News
Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials (Jersey City, NJ) is joining fellow Cookson Electronics companies Polyclad and Enthone in adopting the six sigma system to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its business processes. The goal will be to enhance customer satisfaction, improve profitability and to train employees to understand and effectively employ the six sigma philosophy throughout the organization.
"Six Sigma is not another ‘TQM' program," said David Zerfoss, president of Cookson EAM. "It involves a sustainable, measurable culture shift for the companies that embrace it, and our company is doing just that. In fact, we have over 35 assembly materials employees either in or about to begin black belt training globally. Our black belt candidates have been carefully selected and, upon graduation, they will have developed the skills required to lead six sigma projects for us."
Motorola first made six sigma popular in the 1980s. Allied Signal employed it in the 1990s, and General Electric has made it arguably the most popular management philosophy in history. Polyclad and Enthone both launched their six sigma programs three years ago.
Cookson EAM develops, manufactures and sells materials used in electronic assembly processes, including: solder paste, stencils, squeegee blades, stencil and printed circuit board cleaners, bar solder, cored wire solder, wave soldering fluxes and surface-mount device adhesives.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Speedline Technologies Inc. (Franklin, MA) and Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Philadelphia, PA) announce the availability of Aegis' iMonitor remote monitoring software for use with Speedline's Camalot dispensing, MPM printing and Electrovert reflow oven equipment for the electronics manufacturing industry.
The software provides completely browser-based remote monitoring by station, machine, line, factory or the entire enterprise over a Web or network connection. The reporting and performance analysis tool offers more than 100 customizable displays reporting status, performance, quality and efficiency data for use by technicians and line operators, process development engineers and business managers.
The remote monitoring software is available for use with the Camalot XyflexPro dispensing system, MPM AP-Excel, UltraPrint 2000 and AccuFlex stencil printers and Electrovert Bravo 8 reflow soldering system. The software will be compatible with other Speedline equipment models in the near future. For data acquisition, Aegis xLink transmitters have been incorporated into the native software of the Speedline machines. This solution meets the new industry standard IPC 254x 'CAMX' XML specifications for easy data interchange with other XML-based software throughout the enterprise.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Venture Development Corp. (VDC, Natic, MA), a technology market research firm, and Circuits Assembly (Atlanta, GA), a UP Media Group publication, are launching a multi-client market research study analyzing global market opportunities for 3-D chip scale packaging solutions.
This research program, based on extensive telephone interviews with suppliers, integrators and other 3-D packaging market participants, will include: detailed market definitions and segmentations; 3-D packaging technology descriptions; engineering approaches (such as thermal or power management); market estimates and forecasts across product categories and application segments; analysis of current and future applications; original equipment manufacturer (OEM)/integrator requirements and preferences; competitive position of 3-D packaging component and solution suppliers; and key success strategies.
3-D chip scale packaging refers to the vertical (z-axis) stacking of multiple die within a package, or multiple packages, using specialized substrates and interconnects. Driven in large part by wireless application markets, 3-D chip scale packaging solutions will play a vital role in meeting performance and size requirements for future generations of mobile electronics. As portable products become smaller, lighter and more feature-rich, the vertical stacking techniques employed in 3-D chip scale packaging solutions will provide tremendous value by building on and exceeding package miniaturization efforts to date, allowing increased functionality and reliability on the system level.
Lisa Hamburg Bastin, editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly, said, "Although 3-D chip scale packaging exceeds many performance demands and looks promising, there are still challenges that lie ahead such as cost and integration issues. We are excited to team with VDC to find answers to these issues and create a roadmap for the industry."
Rick Barnard, practice director of VDC's Electronic Components and Advanced Materials group, said, "As the technology landscape becomes more mobile-oriented and time-to-market challenges increase, system designers are faced with finding the optimal combination of form and function. This study will address important issues surrounding the 3-D chip scale packaging opportunity by providing a granular, relevant market analysis with technical and developmental considerations."
