Dr. Lasky's Blog

Folks,

A reader commented that he liked the Patty and The Professor stories for their technical content, but he felt there was “too much story.”   So, I feel an explanation for why I think the “story” part is important.

Manufacturing is accomplished by integrating people, processes, equipment, materials, components and so forth.  Most of our discussion on improving electronic assembly in blogs and other media, focuses on materials, equipment, processes, BGAs, QFPs, lead finishes, PWBs, etc. Look back at the first sentence and compare it to the second sentence. The thing we seldom discuss in examining ways to improve quality and productivity in our electronic assembly processes are the foibles and strengths of people.

Let’s explore the people aspect of electronics assembly by way of two examples, ACME and AJAX. ACME has the best equipment, the processes have been optimized by designed experiments to produce outstanding quality, and they use the best materials. AJAX has similar things going for it. However, at the end of the year, AJAX has noticeably greater productivity and profit. 

What is the difference? People.

At AJAX, the workers have an understanding of the importance of productivity and a passion for their role in it. As a result, a stencil is seldom misplaced and a component placement machine is almost never without components in the feeders. In the long run, this type of attention adds up to 10% or so greater productivity and perhaps 20% greater profit.

This is why when Patty, Pete, The Professor, and now Rob, are out on an adventure, they clearly focus on the technical issues, but never fail to catch the people issues, too.

And so it is with all of us, people are our greatest resource.

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Patty was checking her email. She noticed a note from someone who had attended last night’s SMTA meeting. Patty had just been elected chapter president, after giving a talk on the head-in-pillow defect. In her talk, she also shared how important it was to work closely with your materials and equipment suppliers. To her, it was obvious that her suppliers were interested in her success. If they were competent, why shouldn’t she rely on them for technical information and help. If she didn’t think they were competent, she should get new suppliers. She was surprised at how much “push back” she got from the attendees. Several people stated that they felt that suppliers where just out to make a sale and that a smart person just bought from the supplier with the cheapest price. Patty thought that this perspective was negative and self destructive. She was sure that 60% of all process knowledge was learned from her suppliers, either in person or at the technical shows like APEX and SMTAI. She felt the main reason to go to these shows was the technical program. And some of the best papers were presented by the better equipment and materials suppliers. 

One of their marketing VPs even told her, “We believe that the more technical help we give our customers, the more successful we will be.” 

“Well wasn’t that a condensation of what good business should be like?  He who helps his customer is the most successful,” she thought.

As she was thinking these thoughts a new email popped up on her PC. It was from Hal Lindsay, a noted curmudgeon.   Patty read on….

“ I heard you telling some of the people at the meeting last night that lead-free assembly had some process advantages: Hogwash. Lead-free has no process advantages, and it’s not needed,” he started.

After a few more complaints, he finished, “ It’s because of young tree huggers like you that never stood up and fought lead-free that we are in this mess to begin with.”

In preparing her response, Patty’s mind went back to some conversations about this she had had with The Professor. He had made two strong points:

1.       The first purpose of RoHS is to make recycling safer. So much recycling isperformed in poorer countries with chemically unsafe processes. RoHS compliant products will save the lives of the unfortunate people who have to perform this type of recycling to survive. 

2.       Lead-free soldering is challenging because the solder does not wet as well. This situation forced us to develop assembly processes with tighter process windows. However, an initially unseen benefit is that tighter lead spacings are possible with lead-free soldering because of this poore wetting. Many portable products such as mobile phones, could not be assembled with leaded solder. There would be too many shorts.

Patty was including this information in her response to grumpy Mr. Lindsay, when the phone rang. It was Rob.

He began, "我可能要出差去中国探访几家ACME在那里的新工厂。我想你可能也要在焊接工艺上做一些工作。"

(For our few readers that can’t read Mandarin: "It looks like I will be traveling to China to visit some of ACME's new factories there.   I think you will be going to work on some soldering issues too.")

“Whoa!,” Patty exclaimed, “Why would you be going to visit ACME’s factories in China?”

Rob went on, “You know things haven’t been going well here at AJAX, we never adopted “Lean Sigma” techniques like ACME did. Today, we had a layoff and I got hit.”

“Yikes!” screamed Patty. Her mind went through many scenarios with Rob being unemployed 5 weeks before their wedding.

“Easy girl,” Rob implored. “My GM called me in and said that he was sorry to see me go, but being a friend with your GM, he got me a job at ACME.   I am to be the liaison for the 3 factories that ACME has in China. My fleuncy in Mandarin made the difference,” he finished.

Patty and Rob were unusual for Americans, in that they both spoke Spanish and Mandarin. Both of their dads had encouraged them to take Mandarin at Tech as they had both taken many years of Spanish in high school. Both did a language study abroad (LSA) term and an internship in China. As their dads said, “If you can speak English, Spanish, and Mandarin, you can speak to almost any professional in the world.” Both Patty and Rob found that their language skills gave them a ready bond when they were abroad. One German colleague even told Patty that she was the only American he knew that would not fit the European view of Americans when they ask, “Are you bilingual, trilingual, or American?”

After Patty calmed down, she asked Rob why he thought she would be going.

He responded, “When your GM gave me the job offer on the phone, he alluded to a team visit to China, by me and this genius young woman that is a process expert. Apparently, they have some Head-in-Pillow, graping and productivity issues. I will be handling the business aspects, you the technical. He also mentioned he would like The Professor to go. I don’t think he knows we are engaged.”

Patty congratulated Rob and finished to conversation. She hoped that their being married wouldn’t create any issues in working together. She also was a little annoyed that she always seemed to be the last to know about trips that the executives were planning for her and her team. It was especially annoying that Pete seemed always know before her when they would need to go on one of their adventures. After all she was Pete’s boss. Well at least this time it was Rob, not Pete. There is now way Pete could know about this potential adventure.

She went back to finishing her note to cranky Hal Lindsay when she heard, “Pack your bags kiddo, it looks like China this time. Oh and Rob is going.”

 

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

I saw Patty at a recent SMTA meeting.  I mentioned that many of her fans would like to see a photo of her.  Surprisingly, neither of us had a camera.  As you remember she is also a self taught artist,  I asked if she would mind sketching herself.   Here tis.

 The reflow image of leaded and lead-free solder coutesy of Motorola.

UPDATE:

To be fair and thorough myself, I want to point out two things:

 1.       Several media, not just Circuitnet,  picked up the original story regarding tin whiskers as a possible cause of Toyota’s problems. The original article appears here: http://www.techeye.net/chips/electronic-tin-whiskers-may-be-behind-toyota-recalls

2.       Temporarily ignoring the poor science at the root of the “claim”, I maintain that editing out the key phrase “may be” from the original story contributes to an increased misunderstanding of the actual facts.

