NEW SOFTWARE FOR ASSEMBLÉON’S A-SERIES CUTS NPI TIME BY 30%

Veldhoven (Netherlands), 6 May 2010

Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary Assembléon is cutting New Product Introduction (NPI) time on its A-Series pick & place equipment by 30%. The improvement is the first result of Assembléon’s strategic partnership with Valor – a division of Mentor Graphics – which brings a full suite of NPI and MES factory integration tools to automate machine-, line- and factory-level workflows and business processes. The result is a lean manufacturing operations management framework that is open, modular, and flexible. And connects flawlessly to Assembléon’s enriched interfaces enabling performance monitoring, traceability and warehousing solutions. That all helps integrate its customers’ manufacturing processes.

According to Jeroen de Groot, Assembléon’s Director of Marketing: “The Valor software and Assembléon pick & place equipment are a perfect match for quality and reliability. Integrating hardware and software in this way will help electronics manufacturers to produce more quickly, easily and reliably, and with the industry’s best quality. And in terms of efficiency, this combination allows for cost-effective end-to-end manufacturing, saving our customers time and money. ”

Complete offline preparation software suite
The new NPI software ranges from Valor vPlan-Lite to full vPlan. The vPlan-Lite software uniquely aims at improving New Product Introductions for A-Series equipment and is only available through Assembléon. It quickly generates run-ready optimized programs and setup instructions for Assembléon’s AX-501, AX-301 and AX-201 machines, including full parts data management. A Virtual Sticky Tape option eliminates trial and error runs to bring immediate right-first-time production.

The full vPlan package optimizes batch scheduling by multi-grouping, which reduces product changeover time. It incorporates Virtual Sticky Tape and a wide range of CAD converters as standard. The optional Autogenerator, including vShape library, translates and manages production and component data, even when transferring component data from one vendor to the other. That eliminates double data preparation work.

De Groot added:” Valor’s new NPI software packages help switch from one production line to another easily, even in a multi-vendor situation on the shop floor, so easing the change between pick & place suppliers. Changing all your software can be a major challenge when switching to a new supplier, but Valor’s product portability takes care of that. Combined with the vManage MES software, it drastically reduces the pain of change for PCB assemblers.”  

Assembléon’s A-Series communicates transparently and in real time with the line- and factory-level controls in the Valor Manufacturing Execution System (MES) suite. That simplifies the whole manufacturing operation, with the pick & place machine no longer just an “island of automation”. It also helps to eliminate bottlenecks, and improves parts management, logistics and quality improvement systems. The complete MES software for Assembléon’s pick & place equipment – including performance monitoring management, parts registration and traceability packages – will be available in June.