COMPUTER-AIDED PROCESS PLANNING IN PRINTED-CIRCUIT CARD ASSEMBLY

In the current environment of rapid technological change, the printed circuit card assembly manufacturer is often required to produce a wide variety of circuit card assemblies while maintaining a high level of quality and minimizing both production time and cost. Assembly automation has also become very expensive, in terms of both initial investment cost and operating costs. Thus optimizing assembly processes to achieve high levels of utilization and production, with minimal work-in-process inventory, is increasingly important. Process planning can represent a significant factor in achieving both of these objectives. This paper presents the decision problems in process planning, our solution approaches for these problems, and the implementation results from our experiences to date with industrial partners.