Now, here is my original post:

Folks,

Every so often a new electronics assembly technology comes along, and I am asked my opinion about it. The latest “new” technology for assembly is RF Activated “Green” Nano Solder.

My response when asked about this follows:

“I think Intel's caveat in the article tells it all:
 
‘Intel cautioned, however, that several engineering refinements need to be made before the new RF soldering method can be used commercially.’

 
Interpretation: This puppy needs $20 million of R&D before it is ready.
 
Nano solders have been studied for years.  They are interesting and have promise, but there are big hurdles.
 
People will say they want an exciting new technology like this, until that find that the soldering material costs much more than their current one, they need new equipment, etc.  All of the sudden today's process (disappointments included) doesn't look so bad.  It is hard to replace an incumbent process unless there is a strong need - and typically it must be at equal or lower cost.  These will be challenges for this proposed process.
 
So my take is, it is interesting process science, but let's wait awhile to see more data, prototypes and cost estimates before we get too excited.

Any new technology process must be evaluated under the following criteria:

1.     If “disruptive”, it must meet an overwhelming need. E.g.: If your process has a 95% first pass yield and the 5% of the product that is repaired only cost a small amount, you will be unlikely to want to take a chance on a new, unproven technology when the time comes to invest money in it.

2.     The new technology’s implementation must have a minimum of disruption, if implemented in a current process and the cost must be equal or less than today’s process. E.g.: You want to improve your process in #1, however if the new process requires radically new equipment and/or materials you will be hesitant to adopt it.

3.     The process will need several years to prove itself. You know the problems with today’s process, but what are the problems with the new process? You will likely want yield and reliability data. These requirements will take some time.

4.     You must consider the improvements in the old process. Often a new process will aim at where the old process is today, not recognizing that the old process is often improving by the time the new process is implemented.

Using these criteria, let’s look at the implementation of SMT technology in the age of through-hole (TH), circa 1980. How did it measure up to these four criteria?:

1.     SMT met an overwhelming need. One simply could not design a small, high performance personal product, like a mobile phone, with TH.

2.     SMT lines evolved from TH lines, sometimes with radical changes, but the need overwhelmed any disruption.

3.     Much work was performed on SMT products to demonstrate that reliability was acceptable.

4.     The need for SMT was so great that TH's "future" was not an issue.

Contrast this situation to the SMT process discussed above (that has 95% first pass yield) with the 5% fallout reworkable. It becomes difficult to envision making any “disruptive” change to a process like this…..it just won’t pay financially or in any other way.

Your comments?

Dr. Ron

Patty, Pete, and John prepare to do battle with "The Big O."

Patty and Pete were able to squeeze in 9 holes of golf, though it was really stressful for Patty. Pete was a good golfer, but not in Patty’s league; he typically shot in the low 80s for 18 holes compared to Patty’s 68-72 range.   Today, going into the 9^th hole, Patty was even par and Pete was one under. He was teasing her relentlessly.   The ninth hole was 532 yards long. Patty used all of her recent training and focused as she drove the ball. Her swing speed hit 114 mph and with a 4 mile an hour tailwind, her drive was 291 yards, 30 yards beyond Pete. Her second shot, with a five wood was 12 feet from the pin. Her putt was dead center for an eagle, Pete’s 8 foot birdie putt lipped out of the hole. Whew! She beat Pete by one stroke! Pete was still thrilled that he gave Patty such a close call.

As they left the golf course, Pete said, “John is really working miracles at the factory, given the constraints he is working under. He has developed a disciplined approach to changeovers and uptime, and has eliminated most waste. But the factory really needs to be cleaner and more organized. With all that is on his plate, and no cleaning staff, he will have trouble implementing a 5S. It will be hard to win new customers with the place looking like it does.”

The next morning, as they prepared for the meeting with Oscar Patterson, Patty noticed that John’s color was ashen.

“John, are you alright?” Patty asked.

 “You’ve never been in a meeting with Mr. Patterson. He can be a bit…uh…. difficult,” John stumbled out.

“From what I hear he is a ruthless, brutal dictator,” Pete added.

John did not disagree.

Patty thought it might be best to call back to her site GM to clarify her mission.

The GM told her, “This guy is a blowhard, it would be great if you could review with him your findings and get his buy-in. But, don’t take any grief from him. He forgets that he sold us his company. Now he has a boss, and it is me. I told him you were going to perform an audit and I want him to work with you.”

So Patty, John, and Pete went to Oscar Patterson’s office to review their findings. Patty was immediately intimidated by him. He was a huge man with a ponderous stomach. But the posters in his office were the worst. One read “I’m the Boss, you aren’t.” Another read, “My way or the highway.” Then she saw, “The Golden Rule of Management: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.” The last one she took time to read was especially troubling: “It’s a question of mind over matter: I don’t mind and you don’t matter.”

Patterson spoke first, “Let’s get this over with, I don’t have time to waste on this nonsense. I’m the boss and I’m responsible for profits, so give me your crap and get out of here.”

The Professor always advised Patty that after an audit it is best to present the strengths first and then the problems. However, never call the problems “problems,” call them “opportunities for improvement.”  “I learned this from my colleague Joe Belmonte,” The Professor told her. She had since met Joe at a few trade shows and was impressed by his wealth of experience and in-depth knowledge of assembly processes.

She started by discussing the very good 25% uptime, and the fact that the operators were quite good at changeovers.  Pete had pointed out that the operators told him that John was responsible for both of these successes. The operators liked and respected John, but realized he had a tough job working for Patterson.

As imagined, Patterson warmed up to this compliments. 

“I told ACME management that buying my company was a good deal. We cut costs and I am able to make a profit even though I have losers like John working for me,” Patterson bragged.

Patty was furious at this comment. Pete looked like he was going to jump across the table and take a swipe at the “Big O.” John just sat there looking defeated.

“This isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” boomed Patterson. “Continue.”

Patty then reviewed the 7 mudas. She had been surprised that the company did quite well in this part of the audit also, undoubtedly attributed to John:

1. Overproduction

2. Unnecessary transportation

3. Inventory

4. Motion

5. Defects

6. Over-Processing

7. Waiting

Hence, Patty’s comments were positive on this topic.

“You'se guys aren’t so bad,” boomed Patterson. “I told you I was good at generating profits, even stuck with a dufus like John here,” he finished.

At that comment, Pete’s faced turned the most crimson Patty had ever seen.

Patty then went on to “Opportunities for Improvement.” She thought she would start with 5S.

“We performed a “5S” audit of your facility. This manufacturing philosophy consists of:

1.       Sorting

2.       Set in Order

3.       Shining

4.       Standardizing

5.       Sustaining the Improvements,” she started.

“As ACME strives to get more customers for our contract manufacturing services, 5S is an important consideration, as many of our current and future customers practice Lean and especially 5S at their facilities,” Patty added.

