C
I have a problem that maybe someone else has come across........
I will just set the scene first.
We are setup to run Cell manufacture of PCB's for our own designed products.
Our operators are all trained at the training school for 3 days at a time and refresher course every 6 months (ish).
They are trained in general soldering skills and rework and this is all based upon the IPC-A-610 acceptance criteria. All records are updated, skills matrices etc; It is not the documentation at issue here.
So, they are all very good at generating decent soldering and have the skills for any necessary rework. Have excellent component recognition and are not colour blind.
The "textbook" method is that we can move operators around to any cell and they can produce conforming product. They can........after a while.
Each cell has a core team and now and again due to workloads varying (shortages in one area, change of quantity so fast response required), people from another cell are drafted in to help.
Now we only have about 12 PCB types and most of the people have worked on all of them at one time or another. But, when they revisit a product, they do make elementary mistakes until they "get back into the swing of it".
This is the biggest "VARIABLE" in my process at present........mobile workforce.
Each cell completes a simple tally chart which shows an array of defects during a day. I collect these and correlate them into weekly charts to spot trends, possible design improvements etc.
When I get these, I can immediately go to Carol or Marilyn and ask "Who was drafted in on Wednesday to help??
because there is a big spike for Wed.
I know that while we have manual assemblers every product has the opportunity to be unique.....it is by no means repeatable from the start, but after a while it is pretty **** good.
I dont go and beat people up over this at all, but it does affect the figures...........and I get beaten up.
Apart from automating (costly), I am thinking of some sort of Poke-Yoke arrangement...but I am not sure yet.
Hope this makes sense to someone.
Best Regards,
Chris
I will just set the scene first.
We are setup to run Cell manufacture of PCB's for our own designed products.
Our operators are all trained at the training school for 3 days at a time and refresher course every 6 months (ish).
They are trained in general soldering skills and rework and this is all based upon the IPC-A-610 acceptance criteria. All records are updated, skills matrices etc; It is not the documentation at issue here.
So, they are all very good at generating decent soldering and have the skills for any necessary rework. Have excellent component recognition and are not colour blind.
The "textbook" method is that we can move operators around to any cell and they can produce conforming product. They can........after a while.
Each cell has a core team and now and again due to workloads varying (shortages in one area, change of quantity so fast response required), people from another cell are drafted in to help.
Now we only have about 12 PCB types and most of the people have worked on all of them at one time or another. But, when they revisit a product, they do make elementary mistakes until they "get back into the swing of it".
This is the biggest "VARIABLE" in my process at present........mobile workforce.
Each cell completes a simple tally chart which shows an array of defects during a day. I collect these and correlate them into weekly charts to spot trends, possible design improvements etc.
When I get these, I can immediately go to Carol or Marilyn and ask "Who was drafted in on Wednesday to help??
because there is a big spike for Wed.
I know that while we have manual assemblers every product has the opportunity to be unique.....it is by no means repeatable from the start, but after a while it is pretty **** good.
I dont go and beat people up over this at all, but it does affect the figures...........and I get beaten up.
Apart from automating (costly), I am thinking of some sort of Poke-Yoke arrangement...but I am not sure yet.
Hope this makes sense to someone.
Best Regards,
Chris