Circuits Assembly's assistance will enhance the contents and scope of the report, based on its knowledge of 3-D chip scale packaging trends, business opportunities in the global market place and innovations and technological developments in the industry; and bolster VDC's primary research program by queuing its proprietary database with VDC's research tools.
Interim findings from the analysis will be shipped in July 2004; the completed report will be delivered in August 2004. The pre-publication price of the report is $4,450.
To view the full proposal, visit: http://www.vdc-corp.com/components/reports/04/br04-10.pdf.
For more information about "3D Chip Scale Packaging Solutions: A Global Market Assessment," contact Marc Regberg, senior vice president: (508) 653-9000 x111; msr@vdc-corp.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Tyco Electronics (Willow Grove, PA), a business segment of Tyco International Ltd, announced today that the company is offering Q-Series and APS-1H customers the ability to upgrade their machines to the Windows XP operating system.
According to Tyco, Windows XP's ease of use and dependability are benefits to customers, as well as factors such as:
- advanced security: Windows XP Professional builds on the security model in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, making system security easier to manage. Additionally, users can protect data transmitted across a network. IPSec is a key part of providing security for vital private networks (VPN), which allow organizations to transmit data securely over the Internet.
- increased application compatibility: Numerous operations that cannot run in Windows 2000 will run on Windows XP Professional, right out of the box. If an application is not natively supported by Windows XP Professional, a user or system administrator can specify if the application needs to run in either a Windows NT 4.0 or a Windows 95/98/ME compatibility mode.
- Windows File Protection: This feature protects core system files from being overwritten by application installations. If a file is overwritten, Windows File Protection will restore the correct version.
- availability: This upgrade will be available on June 1, 2004. The availability date depends on the user's current system configuration, and a CPU, hard drive or memory upgrade may be required.
http://automation.tycoelectronics.com
The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) recently announced the Best of Conference paper for the Ninth Annual Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium, held in February in Kahuku, Oahu, HI. As rated by the attendees, the award was presented to Charlie Barnhart of Technology Forecasters Inc. (Alameda, CA).
In his paper, "Contract Manufacturing Strategies: Addressing the Changing Global Landscape," Barnhart discusses "today's market preference for China, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) industry's fascination with off-the-shelf product solutions and the impact of these trends on the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and original design manufacturer (ODM) industries, as well as their probable reactions and their likely successes."
While the clear message is electronic manufacturing is expanding in China and shrinking in the Americas, Europe and even other Asian locations, China is not a panacea for manufacturing all types of electronic products. Issues concerning logistics, management of program, employee skill level, labor conditions, infrastructure, business culture and government practices are adding unexpected costs.
The paper also looks at projected growth rates over the next five years, especially considering that net global capacity may actually decrease during the period.
The 2005 Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium will be held on Kauai, Hawaii, Jan. 25-27, 2005.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. (Herzlia, Israel), a provider of manufacturing process management (MPM), has introduced eM-Execution, the latest solution in the company's eMPower for electronics offerings. The Web-based software solution was created specifically to meet the production management and analytical needs of electronics circuit board manufacturers and their supply chain partners.
The system helps electronics manufacturers act on critical production data to better serve their customers and meet regulatory demands by masking the complexity of gathering and managing critical manufacturing information. It creates customizable information and status reports targeted to multiple audiences, from the shop floor to the executive suite.
Electronics manufacturers can configure the solution to meet their specific needs and business objectives. Some of the key functionalities available include: traceability; electronic records and signatures; material management; process verification; repair; production analytics; and quality management.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Press Releases
- Stannol Welcomes James Wertin as Director of Technical Sales and Solutions – North America; Thomas Ruch Comments
- APE, Automated Production Equipment, Marks 56-year Milestone
- Kitron Signs Multi-Year Agreement for Advanced Sensor Manufacturing in Europe; Kristoffer Asklöv Comments
- Scanfil Boosts Investment in Electronics Manufacturing in the US; Christophe Sut Comments