As she went on she reviewed the lack of order and cleanliness in the facility. She had photos of dried solder paste on the stencil printers, the flux and dust “stalactites”, and several other examples of 5S violations. Patterson’s face soon matched Pete’s in its level of sanguinity. But he said nothing.

Patty then volunteered that she and Pete would work with John and his team to implement a 5S if desired.

Patty could see Patterson was ready to blow, but she felt she must go on. The only topic left was turning off the nitrogen in the wave soldering machine.  As Patty played the wave soldering video, surprisingly, Patterson seemed interested. 

She continued, “We think an opportunity for improvement would be to re-instate the use of nitrogen in the wave soldering process. First pass yields have dropped from 94% to 87%, thus increasing re-work. Or, perhaps, implementing a more robust wave solder flux. I contacted a wave flux vendor and I have some recommendations.”

At this Patterson became even redder in the face, in a rage he grabbed Patty’s laptop and threw it on the floor, instinctively Pete dove for the laptop, spun around and inserted his chest between it and the floor.  Patty had never seen such agility in a 45 year old man.

“You bozos are worse than John the clown here!" he shouted, as he gesticulated toward John. 

Patterson then kicked the trio out of his office. Pete was ready for a fight, but John and Patty, both visibly shaken, held him back.

Patty immediately called Sam, her GM, and told him in detail their findings and what happened at the meeting. She gave a good impression of what John had accomplished in spite of Oscar Patterson.

“Wow! Patty, I’m so sorry. I didn’t expect it would be this bad. I’ll change my schedule and fly there today. This situation will not stand. Why don’t you and Pete take a break and meet me for dinner at Dinardos at 7PM? Bring John with you.”

Patty was glad that she backed up her files last night on SugarSynch, even though it looked like her laptop was fine. 

Colonial Williamsburg was only a 45 minute drive away, and it was just 10AM. Taking Sam’s advice to “take a break,” she and Pete drove away and toured this beautiful living museum. They also had lunch at the Trellis.

Surprisingly, with the Williamsburg respite and all of the walking Pete and Patty did, they were more relaxed and hungry than they thought they would be. 

On the way back to Dinardo’s Patty asked Pete, “How did you save my laptop, I’ve never seen such an agile, athletic move?”

“Twenty-nine years of beach volleyball,” Pete answered.  “I was good enough that I tried out for the Olympics  in ’92. Humbling experience,” he added.

About 10 minutes before they arrived at the restuarant, Patty's mother called with updates on the wedding plans.....only 10 weeks and counting!

John had arrived early at the restaurant and Patty and Pete met him. He looked very nervous. 

“John, how’s it going?” asked Pete.

“It’s hard to be optimistic,” John answered.

On that note Sam walked into the restaurant.

“This must be John Davis, the new GM, having replaced Oscar Patterson,” Sam stated with great cheer.

These words didn’t seem to register with John.

“Congratulations John, well deserved,” Patty and Pete chimed in.

In the few days they were there, Patty and Pete had grown quite close to John.

As the information sank in, tears welled up in John’s eyes.

“Do you think I’m up to the job?” he asked.

“John, you are already doing the job,” Patty answered.

Epilogue:

Sam had felt it best to have the police accompany him to see Oscar Patterson with the news that he was fired. Patterson became so agitated that the police had to threaten to arrest him before he calmed down and was escorted out of the facility.

With John at the helm, the “shop” was not recognizable in 3 weeks, as he implemented a 5S program that he designed with Patty and Pete.

He performed some DOEs to find a wave solder flux that could perform well, without nitrogen, for most of his applications. However, he still used nitrogen for a few boards that had a large thermal mass. All of these, and the many other, decisions he made were data driven.

Have you performed a Lean audit of your facility? Do you regularly practice 5S and look to eliminate the 7 mudas? Are your decisions “data driven” as John’s are?

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Folks,

Our trio continue on their adventure:

As Patty, The Professor, and Pete maneuvered around the partially completed product, Patty noticed signs everywhere that proclaimed: “Being Responsive to Our Customer is Our Biggest Asset.” 

Pete commented, “This place is so crowded with partially built product that not another tube of solder paste or even a solder perform could fit out here.”

Our trio then approached a technician who was working on a product changeover. Patty introduced herself in Spanish and asked what he was doing.

Pedro’s face beamed when he heard Patty addressing him in his native tongue. He responded to her in Spanish (translated here.)

“I’m doing a product changeover,” Pedro replied, “We are really good at them, because we do so many. This is actually the second changeover I’ve done on this line today,” he continued.

“Your first job, must have been a very small lot size,” Pete commented.

“Oh, no,” Pedro chuckled. “We never ran the first job.” He went on, “Another more important job than the fist came along and we were told by our supervisor to changeover for that one,” he added.

“You mean you never ran any boards for the first job?", The Professor queried.

“That’s right,” said Pedro. “This only happens a couple of times a month,” Pedro confirmed.

“I really like working here,” Pedro shared. “I feel proud that I have learned to be so good at change-overs and all of us have been able to work a lot of overtime since the ‘Being Responsive’ campaign started. We feel like we are really making a difference and getting great pay,” he beamed. “Just look at all of the product on the floor,” We are really producing a lot of stuff,” Pedro boasted.

Our team strolled away from Pedro and his co-workers and ran into a very hyper man, Phil Marcos, production manager. Phil was one of those types that made you nervous just being near him.

“Great job! Great job!, These folks are really supporting my responsiveness campaign,” Phil projected at 250 words a minute in a strong Long Island accent. “I don’t have much time to chat, I have to stop production on line 4 for a 'Being Responsive' job that just came in. I need to have Pedro and the ‘changeover guys’ change that line over for this new job,” he finished as he trotted away. “He looked back and said, “I’m so excited that next quarter we will have 15% more production and that sales are up 10% this year.”

As Phil left, The Professor commented, “It’s a good thing Phil doesn’t speak Spanish, I’m not sure my ancient brain could process 250 Spanish words a minute.” 

They all burst out in laughter.

“I wonder where they will put all of the WIP when production increases 15%?” asked Pete.

Our team spent the better part of two days reviewing production and inventory figures. They learned that the site had 8 SMT/Through-hole mixed assembly lines. Before Phil Marcos arrival, normally six of the lines were dedicated to jobs with very large lot sizes. Some of the jobs ran for months without a changeover. Since Phil’s arrival, more high mix, low volume jobs have been sought after by sales. The two lines, devoted to such jobs in the past, were not enough to handle the new high mix jobs. The customers demanded fast turn around for these jobs as they paid a 5% premium. Since profit margins at this site were about 10%, these jobs seemed like a great deal financially. The meet this new demand most lines were regularly disrupted. There seemed to be little logic in how a line was selected, but all agreed that the facility looked “responsive.”

