SMT in Assembly Line for Manufacturing and Production of Surface Mount Technology PCB Assembly

For successful implementation of Surface Mount Technology (SMT) in the assembly line for manufacturing and production, the first order of business for management consideration is to obtain a clear outline of the outstanding technical issues. Then an SMT team consisting of a selected group of engineers / individuals from all functional organizations should be assembled to address those issues. The team should be headed by a program manager who not only is technically qualified but also has the full support of top management.

Because of such constraints imposed by the external infrastructure as component availability and the evolutionary nature of the technology, SMT should be developed and introduced is stages. This allows for gradual building of the internal infrastructure and the spreading out of capital investment over a longer period of time.

Implementing SMT in Assembly Line for Manufacturing and Production at Subcontractors

In some cases subcontract assembly houses may be a better option than in-house manufacturing to meet either the short or long-term needs and to help postpone capital investment. But extreme care should be taken in the evaluation and selection of a subcontractor. The successful candidate must meet stringent technology, manufacturing, business, and quality requirements to prevent “vendor crashes” at a critical stage of production. Appropriate selection of a subcontractor requires a considerable investment in human resources.

Implementing SMT

Even after the technology has been evaluated and debugged, it should be implemented on a few selected products first. Only when the technology has been validated on some “shared” technology and product pilots should it be used across the complete product lines. Such caution is important in reducing risk and preventing multiple failures across lines, which could adversely affect the company’s revenue.