Cycling Around

Reading time ( words)

Well, it’s tough to beat last month’s focus on the great things happening in automotive electronics, which was a lot of fun to read. But we still have work to do. Yeah, it’s time to focus inward again and beat down a few more alligators. We focus on cycle time reduction in this issue, and that’s a bugaboo for everyone. I’ve been thinking about it and I truly can’t come up with a scenario, at least in business, when a longer cycle time is better than shorter.

And it’s not just about manufacturing, though that is the first thing that always comes to mind. In fact, while we can talk about the cycle time of an isolated process, we also have to think about the overall cycle time, from start to finish, or from initial order to final shipment, or from initial sales contact through delivery to customer. Whatever the process or system that you choose to focus on, we have assembled experts from many parts of the PCB fab industry to help you address cycle time reduction (CTR).

In preparation for this issue, we did a survey of our readers to find out what issues they are having with CTR and the results were…interesting. While almost everyone said reducing cycle time was very important, methods for dealing with problem areas were all over the map. By that I mean the tools used ranged from brute force to time/motion studies to value stream mapping and everything in between. When we asked about bottlenecks, again, the entire PCB process was covered, from sales/marketing to front-end engineering and on through every process step, including final test.

When we asked what you wanted to learn, the answer was everything! You want tips on everything from improving efficiencies to new techniques and best practices. I think we can help with that right here and now in this issue. But if we do miss something, be sure to check our sister magazines, SMT Magazine and The PCB Design Magazine, which cover cycle time reduction in their respective topic areas.

Read The Full Article Here

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of The PCB Magazine.

02/17/2021 | Kurt Palmer, Bürkle North America

The concepts of statistical process control were initially developed by Dr. Walter Shewhart of Bell Laboratories in the 1920s, and were expanded upon by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who introduced SPC to Japanese industry after WWII. After early successful adoption by Japanese firms, SPC has now been incorporated by organizations around the world as a primary tool to improve product quality by reducing process variation.

02/16/2021 | Bob MacRae, Taiyo America

Everyone wants a smooth-running solder mask process with high productivity and minimal rejects, but to achieve this you really need a firm understanding of what your current process is capable of, what its limitations are, and what you want to improve. Process capability benchmarking is a great way to identify and implement improvements within your process.

01/20/2021 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007

It really doesn’t matter who you think your external competitors are, because the only competitor that really matters is you. Of course, you will look externally to stay on top of latest trends, but when it comes to competition, just competing with yourself is a win. When you look at yourself as your greatest competitor you will start with a huge advantage: you already have great intel on how “your competition” thinks. Ask yourself, “What can I do to displace my ‘competitor’ and create something much better?”