Pete found a room for Patty, The Professor, and himself to review the data. Pete had been watching The Professor and it was clear that he was holding back to let Pete and Patty learn by searching for the answer without too much help from him.

“The loss in profit clearly relates to the changeovers,” Patty said. “Professor, why don’t you let Pete and I figure this one out and see if we get it right?” she added.

The Professor beamed at his two protégés.

After numerous calculations, Patty and Pete presented their conclusions to The Professor. After a few minor suggestions, The Professor agreed with their conclusions. They went off to review their findings with Harry Hopkins, Jane (the new corporate CFO), and hyper Phil Marcos.

Patty started the meeting with a preamble.  “We developed a spreadsheet of costs, sales and profit. We are sure it is not the type of format finance uses, but it helps us to understand the problem,” she began. 

She projected the spreadsheet onto the screen and continued, “As you can see, sales are indeed up by 10% for this year, but that extra income was more than lost because inventory costs are up 66% and labor costs up 22%.” Patty went on, “The labor cost is understandable, you are doing many changeovers, often on second shift. Not only do you have to pay overtime premiums, but the many changeovers cause some disruption to all workers…..your breakrooms have never been so crowded!”

“Inventory carrying costs are a little harder to understand,” Patty continued. “Your increase in inventory is mostly product on the shop floor or WIP. Last year there was almost no WIP, now there is about $4 million in partially finished product on the floor at anytime. This decreases your inventory turns from 17 to about 10. We were able to make these inventory turn estimates, because holding each week of inventory costs about 1% of the yearly cost of all of the inventory. The bottom line is that the WIP is killing profitability, the 5% cost adder for the responsiveness jobs doesn’t come close to making up for this loss.”

Hyper Phil moaned, and then rapidly said, “You’re saying that my being responsive to the customer campaign is a failure.”

“Not really Phil,” intoned The Professor. "Just be more careful in your implementation."

“Can you give an example?” moaned Phil.

“May I tackle this one?" asked Pete. “We did quite a thorough analysis and are convinced that you can implement 90% of your ‘responsiveness’ jobs and not negatively affect production,” Pete went on. "As an example, 4 ‘responsiveness’ jobs last week where started at 1PM and finished at 6PM, too late for the day’s shipments. They didn’t ship until 10AM the next day. They could have been assembled on the next shift, with no disruptive changeovers and no extra WIP hanging around.”

Patty added, “We believe that you should leave 5 of your 8 lines undisturbed to handle jobs with very large lot sizes and have three  lines for some large lot sizes and the ‘responsiveness’ jobs." 

“We can work with you to develop a plan to minimize changeovers and WIP while continuing to be responsive. Your shop flow should be organized more like a ballet than a hockey game, quoting Phil Crosby. You can be responsive and minimize disruption on the shop floor… a balance is needed,” she summed up.

“One thing to remember, is ‘Emerson’s Rule,’” The Professor interjected.

“What is that? everyone asked. 

“It is from my dear friend, Professor Bob Emerson of Binghamton University, ‘Never release a job to the floor unless you are committed to finishing it uninterrupted.’ Bob is an expert on inventory management, he knows the crippling cost of inventory if not well managed, especially WIP, which includes much added value,” The Professor finished.

The meeting broke up and Phil, Harry, and Jane gratefully thanking the trio. Patty and Pete agreed to stay for a few days to help Phil set up a modified production control system.

“Boy, I was surprised how well that was accepted,“ Patty confessed. 

Pete, who usually has insider info, responded, “Phil was told to work with us or else…. I guess he listened.”

On that note, Patty’s cellphone buzzed. It was her mother, with the latest wedding details.

Cheers,
Dr. Ron

After just finishing her department’s monthly activity report, Patty took a break to stare out of her window, admiring the beauty of last night’s fresh snowfall. Her mind quickly went to the events of the past week. Rob had “popped the question” and Patty had quickly said yes. Her and Rob’s mothers were ecstatic. Both Patty and Rob liked and enjoyed each other’s parents. Patty recognized this as a blessed situation, but both mothers were now spending 10 hours each day planning the wedding. A result, Patty and Rob were both fielding 3 or 4 calls a day from each mom. Patty decided to go “with the flow” and count her blessings that both she and Rob had great parents.

She briefly looked down at the ring Rob had given her. It was a striking two carat emerald with 0.4 carat diamonds on either side. Rob was concerned that Patty might not like an emerald, but he explained that the price of diamonds is controlled and that “you could pave your driveway with diamonds for each equally good sapphire, ruby and especially emerald that exists in nature.” He went on to tell her that “all of the emerald mines of Colombia produce only one or two good 2 carat emeralds per year.”

Well one of them was right there on her finger. In addition to the uniqueness of emerald, the setting was in rhodium, the hardest and rarest of the precious metals. “Five hundred times more rare than gold,” Rob told her. She was especially impressed when she looked up rhodium on the internet and found this quote: “Rhodium has been used for honours, or to symbolize wealth, when more commonly used metals such as silver, gold, or platinum are deemed insufficient.” Gold and platinum insufficient!?

Rob was really secretive about how he found such an apparently rare ring. But it was consistent with his many other successes in life. She was thrilled to have him as a future hubby, even if she did beat him at golf. 

These happy and a little stressful thoughts were interrupted, by Pete coming to her door.

“Hey, kiddo, get packed, looks like will be going on another trip. Guadalajara, this time. Como es su espanol?” Pete said with gusto.

“Mi espanol es muy bueno. Why do you think we will go to Guadalajara?” Patty asked.

“Well, I just talked to Pedro and he said that they performed our productivity audit. Uptime is 29%, and all lines are time balanced to +/- 2%, about as best as could be hoped.”

Patty and her team developed a “Productivity Audit” from what they learned with The Professor in their recent adventures together.

“So then what is the problem?” Patty inquired.

Pete responded, “Jane, the finance exec we met on our trip to South Carolina, implemented a company-wide profitability software program. It was implemented and Guadalajara is 10% too low. No one can figure out why. I think we’ll want The Professor for this one.”

Patty called and was stunned that The Professor was again available. Apparently this was his off term teaching at Ivy University, as he teaches over the summer.  

When our trio arrived at ACME’s Guadalajara facility they all spoke in Spanish. Patty had taken Spanish starting in 4^th grade through high school, Spanish was one of the 7 or 8 languages The Professor spoke and Pete was second generation from Puerto Rico. They were surprised that the site GM, Harry Hopkins, asked them to speak in English.

