We live in an era in which everything is becoming digitalized and connected via networks, increasing the value it offers. Demand for printed-circuit boards, essential components for diverse electronic devices, is expected to continue to rise. To meet this rising demand, manufacturing sites face the challenge of improving the efficiency of their production lines. To address this issue, it is important to collect, visualize, and analyze operating status data from production line equipment. In this issue, we will look at the issues faced by surface-mount technology lines (SMT lines) for printed-circuit boards and Toshiba Digital Solutions' Process Improvement Assist Package for SMT Lines, which helps address these issues. This product is perfect for companies engaged in high-mix, small-lot printed circuit board (PCB) production using SMT lines with devices from multiple equipment manufacturers.

We are now in the age of the IoT, in which all kinds of things are connected via the internet. Many of the products used in people's daily lives are being digitalized. One element that makes this trend possible is the use of printed circuit boards (PCBs). In PCBs, electronic components, integrated circuits, connecting metal wires, and other components used in electronic devices are densely mounted on circuit boards. PCBs are widely used in vehicles, in the electrical components of electrical products such as appliances and smartphones, and more. Electronics manufacturing services (EMSs) mount these electronic components on PCBs using surface-mount technology (SMT). This is a field with high growth expectations. There is data* that shows that from 2024 to 2032, the market scale of these EMSs will likely grow by more than 7% each year, on average.

*Reference: Market Scale of Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) in 2032 (fortunebusinessinsights.com)

To improve production line productivity, it is important to rapidly collect data such as production volume, defect numbers, equipment operation times, and other operation status data, to analyze this data, and to improve quality and equipment operation rates. However, for many SMT lines in use today, although data is output from equipment and saved in connected industrial computers, these computers are seldom connected to networks. Furthermore, different equipment manufacturers output different data in different formats, which also hinders data collection and utilization.

The first tasks that must be tackled are collecting the data output by the equipment used in SMT lines and converting the data from the diverse output formats used by differing equipment into a unified format.

For data to be collected, interfaces must be prepared for each equipment manufacturer. This enables data to be collected consistently from lines containing equipment from differing manufacturers. Furthermore, even similar data output from different devices is sometimes referred to by different names (using different data item names), or its granularity can differ, with some data being reported in units of minutes while other data is reported in units of hours. This heterogeneous data must be converted into a uniform, easy-to-use format and stored in a shared database.

After this data is collected and formatted consistently, it can be used to assess current conditions and help improve production efficiency. Visualizing equipment operation rates, the ratio of equipment refitting time to equipment operation time, component transportation and identification error rates, discard rates, and the like assists in making SMT line improvements (Fig. 1). Site staff, site managers, and business managers all need access to different information, so it is also important that users can easily select and sort the information they need. People need to be able to view the information they require based on their own roles.

Toshiba Digital Solutions' Process Improvement Assist Package for SMT Lines rapidly collects data from SMT lines, accumulates it, and presents it in visual form, making it possible to immediately begin working on process improvements (Fig. 2). This solution was realized through the expertise and knowledge of Toshiba, developed through the company's long history of electronic device manufacturing.

SMT lines face a host of issues. For example, one issue is the inability to access data regarding quality, such as production amounts and defect numbers, in real time. This is because, as mentioned earlier, in many cases equipment data is only stored in the industrial computers directly connected to the equipment. Manufacturing site managers perform on-site inspections of plants, collecting data from the industrial computers using USB flash drives or even by writing the data down by hand. The data acquired in this way must be converted into a unified format so that it can be registered in a system. In the case of hand-written records, this data must also be entered by hand. After doing all this, the data must then be tabulated and analyzed, so the process of creating a report is both a time-consuming and labor-intensive one. Status information for equipment is sometimes needed in one-hour intervals, so this work places a significant burden on staff.

These problems can be solved by using the Process Improvement Assist Package for SMT Lines. It handles everything from collecting data to converting the different data formats used by various manufacturers into a unified data format and visualizing desired data by displaying it on a dashboard. This greatly reduces the amount of manual labor involved in the process (Fig. 3). Quality-related data can be viewed in real time, making it possible to implement improvement measures.

