Press Release May 2004 - CUSTOMER PRESS RELEASE
It's 2004 and what a ride the last few years have been. The Electronics Manufacturing Service Industry has gone through so many changes that it is very important to keep in constant communication with our vendors, employees and most important our customers.
A Rollercoaster Industry:
The Electronics Manufacturing Service Industry is driven by our national and global economy. The fluctuations and waves of the last few years have been enough to make the best of us seasick. And the fact that my Lucent stock now makes a good coaster for my coffee cup doesn't help either. The light at the end of the tunnel may be appearing. We at CASE have been very fortunate with the addition of new customers and staff over the last six months. We are spoiled to have a base of customers who are willing to work together so closely with us and we appreciate the opportunities that they have bestowed upon us. Many of our customers are also seeing an upturn, and with very cautions enthusiasm we are seeing larger kit quantities and new projects.
Upturn:
With an improving economic environment we are working to provide the service our customers need. We have added 5 new employees in recent weeks to our labor force and are adding new systems and equipment to increase overall productivity. CASE has always tried to be as proactive as possible, and to have the proper equipment and personnel in place to provide service at a level our customers deserve. It has been difficult to justify many expenses over the last few years. We are now in a position to look toward the future and invest in our customers and ourselves.
How many hats can you wear?
The staff at CASE is made up of a group of people who personally impress me on a daily basis, and I am very proud of the job they do. We are currently in the process of increasing our capabilities in the areas of TEST and CONFIGURATION. Many of our customers are more interested than ever in having CASE not only build circuit boards, but to have CASE build and entire BOX BUILD unit. Even further to build the entire unit, fully tested, calibrated, any programming or configuration performed and boxed then drop shipped to the end customer. The one-stop-shopping approach truly allows our customers to focus on what they do best.
As a result we are happy to announce the following staff changes:
Webb Lewis: webb@case-assembly.com
Formerly our Surface Mount Supervisor is now TEST and CONFIGURATION Supervisor.
Steven Defreitas
Promoted from Surface Mount Group Leader to Surface Mount Supervisor.
Both Steven and Webb have great leadership, planning and organization skills and have been an integral part of the organization here at CASE. I very much look forward to setting them loose on these new challenges.
Equipment and System Improvements:
In the past our engineering group has developed software to aid us in the schedule and control of production throughout the CASE facility. Our most recent project is the development of an improved inventory control system. We have spent a great deal of time and effort reviewing canned software available in the industry used for the purchasing and control of inventory. Many software packages have some great features such as MRP and production planning, but are weak in other areas. Thus far we have built an internal system that allows for great flexibility and organization. We have decided to build on that to create a package that provides exactly what we need.
In addition to system and software additions CASE has signed an agreement with YESTECH, www.yestechinc.com, to provide our facility with AOI (automated optical inspection) equipment. The use of automation, to supplement or in some cases replace classic human inspection processes, is a natural next step in the EMS industry. Much like CASE, YESTECH is at the cutting edge of automated vision systems.
Addressing your weakness will make you stronger:
CASE Assembly Solutions Inc. is an ISO 9001-2000 certified facility. Part of the ISO structure is the CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. I would like to bear a bit of dirty laundry in order to show what improvements are being made at CASE.
Q: CASE has always done a good job for us, and has always had product to us when we need it. But lately some shipments have been running a bit behind? What gives?
A: Our capacity at CASE is in good shape. We run two main shifts, the first shift and the third shift. This format results in a production day that starts at 9:00 pm at night and ends about 6:00 pm in the afternoon. This differs from many companies who run a first and a second shift. The reason we have it this way is that with our shift we can ship completed product at the end of our workday, in the afternoon, where if the workday ended at 11:00 pm product could not be shipped until the next day. We are also starting to staff for the second shift, this would make CASE a 24 hour facility.
Many factors have affected the production schedule as of late. One of the most detrimental is the fact that inventory lead times are starting to push out. We are trying our best to keep the scramble to fill inventory requirements transparent to our customers. We are working with our vendors to put in place additional supply side planning, although difficult with many customers not able to provide much in the ways of forecasting. We would suggest to our customers that they take into account increasing component lead times when placing and order, and any type of forecast is invaluable. With the addition of new equipment, systems and employees, we at CASE can continue to be relied on to meet our customers needs.
Q: Quality, 94-97% first pass yield is good, but how do we get to 100%???