“Give me a break, I grew up in Boston, I can barely speak English,” he joked in his heavy Boston accent. “We want you to help us find that lost 10%, we must be doing something wrong. Help us find it,” Harry implored. “One thing I can tell you is that I am really proud of my team, they are really working hard, you can tell by all of the product that is out there. It makes me proud just to walk out on the shop floor and see all of the product!”, he went on.

Patty was relieved that Harry was so supportive. Apparently Jane had sent the “good word” about how the trio had helped ACME’s South Carolina plant.

As the trio went on a tour, one thing immediately struck Patty, there was hardly room to walk around. There were partly assembled boards all over the place.

At the end of the tour Patty spoke up, “This facility is striking in how much partially completed product is on the shop floor.”

“And there-in lies the problem,”  responded The Professor.

How can profits be off when uptime and line balancing are so good? Could it be that Guadalajara uses poor performing solder paste, fluxes, or performs? Will our illustrious trio find the problem? Does Patty really like her emerald engagement ring? Stay tuned for the latest.

Folks,

While at SMTAI a few weeks ago, I ran into Patty. She agreed to sit down for an interview. Here it is.

Dr. Ron (DR): Patty, it’s great to see you here at SMTAI. Congratulations on your promotion and many accomplishments over the past year.

Patty: Thanks. BTW, I really enjoyed your talk, “SMT: The Next Twenty-Five Years.” Was there really a song, when the transistor radio came out, called “Transistor Sister?”

DR: Absolutely! “Transistor Sister,” was a part of my youth. It was sung by Freddy Cannon in 1961.

Patty, a number of folks wrote in saying that they liked my blog postings about you, but they felt that the stories couldn’t possibly be true in a modern electronic assembly company.  Can you enlighten us?

Patty: Yes, I saw those comments. All of the blog postings have been real case studies, if anything they are understated. The Professor claims that ten to fifteen years ago, when profit margins were higher and OEMs did much of their own assembly, assembly optimization was viewed as a science and assembly was orchestrated more like a ballet. Process discipline existed. As assembly left the OEMs and profit margins decreased, there was little money for assembly process optimization analysis. Electronic assembly entered the era of “hockey” management. Much of assembly became disorganized and subject to “the tyranny of the urgent.”

DR: So I gather your point would be that right when we need process science the most, we aren’t investing in it?

Patty: Process science would be nice, but I’m convinced if management just had a sense of urgency about line uptime and productivity it would make a world of difference.

DR: “Hockey Management,” “Tyranny of the Urgent?”

Patty: “Hockey Management” is a term developed by Phil Crosby in his book, “Quality is Free.” He tells us that electronic assembly should be orchestrated like a ballet. Everything is planned ahead, we know where the stencil is for the next job, the parts are on the feeder racks or at least the reels are ready, etc. This is “Ballet Management” (everything organized.) An example of “Hockey Management, “ would be a case where the team has lined up the next job, all set up is complete……management calls and tells the team to run another job…..6 hours is lost. In an assembly line, that is a loss of at least $15-75K of product. Profit lost…never to be found again.

DR: “Tyranny of the Urgent?”

Patty: You are so busy doing what is urgent (i.e. switching the job that lost 6 production hours) that you never do what is important (i.e. setting up a system that minimizes such job switching.) BTW, as you can imagine, I learned all of this stuff from The Professor.

DR: He’s an interesting guy. I know him a little, I’ve seen him a few times when I visited Ivy University. Give us your perspective.

Patty: In addition to being super smart, he is very kind. But, I have to admit that traveling with him is a little stressful.

DR: How so?

Patty: Well, in addition to being smart, he is strongly convinced that it is important to be able to perform calculations in your head. He claims that if Fred (Of the "Saving a House, Losing a Mansion" story, DR), could do this and practiced it, he would have known instinctively that the solder paste that “Saved a House” was “Losing a Mansion.” His first thought would have been to estimate what the minutes of downtime, caused by the cheaper paste, cost.

DR: I’m still not sure I understand why traveling with The Professor stressful?

Patty: Oh, yeah I forgot. He wants to make sure I am an “ace” at doing math in my head. He is always giving me problems to calculate when we travel…..it can be a little stressful when he is disappointed when I don’t know something or can’t perform the calculation.

DR:  Can you give us an example?

Patty: On our last trip he asked me to calculate the amount of times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia would fill Cayuga Lake. He gave me the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia as about 300 billion barrels and the dimensions of Cayuga Lake as approximately 50 miles long, 2 miles wide and 200 feet deep. You should have seen the look in his eyes when I told him that I didn’t know that there were 40 gallons in a barrel and one cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds. Knowing this and the fact that a gallon of water is 8 pounds, you can calculate that a cubic foot is about 8 gals, hence a barrel is about 5 cubic feet. He thinks that everyone knows things like this that, of course, they don’t really know.  How many square feet per acre, how many acres in a square mile yada, yada, yada? But he means well.

DR: Well we should probably go back to the conference. Can you close by giving us a summary of the key things to do to improve productivity?

Patty: Sure, in order of importance:

1.       Measure line uptime

a.       Set continuous improvement goals for line uptime

b.      Have a plan to reduce downtime, especially for changeovers and line assists

2.       Use the best performing materials (solder paste, underfill, flux, prefroms, etc.) and supplies (stencils, squeegees, etc)

a.       Remember the lessons in “Saving a House, Losing a Mansion), the best performing materials and supplies are always the cheapest.

3.       Have a “Line Down Management Escalation Plan”

a.       Senior management should be alerted if the line is down for an unplanned reason for more than 30 minutes.

4.       Assure that your lines are time balanced.

There are a few more points we can discuss at another time, but these are likely the most important. Oh, and all of Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves would fill Cayuga Lake 2 to 3 times!

Folks,

The adventures of Patty and The Professor continue.....

Patty and The Professor agreed to work with two of the local process engineers to develop a plan of attack to try and find the lost productivity. 

Patty spoke first, “Its tempting to look just at the new solder paste, but this approach wouldn’t be thorough.” 

The Professor and the two process engineers, Joe and Ann agreed. So they went ahead and developed a thorough productivity assessment plan, including uptime and line balancing measurements and evaluating changeover and assist times. Ann pointed out that one of the five lines was still using the old paste. All agreed that this situation was good news as they would have a new paste to old paste comparison. It was already lunch time and everyone was hungry, so off they went to a local Outback.

While riding in the car, Patty’s cell phone rang. It was Rob.

“Hey Patty,” Rob cheerfully started, Guess what I shot last night at the Golf Club of New England….a four under par 68! “The pro told me it was the best round this year at the course, from the back tees.” he finished.

