A DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURE KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEM IN PRINTED BOARD ASSEMBLY PRODUCTION FOR NORTHERN-TELECOM (NORTHERN-IRELAND-LTD)

The project involves the design and construction of a Knowledge-based System (KBS) which will be required to contribute to a quality improvement in the manufacture of Printed Board Assemblies (PBAs) and in particular the defect level of the Nitrogen Atmosphere Wave Soldering Process for Northern Telecom at its plant in Monkstown. At present a system model has been developed. This model adopts a high level approach and as such embodies the ultimate goals of the proposed system. These goals include facilities for advising the design and manufacturing engineers on the best board design layouts to maximise board manufacturability based on an intelligent information system. The system development phases of the project have been initiated in a carefully selected area of the PBA design and manufacturing process. The knowledge base has been developed and the system is presently being validated by the Process Engineers at Northern Telecom. The future development of the system will depend on issues such as the maintainability and validation of the KBS in a dynamic and constantly changing manufacturing environment that is being addressed. The current KBS development status is discussed and indications given as to future work.