A: There is nothing more frustrating than to provide a customer with a difficult assembly, on a rushed schedule only to have an error on one component out of 1500 on the board. Or perhaps having a great relationship with a customer and have a mistake on a high visibility project. It only takes one mistake, no matter how complex the assembly, to make the unit non-functional. And with some of our customers choosing to perform testing in their own facility any mistakes or errors show up clearly. The cause is the human factor. We at CASE have a great deal of automation, and focus on setting up the proper processes. The difficult aspect is that often with small lot sizes and odd form inventory the human factor is high.
We are addressing the human factor by adding new AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) systems to our process. As described earlier, YESTECH Inc. has been contracted to install AOI units here at CASE. With the addition of this automated inspection step we feel that it is very possible to take the next step to 100% yield. And as an additional benefit all the data that is collected at the AOI step is combined with data from our inspector's findings. This data is currently available real time on our CASE INTERACTIVE web information system.
Q: Why am I being re-quoted?
A: Much the same as with the component lead times getting longer, component prices are starting to go up, in some cases as much as 40%-70%. We are working hard to find established price inventory, but in some cases we do need to come back and increase the unit prices. In these cases we will fully disclose the reasons for the change. Price increases can be avoided in some cases by providing a longer-term purchase order or ordering in larger lot quantities. Again any forecast available is most helpful.
In closing, I would again like to thank all our customers, you are the reason that we have been successful and we look forward to a prosperous future.
Thank you
Gregory Cronin
President
Press Release May 2005 - CUSTOMER PRESS RELEASE
It's 2005 already, amazing how time has flown by. The last year has been a great year for us at CASE Assembly, and we are looking forward to the coming year.
New faces, new equipment:
The Electronics Manufacturing Service Industry has seen a bit of an upturn. Not to the hectic levels of 5 years ago, but it has been a positive outlook. As most of our customers and vendors know we are constantly changing, and working on an ongoing basis on improving our processes. Over the last six months we have added some very qualified members to our staff. We have also added a new Universal GSM, and another Universal Chipshooter to our surface mount production and an additional YesTech Automated optical inspection system to our inspection area.
Slow and steady wins the race:
Its official, CASE Assembly is running 24 hours. We realized long ago that it is very difficult to squeeze a day's production into a single eight-hour shift, that's why we have had a third shift and first shift for a number of years. Over the last year it became almost more often than not that we would stretch the first and third shifts and almost run 24 hours. We have now added additional staff and are now running 24 hours. We have seen the benefits already, and not only does it increase our capacity, but also increases the level of productivity. The smooth flow, without shutting down for a few hours a day, has already shown benefits.
Those pesky passives!
At CASE we have great customers. Some of whom we build turnkey products, others choose to supply the inventory. More and more we have found a huge overall process improvement in allowing CASE Assembly to supply the passive components for those consignment projects. The customer base that we service, in general, consists of higher end technology with lots of processors and digital logic type designs. We have counted literally 35 different customer assigned part numbers for 0.1UF 0805 and 0603 CAPS that we stock here as consigned inventory for our customers. Looking at the following process example as a day in the life of a 10 ohm resistor:
A resistor 10 ohm 5% 0805 chip provided to CASE Assembly on a consignment basis.
1. CASE customer runs an MRP and realizes the demand for 10 ohm resistor.
2. CASE customer reviews price or quotes 10 ohm resistor.
3. CASE customer orders 10 ohm resistor.
4. CASE customer receives, incomes and stocks 10 ohm resistor.
5. CASE customer pulls required resistor for kit to send to CASE. Often small strips of components are cut and bagged. Some of those parts don't have markings on them so there is an increase in opportunity for error. Also there are wasted components as excess or hopefully not one piece short.
6. CASE customer deducts the components count from inventory and ships parts to CASE for production. In most cases 50% to 75% of the components pulled are common passive components. And none of those parts cost more than 1 cent each! So you better count fast!
7. CASE receives inventory. Incomes the parts and audits the kit. Remember 50% to 75% of the parts are passives.
8. Kit is completed and issued to production.
9. Production starts to set up the project, and realizes that there are some parts on strips. They are not too happy about this because working with those small strips increases the opportunity for error due to the lack of package marking. Realizing that a 0.1UF CAP and a 0.01UF CAP look exactly the same and if somewhere along the last 8 steps the two were switched there wound be little way to know. In fact even in-circuit test has a tough time telling the difference.
10. So now production has started and hopefully there is not one piece short.
Boy that's a lot of work for a part that costs much less than a cent each! Lots of labor costs, and at least two days lost as parts that cost nothing are counted and recounted. I often tell my kitting staff that it costs me more for them to count a reel of resistors than it would to just buy a new reel.