“Rob, that’s great!” Patty cheerfully responded. Truth be told, she was really happy for Rob. He was the number two golfer on the men’s team at Tech a few years ago as a senior. She was a junior then and was the best women golfer in Tech’s history. The few times they played then, she beat him. Ever since her dinner date with him, after their success at AJAX, they had been going steady. At the time she had been thinking of breaking up with Jason and Rob’s invite to dinner was all the catalyst that she needed. In the last year or so, Jason would just watch sports on TV and drink beer. He didn’t have a fitness program or a real plan for his life. Rob was so much different. He worked out, mostly to improve his golf game and he was getting a Master’s degree part time.

After they started dating, Rob and Patty played golf together with some other guy friends from Tech. She usually shot the low score, but the three other guys were longer off the tee than she was. Her superior iron play and short game made the difference.

At lunch this working foursome talked about the audit they were about to perform.

“There is one comical thing we should tell you before we start,” Joe said with a twinkle in his eye. “Its about the “Saving a House Program,” he added.

At that, Ann started laughing and inadvertently started choking on her “sweet tea.” Patty was just about ready to perform the Heimlich maneuver when Ann revived.

With Ann still red in the face and laughing, The Professor requested, “Yes, please tell us.”         

Joe chimed in, “So that Ann doesn’t choke to death, let me take a stab at it. The new cheaper solder paste has not been very popular and has generated many complaints. The new COO, Fred decided he had to do something. He estimated that the new paste saves $100,000 a year on all five lines, that’s about what a modest house costs locally. So he tells all of the complainers that using the new paste saves enough money in a year to buy a new house. He even found a house for sale on the internet for $100,000 and had posters of it made with the words: “Saving Enough for a House.” It worked, people stopped complaining. “

“Joe, can you tell us what some of the complaints were about the solder paste?” asked The Professor.

“Well, for one thing, it is stiff coming out of the tubes or jars, we have to kneed it or it won’t print, Joe responded.

“Hmm,” both Patty and The Professor mused.

“Also, if we stop a line for a few minutes the paste stiffens up and we have to perform some “dummy” prints to kneed it,” chimed in Ann. “Sometimes even after this, the first print has to be discarded due to poor hole fill. It wastes time and solder paste,” Ann finished.

“Don’t forget the smell,” Joe teased.

At that, Ann just about spit up her sweet tea.

“The new paste literally stinks,” Joe added. “Fortunately, the vendor added some perfume recently.”

“What about reliability of the finished product?” The Professor asked evenly.

“That’s what is surprising. Its as good as the old paste.” Ann replied. “We performed some tests and asked around, the reliability is very good, Ann finished.

“A pleasant surprise indeed,” The Professor said.  

Our little group finished lunch and headed back to get to work on the audit. Ann and Patty and Joe and The Professor formed teams and went off into the factory. They performed detailed analysis of changeover times, assist times, line balancing, uptime, etc on the four lines using the new solder paste and the one line using the old solder paste.

As Patty approached one of the lines she saw a cheerful looking gent about 45 years old replenishing the solder on one of the stencil printers. Ann introduced her to Wilbur and asked if it was OK for Patty to ask him some questions.

“Darlin,” he said to Ann in his backwoods drawl, “Anything you gorgeous gals want to ask me is jus fine.”

“How does replenishing the new paste compare to the old paste?” Patty asked.

“Well, it takes a lot longer, stirring the paste and all, but to “Save a House” I’m willing to put up with it, sighed Wilbur.

After a total of a day and a half of work the team reassembled. The Professor suggested that Patty lead the discussion. Many calculations and comparisons were performed, finally after several hours they were ready to meet with Fred Perkins and Jane Wilson. Patty agreed to speak.

Patty, addressed the small gathering. She presented the approach they used to collect data, their analysis techniques and the fact that they had reached a consensus.

Patty went on the say, “The evidence is persuasive that:

1.       The site productivity is down about 8%, this will reduce profits about 12%

2.       The main culprit appears to be the new solder paste.”

At this Fred slammed his fist on the disk. His face a bright crimson, he shouted at Patty, “Liar, liar, you corporate types are all alike! You come here from your Ivory Tower and tell us how to assemble a product. You have never had to meet a payroll and make a profit in your life. I’ve been out on the line, it only takes two or three minutes longer per change over with the new paste and replenish times are even less.”

At these comments Jane rolled her eyes and glared at Fred. It was clear she wasn’t intimidated by him.

Patty shot back, “Fred you are correct, let’s look at the numbers. We measured your average uptime at about 25%, which is quite good. That means the lines are running two hours in an eight hour shift or 120 minutes. Eight percent of 120 minutes is about ten minutes a day. A typical line has two changeovers a day each requiring 2 extra minutes and 6 solder paste replenishments taking an extra 1 minute each with the new paste. This totals 10 minutes, hence cuts production by 8%.”

Fred screamed back, “This is mathematical gobblygook. I saved the company $100K a year.” 

At this Fred stormed out of the room. The remaining folks stared at each other.

Finally Jane broke the silence, “It never occurred to me how precious a few minutes here and there can be in how they affect profit. With the new paste, we will lose about 12% of our total profit of $10M or $1.2 M per year. It appears that while Fred was “saving a house,” we were “losing a mansion.””

Epilogue: Three weeks later Fred was “promoted” to Corporate Compliance Officer.   Jane became the new site CEO/COO. The old solder paste was re-instated a day after Fred left. A few of the old timers kept some of the “Saving a House” posters for future reminiscing.

 Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Folks,

The adventures of Patty and The Professor continue.....

Patty was staring out the window of her new office. She had just been made manager of a new department responsible for corporate wide productivity and advanced processes. At 25 years old, she was the youngest manager at ACME by 6 years. She was surprised that Pete was one of the folks in the new department and was concerned that Pete might have trouble accepting her as his boss. 

When Patty mentioned this concern, Pete replied, “Hey ‘Kid’ are you joking, I’m thrilled to be in your department. Not only is the work the most interesting, but you are one of the few managers that really knows what they’re doing.”

Considering that Pete was Patty’s father’s age, this vote of confidence meant a lot. 

The view out of her office window was terrific. She could see some of the local hills in Southern New Hampshire and the Fall color change was striking.  I few office mates claimed that on a clear day you could just see the top of Mount Monadnock . Patty had made some calculations using the position of her office, the distance and height of the local hills and had proven to herself that “the most climbed mountain in the US” was 100 meters to short to be seen from her window. But the sky was so clear she couldn’t help by strain her eyes to see it she could get a glimpse of that majestic beak. Her pleasant interlude was jarred by the rude, demanding ringing of her office phone.

“Advanced Processes, Patty speaking,” she cheerfully spoke into the phone.

“Patty, it’s Sam, can you come to my office now?” the phone spoke to her.

It was Sam Watkins, the site GM, and his call now did not make her nervous. Ever since the first visit of The Professor, Sam had treated her like a valued member of the team. It was his suggestion to make a corporate center of competence Re productivity and advanced processes and make Patty the manager. When he gave her the job, he told her that a lot of the work would be corporate trouble shooting. She expected that Sam’s call related to this topic.

