TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Originally Printed in the December 2002 Issue of
Circuits Assembly
Magazine
TRANSFORMING INFORMATION INTO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
As the old saying goes: Knowledge is power. And Web-centric software is a platform for seamlessly sharing it.
The web-centric manufacturing software platform prepares product data in
the factory office for controlled dissemination throughout the factory,
delivers paperless documentation to the factory floor through browsers,
and tracks product while collecting quality information with
manufacturing execution system (MES) functions. Vast amounts of
information are developed and archived during these activities. This
final article explores how web-centric manufacturing software associates
this wealth of information to production machine event data, and makes
it available to customers, managers, and engineers. The technology to
compile, share, and make this information becomes a significant
competitive advantage.
The competitive advantages discussed here are derived from a technology
used within the factory as well as an extended enterprise technology,
both operating on the web-centric platform. The first technology joins
the process information discussed in prior articles to real-time event
information harvested from production machinery. This enterprise
monitoring technology gives line operators, engineers, and managers a
clear view of the performance and capability of their processes. The
next technology improves communications beyond the factory by granting
parties in the extended enterprise, such as customers, web access to
specific product and production information.
WEB-CENTRIC ENTERPRISE MONITORING
Web-centric enterprise monitoring technology affords several levels of
the manufacturing organization information about machine activities and
performance not available through other means. It joins the real-time
data flowing from machinery to information from other points in the
routing such as quality collection and rework areas. This information is
made available through browsers throughout the enterprise.
Line operators monitor machine and line condition in to correct problems
before they become serious. Process and quality engineers have the
information to identify the root cause of efficiency problems, and
localize the areas of the factory needing most attention. Since such
systems have access to quality feedback from outside the lines as well
as machine performance data, they can quickly determine if efficiency
problems are rooted in machine throughput issues, or if the rework rate
is compromising overall yield. At the management level, business leaders
have access to a dashboard view of multiple factories, and simplified
diagnostics for a real-time evaluation of the performance of factories,
lines and down to machines.
The goal of this technology is to give manufacturing professionals the
information they need to diagnose problem areas of the process, as well
as to stop process problems before they escalate and become a greater
impact to the profitability of the company.
THE WEB-CENTRIC EXTENDED ENTERPRISE
Web-centric extended enterprise visibility opens a web gateway beyond
the factory walls to let third parties, and particularly customers, view
specific information from the factory. Customers log into a simplified
and secure web site drawing its information from the factory’s
web-centric system. Through this site, a customer may be involved in the
electronic review of documentation, submit electronic approvals or
rejections, or communicate with engineers. This interactivity expedites
new product introduction, and provides electronic accountability of the
customer’s involvement in the release process.
When engineering changes are issued, the customer is again involved by
posting process deviation requests directly into the system, which can
then be used by manufacturing engineers to issue immediate instructions
to the appropriate stations on the factory floor. During production,
depending on their rights granted by the manufacturers, customers may
use the same portal to monitor product flow, view real-time quality and
rework information, and even drill into the complete history and
genealogy of any product. Later in the product’s lifecycle, this portal
recalls all historical process and product information regarding a
single serialized item, simply by logging into the web portal and
entering a serial number.
Web-centric extended enterprise access completes the circle from a
customer’s new product introduction through release to the floor,
production, and finally out into the product’s service in the world.
Throughout this lifecycle, the portal gives remote parties the
information they need, and builds a stronger relationship between
manufacturer and customer.
BUSINESS DRIVERS FOR WEB-CENTRIC ENTERPRISE MONITORING
Consider the opportunities for manufacturers who implement web-centric
enterprise monitoring solutions. Traditionally, manufacturing
professionals are often more reactive to process problems than
proactive. This is not due to a lack of skill, dedication, or effort,
but rather a lack of real-time process and/or real-time equipment
information. Line operators rarely notice slow degradation in the vast
array of machine performance parameters without tools to reveal such
trend information. If such information were available, they could
replace intermittent and relatively long periods of emergency
maintenance with strategically planned preventive maintenance. Calm and
continuous process improvement would replace massive corrective actions
driven by the latest major downtime, quality, or performance problem in
the factory.
Process engineers suffer from a similar problem. Since the web-centric
line monitoring solution has business, product, and quality system
integration, it exceeds the functionality of traditional line monitors
by drawing upon much greater scope of information for analysis. Process
engineers typically prioritize their efforts only when a process is
already out of control. When throughput or quality data emerging from
certain lines is revealed to be unsatisfactory hours (or days) after the
production run, process engineers react. With access to real-time
information, they are empowered to localize problems, diagnose them, and
correct the process before other downstream systems reveal the problems
too late in the flow.