If CASE were to provide the part:
1. CASE kitting receives the components, minus the passives.
2. CASE kitting audits and issues the kit to production, minus the passives. (Can save a day!)
3. CASE production has the passive stock in a continual replenishment floor stock system. In fact the set-up process can start even before the rest of the inventory is in the building.
I have attached a spreadsheet that will be helpful in showing the components that CASE Assembly can provide. As you can see the productivity increases can be significant, and can cut days off the turnaround time!
Turnkey is a viable option
Our vendor base and expertise in the realm of turnkey is continuing to increase. This may be a good time to have CASE quote some turnkey projects. We provide the same flexibility and reliability with Turnkey and Consignment projects. With our ongoing improvements we can quote your projects fast and affordable.
RoHS Directive, Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
Some call it LEAD FREE, most call is a bit scary. The RoHS directive affects us all. We at CASE Assembly currently have a qualified, RoHS compliant parallel process available to our customers. Remember RoHS is much more than just changing to LEAD FREE solder paste. All components must contain no lead or any of the other listed chemicals including:
Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent, Chromium, Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB) or Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE).
One step in the right direction is the fact that ALL of the passive components that CASE Assembly supplies are certified RoHS compliant.
The deadline for products sold in Europe is July 1st 2006, but what most don't realize is that the state of California requires all products to be RoHS compliant SIX MONTHS after the European date. That's January 1, 2007!
There are a number of industries and/or component types that are exempt:
-Solder used in Network infrastructure equipment for switching, signaling, transmission as well as network management for telecommunication.
-Lead in ceramic parts.
- Automotive, Telecommunications
The list is constantly changing. A good source of information is http://www.pb-free.info/
In closing, I would again like to thank all our customers, you continue to be the reason that we have been successful and we look forward to a prosperous future.
Thank you
Gregory Cronin
President
Press Release August 2005 - CUSTOMER PRESS RELEASE
Another year has blinked by; here we are in the summer of 2005. The Electronics Manufacturing Service Industry continues to be a moving target. In many ways the EMS industry is a good indicator of overall economic conditions in the United States and worldwide, and with that we have seen a steady increase in demand from our customers. We have continued to grow with our customers, and in some cases have seen some significant growth.
The best laid plans:
I have always considered our company to be very proactive, and over the years we have made investments in people, equipment and systems to try and stay ahead of our customers needs. Working with our customers on new products and systems, we were almost always on the same page. A line adapted from the book "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Employees don't always work out as hoped, new machines break down, summer vacations, and if Murphy happens to walk in the back door, while demands from customers are on the rise, then you are really in a jam. We have had some hiccups over the last few months that we have tried to work through, and to our discredit we tried to keep it transparent to our customers. Looking back this went against the format of open communication that we had always tried to keep. And in hindsight probably made things a bit worse, resulting in schedule delays.
So what's the plan, Stan:
There are quite a few new faces here at the facility. In fact we are in a mode right now that we are hiring just about any qualified person we can find, although finding qualified people is much more difficult than it should be.
We have always had two engineering groups here at CASE.
Our Process Engineering Group is lead by Timothy Hackett.
Our Production Engineering Group has a new leader, Durval Monteiro.
Durval has over ten years of experience in the electronics manufacturing industry and brings with him experience from four EMS facilities. We are happy to have him and look forward to his leadership in our Production Engineering Group.
We also have a new automation mechanic in Tony Sbrocca. Tony is a dedicated individual who takes pride in keeping our equipment in top shape. As far as equipment goes we have, and continue to make, some significant investments in new machines.
One of the problems that we had run into over the last few months was a machine going down at inopportune times (not that there is really ever a good time). To help fix this problem we have purchased not one, not two, but three more Universal Chipshooters. This addition also adds over 400 more feeders to the mix allowing even more products to be set-up ahead of time. We have also added a new Electrovert Aquastorm in-line cleaner. This cleaner is arguably the best cleaner made right now, and is a good addition as component densities get tighter and more BGA's are used. This machine is also a new generation of cleaners with more modern control systems.
Other equipment added over the last month include:
- Two automated label printers capable of printing the label and then pick and place the label on the circuit board, in process.
- Separation Technologies Ultrasonic Stencil Cleaner.
- An upgraded Alpha Metals Ionic Cleanliness tester.
- Another Universal GSM, fine pitch / BGA placement machine.
- Transition Automation "Perfect Print" Semi-Automatic Screen printer.
- PowerVar Three Phase line conditioners.