When she entered his office, Sam got right to the point. “Patty, there’s a crisis in our plant in Columbia, SC. A new COO took over 4 months ago and he went on a cost cutting spree. Since then the plant is making 8% less profit. We can’t figure out why. Go there and find out what’s going on. And develop a plan to fix it,” he ordered.

Patty excitedly went back to her office. She called Pete in and they discussed plans for their trip. Patty was trying to limit her use of The Professor, but this assignment seemed to beg for his participation.    He so impressed management, with his uptime improvement recommendations, that he was now on a permanent consulting retainer.

Sam said it best, “Every time The Professor visits one of our facilities they make several more million dollars a year. I wish he lived at ACME!”

Patty made a call to The Professor and to her surprise he was available. They agreed to meet at the Columbia airport at 12 noon in two days.

The time passed quickly and before she knew it she was in a rental car driving to the ACME facility in Columbia. Their first meeting was with the assembly process engineering team and the new COO. After introductions the new COO, Fred Perkins spoke.

“I really don’t know why you are here,” he commented bruskly. “Profits are only down 5%, it’s probably just a random fluctuation.   I came here with a mandate to cut costs and dammit I did. I couldn’t believe what we were paying  for solder paste, I found a vendor that would charge 25% less. This was the first cost savings I implemented. Solder paste is solder paste. It’s just like butter. When I was COO of American Foods, they were paying too much for butter, I found a vendor that would charge 9% less.   Butter is butter, solder paste is solder paste,” he concluded. 

“How much money will you save on paste this year,” Patty enquired.

“For all of our five lines, $100,000,” Fred proudly answered.

“How much profit do your lines produce per year?” The Professor asked.

“We have 5, 20 -2 lines,” replied Jane Wilson the site CFO.

“What’s a 20-2 line? “ asked Patty.

“Oh, sorry. It’s a term we use to here to describe line financial metrics. The “20” stands for 20 million in sales and the “2” stands for $2 million in profit.” Jane responded.

“Thanks,” said Patty.

“Oh, but I guess we would have to call them 18.4 -1.84 lines now that the productivity and profit are down by 8%,” Jane sarcastically said as she glared at Fred.

At this comment, Fred lost his cool, he slammed his fist on the table and shouted at Jane.

“It isn’t 8%, its only 5% and I told you it’s just a random fluctuation,” he fumed.

Patty had wanted to ask if a solder evaluation was performed on the new solder paste, but she knew the answer would be "no."  With Fred's face a bright crimson, she rightly assessed that now was not the time to ask this question, let alone what sort of solder reliability the new paste had.

Is the lost profit just a random fluctuation? If not, what is the cause? Oh, and how are Patty and Rob doing? Stayed tuned for the latest.

So far the meeting with The Professor had proven very valuable John thought. He was anxious to hear the other suggestions The Professor had.  

 The Professor began to speak. “Change-overs are what really hurts ACME’s uptime and hence productivity,” The Professor commented. 

Pete was surprised. “Even you were impressed with our system of having a white board to document logistics status for each future job,” said Pete. 

“You are correct,” responded The Professor. “However, a change-over takes you about 2-3 hours and you have one or two change-overs per line per day,” The Professor added.

 “We have a high product mix business, it’s what we do,” said John. 

“The good news is, you can cut your change-over time to 30 minutes,” shared The Professor. 

“How?” asked John. “By using feeder racks,” explained The Professor. “These racks allow you to setup the component reels for the next job while the current job is running. Admittedly they cost about $30,000, but they will pay for themselves in weeks. Right now you lose more than two hours per change-over loading the feeders on to the component placement machines. With the feeder racks, you just roll them and lock them in place,” said The Professor.

Pete moaned, “We already have feeder racks. We only used them once, because they stick on the carpet when we move them.” 

This comment caused The Professor to groan internally, but he hid it well. He had noticed the frayed carpet near the component placement machines. 

John was beside himself. “It’s a good thing we are not The Professor’s students……I don’t think we would be heading for an ‘A,’ “ he thought. John responded to Pete’s comment, “Pete, let’s get facilities to remove that rug and start using the feeder racks ASAP.”

Patty listened to all of this with comical fascination. She had harassed Pete about using the feeder racks several times. While the meeting was going on she drew a sketch of The Professor, who is notoriously camera shy. Oh, and she decided on the restaurant, Aujourd’hui in nearby Boston. Maybe they can pick up a Red Sox game while they’re there.

Epilogue: Six months later ACME’s uptime was a respectable 30.4%. John never had to buy another line. The improved productivity enabled ACME to increase their market share. Patty’s dinner and ball game were a complete success. She handled her victory modestly and she and Pete became best friends. Pete also joined the ranks of The Professor’s many admirers.

Dr. Ron’s note: I know that a story like this must seems too comical to be true. However, every point and the associated uptime numbers, lost time etc, are all based on a real situation with no exaggeration. The names have been changed to protect the innocent (guilty?)

What is your uptime??

 Cheers,

Dr. Ron

The continuation of The Professor's second visit to ACME......

"Well what should we do Professor?" John said weakly.  "Clearly, not shut the line down over the lunch hour," The Professor responded quickly.  "We can't," said John, "the operators are  all friends and they count on having lunch together." 

"How much are they paid per hour?" asked The Professor. 

"Ten dollars," replied John. 

 "You can pay them $15 per hour and still make more profit if they keep the line running over the lunch hour," The Professor opined. 

"Fifteen dollars per hour for the lunch time or the 40 hour week?" John asked nervously. 

 "For the whole week," was The Professor's reply. 

"I find that hard to believe," John shot back. 

"Consider this,”  said The Professor, ” your line is up only 9.7% of an 8 hour shift, that's only 47 minutes.  Today you lost 95 minutes over the lunch hour.  You may be able to increase your uptime to greater than 15%, by keeping the line running over lunch.  I modeled your business with ProfitPro3.0 cost estimating software, your company will make millions more per year if you keep the lines running over lunch.  I have worked with other companies to make this change, it is really easy with a 30 minute lunch hour.  If 5 people normally run the line, you have just one stay back over lunch hour, that way each person only misses the lunch hour once a week."

John thought optimistically, "There is such a thing as a free lunch."

"Now let's talk about what we can do to double the uptime from the 15% we will get by running the lines over lunch," said the Professor.

Patty listened to all of this in amazement, The Professor was helping ACME more than she thought possible.

Yes, John will keep his job.  What is The Professor's plan to get uptime to 30% or more?  We still haven't learned where Patty will go to dinner.  Stay tuned for the latest.

