Monitoring Software Reduces Scrap

Cimetrix Inc. (Salt Lake City) and Motorola (Schaumburg, Ill.) announced that Manufacturing Pulse with Cimetrix's GEM Host Manager has passed a new milestone, with connections to more than 1500 surface-mount technology (SMT) machines. These machines are located in 14 different factories worldwide. Manufacturing Pulse has demonstrated reductions in scrap and critical process variation by 30 and 50%, respectively, and increases in capital equipment utilization of 30%.

Motorola has been using Manufacturing Pulse with Cimetrix's GEM Host Manager internally since March 2000. This monitoring software was developed to improve the overall throughput of Motorola's own SMT lines. Motorola released Manufacturing Pulse to the public in June 2001.

According to the companies, without management software, SMT placement equipment machines reject ~1% of the components during assembly. The machines' feeders, nozzles and cameras experience a variety of technical problems daily, which go unreported. Also, SMT discrete processing lines experience frequent equipment bottlenecks and poorly balanced process flow, causing SMT lines to perform significantly below maximum potential. Due to the lack of a cohesive multi-tool reporting system, component scrap and underutilization of SMT placement equipment has been invisible to management, especially in a mixed-line environment. Manufacturing Pulse fills the need for a robust, flexible equipment monitor that works on all SMT equipment vendors' machines to provide real-time, shop-floor information to the entire organization.