Moving up above the process level are business managers. Manufacturing
leadership decisions depend upon accurate knowledge of the capability
and performance of manufacturing assets. With the web-centric system,
managers use their browser at any time to drill into as much information
about the performance of their factories as they wish, and draw their
own conclusions. Management therefore drives more focused and accurate
improvement initiatives when armed with actual factory performance data.
In the web-centric factory, managers, engineers, and line operators
access web portals revealing the actual real-time performance of each
line and machine within every factory. They view, analyze, and use the
information for different purposes, but their goals are similar. Using
information drawn from every step of the process and production
machinery directly, personnel address problems before they escalate, and
introducing process improvement where it is most needed.
BUSINESS DRIVERS FOR WEB-CENTRIC EXTENDED ENTERPRISE VISIBILITY
Business Drivers for Web-Centric Extended Enterprise Visibility
One might not associate manufacturing software with improving marketing
or customer relations for an EMS provider. Web-centric manufacturing
software, however, is a powerful marketing differentiator and customer
retention and satisfaction enhancer. As Internet use became commonplace
in both business and at home, the concept of remote web access to all
types of information made the quick transition from science fiction, to
the ordinary, and now has become expected of most modern service
providers. EMS providers are not immune to this demand for instant,
web-based access to information from their suppliers. Web-centric
manufacturing software provides a secure web-portal to the wealth of
product data and production information visible to manufacturing
personnel, but filtered for content and by customer, to secure
proprietary information across customer boundaries.
The use of this technology invites the customer of the EMS provider into
the various processes of the product lifecycle. Program managers,
customer liaison personnel, quality engineers, and product data managers
communicate with customers using a graphical and real-time portal to the
process tailored to their information needs. Customers, who once felt in
control when they manufactured their own product, now feel informed and
involved again. Only now rather than walking out to their own factory
floor, they peer into their EMS provider through a web portal. Extended
enterprise visibility is no longer just a sales and marketing benefit if
it is offered, but actually a competitive deficiency if it is not.
AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
Extended enterprise visibility is a logical extension of the web-centric
platform discussed throughout this article series. However, the
monitoring and diagnostics of machines and lines requires direct
connection to the activity, alarm, and event logs of each machines, and
a way to interpret this information for a variety of machinery. For
integration within a web-centric factory, the machines themselves become
web-centric. Fortunately, an emerging technology is provides the
solution.
Enterprise monitoring draws upon the centralized information within the
web-centric platform, but also directly harvests machine “event” data.
Most production machines produce events and certain alarms as they
operate, building a timeline of critical activities they perform and
errors they encounter. This information is only valuable if it has a
standardized method of being harvested and used by other software
systems. The original attempt at standardizing this information was GEM
from the semiconductor industry, which was adopted by several machine
vendors in electronics assembly. Unfortunately, GEM was expensive for
the machine vendors to implement, expensive for software providers to
integrate, and did not standardize the event streams from each machine.
Although the communication method and “state model” were standardized,
the designation for a “mispick”, for example, from two different brands
of machines was arbitrary and therefore typically different. This
precluded the “generic” software tools for looking across multiple
machines to monitor their activities without customization for every
machine and vendor.
Thankfully, the IPC introduced the “CAMX” or 254X standards for
XML-based machine communications. The XML data content standard makes
the information emerging from each machine, within machine types,
uniform. The use of XML as the format makes it easily interpreted and
therefore inexpensive for third party software providers to import and
utilize.
The data format from each machine is only one challenge. The machines
must have a uniform method of transporting this data into the factory
and among machinery. To this end, a form of the web-centric technology
discussed throughout this series of articles now resides on the machines
themselves. For a central system to harvest data from arrays of
machines, machines are connected to a web serving technology, a very
scaled-down version of a web-centric information server. This small web
server collects machine event data, and transmits it in XML, just like a
web page, to the outside world. Other software systems simply access the
“web site” of the machine for the data content they require. This
technology transforms the assets of the manufacturing enterprise into a
web-connected, information-sharing network.
The web-centric software platform combines the many data processing,
analysis, and communications functions required for productive
electronics manufacturing. We’ve explored how it empowers productive
data preparation, document control, electronic approvals, manufacturing
execution, and even diagnostics and remote customer integration.
CONCLUSION
It is said that knowledge is power. Web-centric software is the platform
for seamlessly sharing product, process, and production knowledge. In
the electronics manufacturing enterprise, this knowledge becomes a
powerful competitive advantage.
Author Information:
Jason Spera, Chief Executive Officer
Aegis Industrial Software Corporation
220 Gibraltar Road, Suite 100
Horsham, PA 19044