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Dr. Ron note:  As surprising as this may seem, this story is based on real events.  The uptime numbers and improvements are from real examples.  Any company that can acheive 35% or more uptime can compete with anyone in the world, even in low labor rate countries.  Sadly, few companies know their uptime or have an urgency to improve it.

Folks,

Business was good at ACME.  Even in these challenging times, the company's three assembly lines could not keep up with demand.  John, the manger of the assembly lines, decided to request the funds for an additional assembly line.  A member of his team, Patty, suggested he might want to consult "The Professor,*" before getting a new line. The Professor taught a course on line balancing that Patty took at the SMTAI conference last summer.  Line balancing is an important part of optimizing productivity in electronic assembly.  A balanced line ensures that the component placement process, usually the "constraint," is the fastest possible by assuring that each placement machine spends the same amount of time placing components.  If any machine is waiting for the others, assembly time is being wasted.  In a sense line balancing is an application of Goldratt's Theory of Constraints . John remembered that when Patty applied what she learned from The Professor, throughput increased 25%.  Unfortunately, Patty did not attend The Professor's other class on "Increasing Line Uptime."

John decided to have a chat with Patty about The Professor.  "Patty, why do you think I should consult with The Professor, about getting a new line?" 

 "Well John, perhaps with some effort to improve our uptime, we wouldn't have to buy another line," said Patty.

 “Patty, that’s a good point,” replied John.

Patty contacted The Professor and he agreed to fit ACME into his hectic schedule. Upon his arrival, The Professor was given a tour. As part of the tour he was shown the process that ACME used to minimize changeover time between jobs. The Professor appeared to be impressed. After the tour, The Professor asked if a brief meeting could be held with the engineers and managers to discuss the situation.

“What is the average line uptime?” The Professor asked the assemblage. 

There was some hemming and hawing, finally Pete, the senior process engineer replied, “I’d say at least 95%, we work our fannies off out there.” There was a murmur of agreement from the 9 or 10 people in the room. 

Finally John spoke up, “Professor, what is your definition of uptime?” 

The Professor responded, “Simply the percent of time an assembly line is running.” Pete again responded that 95% was the right number.

The Professor asked for some production metrics and performed some calculations on his laptop. In a few moments he commented, “From the data you gave me, I estimate that your average line uptime is about 10%.” 

Upon hearing this, Pete became red in the face, especially after Patty whispered in his ear, “I told you so.” The noise in the room became so loud that John was concerned he might have a riot on his hands. The Professor asked to speak and John, in a booming voice, asked for calm.

“Let’s not become angry, perhaps my calculations are off. Why don’t we measure the uptime for a few weeks to be certain.” 

“How do we do that?” asked Pete, his face still crimson. 

“Each day one process engineer will go out to the lines every 30 minutes. If the line is running, he will put a 1 in an Excel® spreadsheet cell, if the line is not running a 0 will be entered,” responded the professor.” It was agreed that this will be done and The Professor will be back in two weeks.

Will Pete’s red face return to normal? Will the line uptime be 95%? Will Patty and Pete ever be on speaking terms again?  Stay tuned for the next episode.

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

* The Professor, as he is affectionately called by his many students, is a kindly older man who works at a famous university.  Few know his real name.  The Professor is an expert in process optimization.

Folks,

Recently, I ran into The Professor. He graciously agreed to an interview. The following is the discussion from our meeting. Note: I was a student and mentee of his in the ‘70s, hence he is used to calling me “Ronnie.”

Dr. Ron (DR): Professor, I’m glad you have some time to chat.

The Professor (TP): Ronnie, it’s good to see you after all of these years. I’m glad to see you finally learned to write decently.  I’ve been reading your blogs…not too bad. Boy, the first time I edited your thesis years back…..

DR: Ah, er, thanks. Maybe after that compliment, I can ask some questions?

TP: Ask away Ronnie, ask away.

DR: Professor, you are one of the world’s experts on productivity. What is the biggest mistake you find that most people make regarding their facility's productivity?

TP: Well that’s an easy one. It’s best to share it with a parable. Let’s say that the government has decided to let you print, legally, all of the money you want. They provide the printing machines, paper and ink. All you have to do is order what you need. They will deliver it in two days. You can use the money that you print any way you like. Being altruistic, you share the money with family and friends to a point that many folks now depend on you. Let’s switch roles, will pretend that I am you and you are me. Then pretend that you stop by for a visit to my facility and the “line” is down. You’ll ask me why, and I’ll respond in terms familiar to electronic assembly.

DR: OK, Professor, er, I mean Ronnie, why is the line down?

TP: Well, we couldn’t find the stencil, and it was close to break time, so we took a break.

DR: How long has the line been down?

TP: Maybe 45 minutes, after our break, we got sidetracked with a phone call from the boss.

TP: Let’s try again. Pretend you are visiting later in the day. See, if you can enhance the dialogue.

DR: OK, did you ever find the stencil?

TP: Well, we found the stencil an hour after your visit. It’s important also to talk to the boss when he calls, that took 30 minutes.

DR: Didn’t you tell him that you were looking for a stencil to get the line going?
 

TP: No, no, he’s the boss, he’s more important than the line. We got the line running and ran a short job.

DR: Why is the line down now?

TP: We’re doing a change-over, they take about two to three hours. Much of the time is loading the new components into the feeders.

DR:  Why don’t you use feeder racks? I know they cost a little money, but they could cut your downtime for change-overs to less than 30 minutes.

TP: We have feeder racks. It’s too much work to load them when a job is running. We all take a break then.

TP: Let’s try one last time.

DR: Hi! I see the line is down again. What’s up?

TP: Well, we just had lunch so we let the line idle. We have a new solder paste that is $0.02/gram cheaper than the premium paste we used to use. Purchasing made us use the new paste to save money. It stiffens up when left on the stencil for 15 minutes. So every time we stop the line the paste stiffens up and we have to clean it off and put new paste on.

TP: Well let’s stop our scenario. What do you think Ronnie? Suspend your past knowledge and act like you are new to the productivity issue.

DR: The line was never running. Surely this can’t be the case.

TP: Well, you remember the story of Patty at ACME.* Their line was only up 10% of the time. People just don’t seem to understand that the only thing making money in their electronic assembly facility is the assembly line. If the line is not running it is a crisis. Management and the assembly team should all be in tune to this truth. When stated as a machine that prints money it is more obvious to most people that the line should always be running. But, an assembly is the same as a machine that prints money!

DR: A profound point!

TP: Thank you. Sadly, the highest uptime I have ever seen is 32.7%. If North American and European assemblers could raise their uptime from say 20 to 30%, they could easily compete with low wage assemblers. Hence, lack of urgency in assuring uptime is the biggest plunder in electronic assembly today!

Folks,

Rob and Patty balance the line.....

Folks

The Professor's adventure continues:

Folks,