siemens is well-positioned to meet the
market trend toward digitalization at all levels of the digital transformation process. The end customer expectation is that a supplier must bring their customers a complete range of digital factory equipment, software and communica-
tions strategies and use all these technologies in their own manufacturing. Siemens’ facilities in Amberg, Germany, and
Chenzhou, China, are prime examples, where the manufacturing of PLCs, PCBs and surface mount technologies combine the real and virtual worlds. Products communicate with machines and all pro- duction processes are optimally integrated and controlled through IT. These facilities have both
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