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Many see traceability as a burden to the manufacturing process, and having to comply or conform to yet another process or standard is not considered a good day in the [...]

There has never been a standard for traceability in the electronics assembly industry. Crazy, right? Instead, traceability is thought of as expensive, complex, unreliable, incomplete, a threat to business and [...]

It is not a new phenomenon. Automation within manufacturing has long caused concern as to how it replaces assembly work that had been the domain of humans. Today, this feels [...]

Since the start of SMT production, the optimization of machine programs has been one of the most interesting challenges in software engineering. With the amount of flexibility available from today's [...]

As one of the developers of the first Lean, just-in-time (JIT) material logistics systems for electronics assembly back in the early 1990s, I can say this genuinely 'smart,' computerized, Lean [...]

The expectation for digital innovation in electronics manufacturing is growing significantly. Examples of real-world IoT technology in action--for example, at the Fraunhofer 'Future Packaging' line at SMT Nuremberg last month--demonstrate [...]

IT HAS BEEN years since the concept of Lean production came to PCB manufacturing. After making impressive strides in the final assembly stages, the tide seems to have ceased when [...]

A study was conducted to examine the behaviors that compose safety performance and the factors that affect human safety performance. Statistics show that almost 4.2 million Americans suffered nonfatal work-related injuries. It is concluded that human behaviors can play a critical role in the prevention and avoidance of accidents and injuries.

THE TERM KAIZEN originated as a Japanese word, literally translating as 'good change,' but in common usage it means the continuous improvement of processes and practices. 'Refinement,' then. A great [...]

MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEMS (MES) software solutions bring a needed level of management and control to the shop floor, but are often perceived as too expensive for smaller companies. Yes, the [...]

MUCH IS WRITTEN about Kanban, which is essentially meant to be a simple technology to create a pull-based operation. One thing Kanban does effectively is communicate the 'need' or 'demand' [...]

AS FACTORIES BECOME more automated, more elements within manufacturing could go wrong if maintenance is not performed correctly. Even so, the risk of failure is seldom as much of a [...]

WHEN WE THINK of 'Lean' we think of the analysis and removal of all waste from a process or set of connected operations. Often though, unless considering the factory operation [...]

THERE ARE TWO faces of traceability. Either traceability enables serious market defects to be quantified and analyzed, saving significant cost, business loss and professional embarrassment, or the process of collecting [...]

'LEAN,' AS APPLIED to production processes, often leads to change in the flow of an operation. The same can be seen when applying the principles of Lean thinking to manufacturing [...]

IN ELECTRONICS ASSEMBLY manufacturing the principles of Lean are most often thought of in context with the optimization of specific processes on the shop-floor. Lean thinking can be applied far [...]

WHILE THE THEORY of the pull signal sounds simple --to not waste effort, do something only when it is necessary--the implementation of the pull mechanism introduces issues that need to [...]

WHAT DO PEOPLE really think when they hear the term 'Internet of Things?' The Internet carries with it varying perspectives and experiences, meaning different things for different people. The term [...]