Speak Embedded

Although I’m not officially in the information technology field, all processes have information components.  In the world of manufacturing, the delivery of these information components is just as valuable as the delivery of the physical components to the line.  In fact, a good information delivery process is vital to success in today’s competitive environment, as detailed in this recent Harvard Business Review article.  I’ve seen many of these benefits first-hand, particularly with regards to propogating a process change immediately and efficiently, with full confidence that the change is fully implemented by front-line employees.

Paul Boykin
Process Engineering Manager

The “Production Database” may need a new name…Manufacturing Operations System (MOS), as described by Jason Spera. These capabilities are indeed very beneficial to the continuous improvement of the production process, particularly as Jason describes in the latter part of the article with regards to planning, controlling shop-floor execution, and data mining for analysis, reporting, monitoring, and traceability.

Jason mentions a “digital work package” that provides “every conceivable guidance, verification, and information needed to conduct a quality build efficiently.” That is exactly the intent of the “Production Database” as defined in goal #1 (from my earlier post). Our manufacturing and process engineers continually add to this store of information throughout the life of the product. However, there is one source of information that often isn’t utilized effectively: the front-line employees actually using the information. Their input tends to be filtered through the perspective (and the time constraints) of the attending engineers.

We’ve all experienced conversations with front-line employees where we “discovered” a good assembly technique for a product we’ve been building for quite some time, yet no one else knows about this technique. This good information is “trapped” in the employee’s experience and not shared due to lack of an easy, embedded system of communication. Maybe this technique was communicated at one time, but never became part of the official documentation. We hope to break that barrier through a “Tips” button that allows our operators to provide input directly–”wikipedia” style. These tips and comments will be clearly highlighted from the official documentation, of course. I’ll let you know how this experiment goes…

Paul Boykin
Process Engineering Manager

A key component in managing any production floor is the ability to direct the flow of materials and information. In many cases, this “just happens” because employees “know how” to build the product. A typical early step of Lean Manufacturing implementation is process mapping to move that “know how” from the heads of the employees to a documented form. My experience with documents, though, is that, except in the most bureacratic environments, they are referenced rarely and updated infrequently, rendering them useless for very long beyond their initial development. The production process is simply too dynamic for the static documents to keep up with the rate of change, because the flow of materials is separated from the flow of information. This situation is particularly acute in DTI’s environment of rapid prototyping and frequent introduction of new products.

The “Production Database” provides a solution by integrating the flow of information into the flow of materials. Each of DTI’s PCB assemblies is serialized (with a barcode) at the inception of the production process. Each serial number is tied to a specific “process routing” via its part number. Each operator workstation is equipped with a networked PC running the “Production Database” application and operators are required to scan each serial number as it progresses through their specific operation. The scan of each serial number not only collects production data but also provides critical build information to the operators. The order of operations in the “process routing” is enforced throughout the production process for each serial number. This effectively “locks in” the process map and closely links it to the physical flow of materials. If the physical flow needs to be changed, the “process routing” (effectively, the dynamic “process map”) must be changed to allow the physical change to happen on the production floor, eliminating the problem of infrequent updates allowing the documentation to get out of sync with the actual process.

In addition, production documentation is pushed to the operators for each serial number scanned. This information can take the form of critical build notes, attached documents (typically *.pdf files with abundant photos), quality alerts, pending Engineering Change Orders (ECOs), and “exceptions” for previous build steps. (I’ll discuss each of these items more in future posts.) The data presentation is very flexible and very targeted to present the specific information needed at the precise time it is required in the process, effectively enabling another critical Lean Manufacturing concept: standard work procedures.

Paul Boykin
Process Engineering Manager

Upon entering the world of the blog, I’m reminded of a quote from leadership guru John Maxwell: “The person that thinks he’s leading, but has no one following him, is only taking a walk.” Only time will tell whether I’m leading or taking a walk in this endeavor. However, I’ll contribute observations and information primarily about DTI’s operations and manufacturing processes, as well as the electronics manufacturing industry as a whole.

On that note, I recently read an article from Circuits Assembly regarding DPMO Analysis Implementation. DTI has been tracking and analyzing defects per IPC-9261 and IPC-7912 since January of 2004 through the implementation of a production floor control system developed in-house and known here simply as the “Production Database” (very creative, I know). One of DTI’s strengths has always been the ability to rapidly transition a product from the “virtual” world of design software into a physical prototype, primarily due to our in-house production capabilities. However, increasing product complexity was straining our ability to manage this process in the early 2000s.

The “Production Database” grew out of this need to manage the manufacture of complex PCB assemblies in a rapidly changing New Product Introduction (NPI) mode. In early 2002, we embarked upon a mission to develop an in-house production floor control system that would meet four needs: (1) push information to operators to enable efficient, high quality production, (2) monitor and control critical process parameters, (3) collect and analyze data to enable continuous improvement, and (4) remain flexible to allow changing business process logic in response to customer needs. This system rolled out in its early form in late 2003 and became fully operational throughout our PCB manufacturing process by January 1, 2004. Development of this system is ongoing…truly a continuous improvement process.

The “Production Database” is a system that meets our needs in ways not possible for packaged, off-the-shelf software. It is a collection of Microsoft Access front-ends, customized for varying departmental needs, linked to a MySQL server back-end. There are also links into our MRP system, integrating materials data directly into the shop floor interface. The capabilities continue to be expanded upon as our (and our customer’s) needs change.

Many of my future posts will include lessons learned and improvements made as a result of this application development process. I’ll cover specific capabilities, technical development hurdles, the psychology of application development for a shop floor environment, and the benefits of having real data in solving problems, among other things learned along the path to continuous improvement.

Paul Boykin
Process Engineering Manager