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Help me to impress my boss

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D�rty

#48743

Help me to impress my boss | 29 March, 2007

Hi everyone,

I have read a lot of articles from this forum in the last few monthes. Now I hope you can help me.

I am a student trainee at a big Electronic Assembly Line Manufacturer. (sorry for that... - I promise there won't be any sales approach in this forum from me). I am in the software department. Since jobs are rare I need to impress my boss by having a great idea (being fast and reliable isn't enough anymore).

Unfortunatly my brain appears to be just as empty as my wallet; very bad combination. Maybe you can help me out by telling me what your main issues are. What features in SMT software are particularly rare but important to you? What features are you missing? Are simply write me, what would be a valueable software product for you.

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#48748

Help me to impress my boss | 29 March, 2007

Improved (useful) and smart (do no harm!) diagnostics. Some machines no doubt have these capabilities to some degree but in my somewhat limited world it's been missing.

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oldsmtdude

#48780

Help me to impress my boss | 30 March, 2007

Agreed... I wish I could sort by product, head, nozzle, feeder and package type. Then calculate a ppm rate for each to target the worst offender playing feeders against common nozzles.

This message was posted via the Electronics Forum @

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#48783

Help me to impress my boss | 30 March, 2007

Hi D�rty,

Steve and old are right, but real work wil not work. To impress your boss, you must always agree he's right, compliment his comb-over and ask him he's been working out.

(You all were thinking it)

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Gil

#48788

Help me to impress my boss | 30 March, 2007

I always tell my boss, "I'm stupid. You're smart. I was wrong. You were right. You're the best. I'm the wrost. You're very good-looking. I'm not very attractive."

Works wonders come review time!

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#48789

Help me to impress my boss | 30 March, 2007

Why? Impress Your boss??? This is something we don't know anything about overhere. Haha, It's the other way around: The boss has to prove himself; otherwise he/she will be gone... /Sincererly

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D�rty

#48805

Help me to impress my boss | 2 April, 2007

Thanks a lot guys. That's probably a very good idea. I'll discuss this with our R&D team. Maybe there are some more suggestions? - Appart from washing my boss' car, taking his dog for a walk, and so on...

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#48822

Help me to impress my boss | 2 April, 2007

Actually I was thinking of something else, not that *I* would ever engage in such activities.

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#48826

Help me to impress my boss | 2 April, 2007

Well, I thing mowing his lawn will get your farther, but if you insist....

Fids - Fiducial registration seems to be a bear with most machines. Especially now that most boards are shipped form over seas, the quality is all over the map. Plus the fact that the alignment of copper to board edge changes drastically, fiducial find is another area for improvement. Make recognition and the ability to adjust easy and through the software. Copy what the screen printer guys are doing � they seem to be light years ahead of the placement machine guys. Also, how about NO FIDS. Can you make it so you can place with no fids? As dumb as it sounds, it would be nice from time to time.

Hardware - Board sensors should be adjustable. Nothing sucks more that a large hole or gap in a board and the machine sees it as two boards.

Board support � make it automatic or semi-automatic. If you do, also make it so you can turn it off. This should be part of the board program software as well. How about something besides pins and holes in the base that clog with dropped parts? Edge board clamping is nice, but what if you could turn it off if needed?

Feeders � Seems like feeders are always designed by a guy that has never used one before. If they aren't hard to load, they are as fragile as a Quality Engineer's ego. 50 moving parts that need replacement after 100,000 placements is ridiculous. Anything made from plastic should be melted down and used as a "Try Again Stupid" trophy for the guy that designed it. Make the feeder adjustable between the various pitches so I don�t have to buy twice as many feeder (I know your Marketing guy just sh*t his pants). Make more that just tape and reel feeders.

Tray parts � Again this area of the machine seems to be developed by a different dept. Make it simple and easy to use. Make it a part of the machine � not something that dangles off the side of it like a diseased tick.

Software - Make it simple to use. Anything that is like Windows or Windows based is nice. Companies that have some creature buried in a dark room making his own version of how Windows "should�ve been" is no good. Organize Windows or screens so they are related or fairly accessible without having to drop out of one window just to tweak another, and then drill back into the original window. Make converting a program that runs on my left-to-right line work on my right-to-left line without having to recreate it. Special touch screen tools? Who thought this was a good idea? Part recognition should not be limited to the 5 different SOICs that your company uses to build your machines. There are more parts out there or will be out there than you are aware of. Make the software flexible so we can teach new or goofy parts on our own and call them what we want. Off line programming is a must.