Going forward, we plan to provide further functions for solving an even wider range of issues. For example, when surface mounting defects occur, lines are sometimes shut down while the cause is investigated and addressed, and the defective articles are sometimes reworked. Shortening the time between defect occurrence and problem resolution is key, but addressing problems requires knowledge regarding both performing investigations and making improvements. It is often difficult for manufacturing site managers to handle all of this on their own. The reality is that when defects occur, manufacturing site managers and quality personnel engage in multiple rounds of discussions as they identify the cause and deal with the problem (by making adjustments to equipment). This takes both time and labor. Toshiba could assist in addressing defects though the use of accrued data. Specifically, the package's Q&A-based navigation could ask for the information necessary to investigate the cause of the issue, narrow down the cause, and present resolution methods, assisting manufacturing site managers to solve problems. Not only would this solve surface-mounting defect problems, but it would also contribute to the further collection of know-how and ongoing quality improvements.

Components (consumables) which need to be replaced due to usage wear or degradation over time must be optimally maintained. The goal of this is to reduce the number of defects caused by consumable component dirtiness or wear. Until now, this has been handled by using ledgers to manage the components and performing cleaning or replacement at fixed intervals. However, the higher the operation rate of a device, the faster the components will become dirty or worn down and the more frequent defects will become. Our solution uses the Toshiba Group's know-how to set manufacturing cycle threshold values, based on actual usage experience, and to issue notifications when consumable components require cleaning or replacement. This makes it possible to decide on the timing of consumable component cleaning or replacement while checking equipment operation plans and to carry out optimized preventative maintenance while reducing the number of defects.

In addition, it assists with improvements that reduce the amount of time taken for refitting and for replacing components due to running out of component stock. When changing the types of articles manufactured on a production line, the components, jigs, supplementary materials, and other materials that are used for in the manufacture of the new articles must be confirmed, searched for, and attached or loaded. This refitting process takes time. Visualizing the locations where these materials are stored and used helps reduce refitting times. Alerts can also be issued to warn that component stock is running low. Specifically, the remaining quantities of components used by equipment, equipment throughput, and other data can be used to determine how much time is left, or how many production cycles are left, before component stock runs out. Notifications can then be provided, along with the locations where the replacement components are stored, before any components actually run out. Predicting when components will run out is a difficult task, and in the conventional manufacturing approach, when components run out and a production line stops, production personnel need to confirm what components have run out, search for replacements, and resupply the equipment. Advance notifications make it possible to prepare components before they run out, which helps to minimize the frequency with which production lines are stopped and the durations of their stoppages.

This solution also provides support for remote equipment operation. In the past, when equipment problems occurred, the staff responsible for the equipment would share information with the equipment manufacturer and ask them to investigate the cause. The manufacturer would then send a maintenance worker on site to handle the issue. Because of this, it took a long time for equipment to be returned to service. With our solution, manufacturer maintenance staff can remotely access the industrial computer that is connected to their equipment and acquire the data they need to investigate the cause of the problem. They can issue work instructions and explanations to the staff responsible for the equipment, resulting in a rapid restoration of operations. Furthermore, when a problem occurs, an alert can also be sent to the manufacturer's maintenance staff, accelerating their initial response.

There are three key points to the Process Improvement Assist Package for SMT Lines, which is constantly evolving as it helps solve the problems faced by SMT lines.

The first is that it can be used to make immediate process improvements. It is a full package specialized for SMT lines that covers everything from equipment data collection to accumulation and utilization, so immediately upon deployment it enables customers to use the information they need to make process improvements.

The second key point is that it supports equipment from a wide range of manufacturers. It is not limited to specific manufacturers or equipment, but instead can automatically collect and tabulate a wide range of equipment data and manage it centrally, using a data structure specially tailored to SMT lines.

The third key point is that it provides dashboards for the different issues faced by SMT lines. The standard dashboard screen displays data such as equipment operation rates and error rates for individual PCBs, jigs, and components. It visualizes process conditions in real time.

The Process Improvement Assist Package for SMT Lines is a solution for SMT line problems that leverages the PCB manufacturing site know-how and expertise that the Toshiba Group has developed through the years. In the future, we plan to extend this solution beyond just SMT line equipment to also include other equipment, such as injection molding machines and machine tools, so that even more customers can enjoy the benefits it has to offer. We will further improve and refine it as a solution that contributes to the digitalization and improved productivity of the manufacturing field.

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