Stock control is a key issue for any contract electronics manufacturer. Making sure that your business has full control over how many components they have in stock for future projects. Especially for projects requiring fast turnaround, having a precise stock count is crucial, as kitting SMT lines can be a time-consuming process. Without the knowledge of how many specific components you have ready to be used, one risks having to put their work on hold or having to purchase new components last minute, which isn’t always possible.
To avoid these problems affecting our service ZOT invested £72,000 in a state-of-the-art X-Ray component counter from Nordson. This new piece of technology can count components in seconds. With the new system, our team only needs to place the component reel in the X-ray chamber, scan its barcode and the machine does the rest for them. In just seconds, it counts every single component on the reel and gives them an exact value. This figure can later be input to the company-wide system for everyone to access the data.
“The biggest impact for us will be the time saved. It’s not efficient to stop the SMT lines because of a shortage. This new system will prevent that from happening.” said Peter Taylor – Engineering Manager at ZOT.
How does it reduce lead times?
By having an exact count for each component, you save time on multiple processes.
Kitting and de-kitting the SMT lines – when running into a shortage while assembling PCBs for a customer using Surface Mount Technology, you might need to put the job on hold. This requires de-kitting it for the time when the components are not available. Having full control over the stock count gives you confidence that the project can be finished on time.
Purchasing components – in a situation when a CEM runs into a component shortage, they need to order them to finish populating the circuit board. This can not only add to the time required to deliver a final product but also requires the procurement team to shift their focus from other projects to ensure on time delivery.
Searching for electronic components in stock – due to the size of electronics components, they are easily misplaced. This means that even if a project requires 20 of a certain component, more of them might be used in the assembly process. This leaves an uncertainty on how many components are left in stock, which previously had to be manually verified. With the new component counter, ZOT will have complete certainty on how many are available in-house without a team member spending time on verifying it.
Adding all these issues up, purchasing the new Nordson Assure Pro X-ray component counter will substantially improve ZOT’s lead times in PCB assembly and box builds.
Quality improvements
As discussed in the previous section, de-kitting a job on an SMT line can be a time-consuming process. That’s why sometimes, when met with a component shortage, a CEM must finish the project using manual assembly. This can lead to more human errors and quality issues that need to be reworked later. By having full control over the stock count, we can limit the instances of such situations taking place to a minimum, therefore providing a superior electronics manufacturing service to our customers.
“If your parts are on a reel and the SMT places them, it will be perfect. Whereas if someone has to manually hand solder them, you are in risk of having short circuits or misplacing the component.”
Introducing the new system into our electro-mechanical assembly operations will therefore not only improve our service in terms of on-time delivery and lead times, but also in terms of the quality of the finished electronics leaving ZOT Engineering.
About ZOT Engineering:
ZOT Engineering is a leader in contract electronics manufacturing in the United Kingdom. By providing PCB manufacturing, electro-mechanical assembly, box build and sheet metal fabrication services, the company offers unique and complete electronics manufacturing services from one location in Scotland.
To learn more about ZOT Engineering visit: www.zot.co.uk.