PM - Most machines have to be down when performing preventative maintenance. Perhaps there could be a way to work around that without sacrificing safety? Zerk or grease fittings should be put in one location so the maintenance guy doesn't have to practice yoga with a grease gun. How about filters. Why are there filters for each nozzle? Why not just one filter since all you�re doing is keeping the vacuum clean. Sales may suffer, but maintenance will love it. Can anyone design a machine with an oil filter? I know draining and refilling 5 gallons of oil a month is great for sales, but what a waste. A perfectly designed oil filter would work wonders here. If you DO make your machine a monthly oil change machine, put a drain plug on it! Also put it in a spot where a 5 gallon can will fit. Sucking oil out with pumps is slow and painful. If you have a vacuum that handles all the cut tape scrap, make the scrap bin a garbage can or at least design the box you use able to pour the scrap into a garbage can. Making an extra large bin if fine, until little, 98 pound Maria has to empty it.

Other - If this is a turret machine, design the software so one or two heads can have a different nozzle configuration. Flexibility is always nice. Changing nozzles should be done automatically. If not, make them easy to change. A keyboard and monitor that does nothing so that the operators and techs that think they know more than anyone else can type away without affecting the actual machine.

This is just scratching the surface, but it should be enough for your Sales and Marketing people to hate you. And remember, a sharp mower blade means you have to cut less.

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#48830

Help me to impress my boss | 2 April, 2007

Hi,

I wish that anyone who developed software for SMT would hire a graphic designer to help make the user interface look good and clean looking.

Good design sets us apart from the animals, and is important!

Regards,

Grant

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#48832

Help me to impress my boss | 2 April, 2007

Nobody responds on my other thread, but basically a home-made software solution is what I was looking for reel replenishment on fuji equipment.

http://www.smtnet.com/Forums/index.cfm?fuseaction=view_thread&CFApp=1&Thread_ID=11593&mc=2

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D�rty

#48841

Help me to impress my boss | 3 April, 2007

Thanks a lot guys. This really should help me (big thanks to Real Chunks for this great answer). I am going to discuss the issues with the R&D team - let's see what we can do.

However I am still interested in some more suggestions.

I really don't want to mow the lawn.

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Ben T

#48901

Help me to impress my boss | 5 April, 2007

D?rty, I was actually under the same mission as you a little over a year ago, but have since given up on the impossible. I have however been developing software for the industry for the past year. I have made a BOM importing tool, which cleans the BOM of any quantity discrepancies, reports duplicate designators, and then imports the clean BOM to a database. I have also made other utilities designed around the YesTech AOI machines, mainly to generate the YCD files, verified with proper part extensions, and really make use of YesVision's capabilities. I also have tools to backup the image set files for archiving and also the AOI programs themselves, on a user-defined, automated schedule.

I'm also in the process of developing web-based BOM reporting tools to be used in parallel with the BOM importing tool I have created. In addition, I'm also developing an SPC Quality Data Reporter. The SPC data reporter will take the data out of any YesTech SPC database, and make detailed graphs and quality output that could be VERY useful to process engineers and quality managers.

All of my development is mainly done in either VB .NET or PHP/XML/CSS for the web-based stuff. I try to keep a level of functionality, as well as design, as I too am sick of the gross looking software we are sometimes forced to use. I'm also open to working on joint projects with people. I think there is a lot of room for improvement on the software side of this industry, without paying an arm and a leg for those main-stream software vendors. Perhaps we can all work together to make this an open-source type of community, all working towards a common goal, or seamless software integration with this industry.

You can read more about my software and I at http://24.63.213.176/ . My email is wordryver@gmail.com if anyone would like to work on some software, or wants some demos or previews of the software I'm working on now.

Best of luck to you D?rty...

Ben T.

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oldsmtdude

#48922

Help me to impress my boss | 6 April, 2007

After thinking some more:

Feeder offset is usually an averaged number... If feeders get erratic feeder offset goes wacky. Nozzles don't seal, components slip and vision isn't getting the true pick position. And worse they may move again post vision.

How about tracking offsets with something like an Xbar and R chart per feeder. The goal would be to identify feeders before chips are picked with nozzles overhanging the edge.

This message was posted via the Electronics Forum @

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ST

#48926

Help me to impress my boss | 8 April, 2007

Hello,

for Siemens HS-180 you can found a modern software solution here: http://www.treplace.de

Happy Easter ST

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