- Autosplice CC-112 Pin Inserter
- Simplimatic PCB Magazine loader capable of loading PCB's as large as 15" X 21" (seemed like a LOGICAL SOLUTION)
In addition to new faces and machines we have again increased our usable facility space by ripping out walls and adding to both the stockroom area as well as our main SMT production area. These layout changes also smooth process flow from our SMT production area over to the secondary operations and thru-hole area.
Our process engineering group lead by Tim Hackett is also working on new methods of communication, such as automated e-mails indicating deliveries and our "on-time delivery scorecard."
In closing I would like to reiterate the commitment that we at CASE have to our customers. We have grown with our customers over the years and are very thankful for the opportunity to provide our services.
I personally have a total commitment to this company and the customers we serve, and with that I will let nothing stand in the way of providing our customers the services they deserve, and to look forward to future growth together.
Thank you
Gregory Cronin
President
Press Release August 2007 - CUSTOMER PRESS RELEASE
Once again it is time to give you a peek into what is going on over in Easton at CASE Assembly Solutions. Occasionally I find time, often in late summer, to sit down and look back at the years gone by and also look forward to the coming years. As always the EMS Industry has plenty of stories to tell. We have seen the last couple years full of opportunity to work with new customers, helping them bring fledgling ideas and prototypes up to current production levels. Looking back we always built a lot of new product introduction, but in recent history there has been a boom of new assemblies. To our fortune we have been able to support these new designs, with our 24 hour, well equipped facility, and our talented staff. As you read on you will recognize our proactive nature in some of the new systems and equipment we have added in recent months, again looking forward to servicing our customers as those prototype and pilot runs move into higher levels of production.
Crossroads:
A few years back we at CASE made the investment into Automated Optical Inspection Equipment. Each assembly, with the customers' approval, is marked with a barcode serial number. At the AOI process every product we build is reviewed by automated systems, and allows us an incredible tool to review and measure our processes, and archive the information right down to the individual serial numbered unit. In the EMS industry price and value is important, delivery is even more important, but if you do not have quality product, you might as well forget everything else. With the complexity of today's designs and the timeline of production getting ever tighter, the AOI process adds an invaluable process measurement tool. We look back at the addition of full AOI equipment as a crossroad in the history of our company.
So its time to make another crossroads...Its time to bring out the BIG GUNS!
Two new Universal 4796B Chipshooters!
Capable of placing almost 80,000 components per hour!
Increased Capability:
These new Universal 4796B Chipshooters are simply amazing. We have always run Chipshooters here at CASE, and as one of the few in the northeast in our niche of the market that do, we have felt the advantage of these high speed machines. But the new 4796B series of machines is in a whole new class. Running product at 10 part placements per second, with a placement accuracy of 100 ppm (parts per million), this investment will be well worth it. And as usual, my philosophy is to always have a back-up machine. So whenever possible I bring in at least two of a machine type, as is the CASE here.
These machines have been delivered and are being installed by our in house mechanics and we will soon be feeling the benefits. (They are actually amazing to watch run)
Additional recent equipment additions also include:
o ECD Super Mole Gold RF, reflow oven temperature profiler
o An extremely helpful and accurate tool for developing reflow profiles, especially useful with today's more difficult RoHS compliant reflow profiles.
o PDR 1600 Infrared BGA Rework Station
o This is in addition to the PDR Infrared BGA station we currently have, and adds to our BGA rework capabilities.
We have also increased our facility size again, adding an additional 3000 S.F. This is home to our new tool shop, where we build our fixtures and repair parts. We are also in the process of fitting a new box build production area as well as new test areas within the facility to keep with our customers needs.
Think Green, RoHS and More:
The amount of energy that a manufacturing facility uses can be substantial. From SMT equipment to wave solder machines the electric meter can spin like a top. We at CASE have taken steps to be a more earth friendly neighbor. We recently replaced aver 160 light fixtures in our facility, including all of the inefficient hi-bay lighting, with more energy efficient lighting. This investment does have a payback period that will help the company in the long run, but to me a more important issue is to help reduce wasteful energy practices. Other projects we are looking into include Solar heating of our de-ionized wash process water, larger compressed air storage vessels to reduce the compressors run times at low load and new energy measurement systems that will help us understand our overall energy usage.
The recent changes here at CASE serve to round out the overall capabilities of our facility. These upgrades bring us to a level that we have had a vision of for many years, and we are very excited to be entering this new chapter in our history. As always we thank our customers, vendors and employees that we work with every day, for the efforts and opportunities they give and look ahead to a great future, working together.
Thank you
Gregory Cronin
President
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