Why should your company implement Optel?
Today’s electronics manufacturers need new technologies and processes for managing and improving all aspects of the assembly environment – to overcome complexities, respond to changing market demand, and increase profit margins. Achieving these goals requires comprehensive, integrated, advanced MES capabilities that ERP/MRP systems, machine vendor software, and most MES vendor solutions do not provide. This section offers an overview of the unique functionality, and resulting benefits, that only Optimal Electronics’ Optel MES solution delivers.
Optimized Dynamic Scheduling
One of Optel’s most significant advantages is its innovative Optimized Dynamic Scheduling technology, which is key to competitiveness and profitability in a high mix, low volume environment. Unique to Optel, this technology drives major increases in production and utilization without the addition of new SMT equipment. No other software on the market today enables the optimization of production capacity that can deliver up to 50% increases in production, 80% reduction in changeovers, and 50% reduction in changeover duration.
Optel’s Optimized Dynamic Scheduling approach uses selected business rules and advanced algorithms, at three levels, to increase production by automatically generating optimized clusters of work orders and creating SMT machine programs. Unlike static software grouping approaches, this technology re-optimizes production schedules dynamically, as new work orders enter the production stream.
Optel vs Other MES Solutions
Unlike other MES solutions, Optel is a complete manufacturing execution system, built around a single centralized database, that provides the full range of integrated functionality needed to effectively control, monitor and manage all phases of the electronics assembly process:
- Materials management: inventory and warehouse management, materials tracking throughout the plant, and materials serialization; MSD control, bar code and RFID data collection.
- Dynamic scheduling: dynamic scheduling of work orders into common setups as work orders are released, optimization of setups, priority criteria selection, with lean kitting to support grouping.
- Pre-production control: kitting, offline and online setup verification, feeder management, and work-in-process tracking.
- Materials traceability: from the work order level to the circuit level and to the final assembly level.
- Process traceability and control: process definition and enforcement, multi-level routing, full process traceability, verification and data collection across the production facility.
- Quality management: quality data and defect data collection from inspection stations and automated equipment; support for rework repair and returns processing.
- Graphical Documentation: provides paperless graphical work instructions for box-build, circuit assembly, rework and for QA inspection. DDOC allows assembly instructions and multimedia content to be assigned to assemblies either at the component level or at the assembly level.
- Machine Performance Monitoring: monitors machine downtime by shift, day, or week, track number of feeders setup for next setup; monitor ideal/actual cycle time, machine efficiency, OEE and utilization.
In addition to these capabilities, Optimal Electronics regularly customizes Optel to fit the unique manufacturing environments, processes and requirements of its customers.
Optel vs. ERP/MRP
ERP/MRP systems do not provide the robust manufacturing-specific functionality offered by Optel, which enables real-time visibility and effective utilization of shop floor data for better planning, decision making and execution across every aspect of the production process.
Typically, ERP/MRP systems lose visibility into material in WIP (work-in-progress) and control over materials inventory. Since ERP/MRP systems are not connected directly to the SMT machines, they provide no capabilities for responding quickly to schedule changes, improving utilization, or preventing the placement of wrong parts. These systems also do not provide traceability, support for ROHS or MSD, quality management, box build/hand assembly or scrap reduction capabilities.
Optel vs. Machine Vendor Software
Virtually all machine vendors offer software to control and program their equipment – with some vendors providing traceability and basic optimization features. However, these solutions only control and interface with their specific brand of equipment resulting in an inability to deploy a solution across the entire production floor.
As a result, machine vendors do not offer the comprehensive capabilities needed for true shop floor control – such as quality management, full process traceability, box build/hand assembly, etc. – nor do they provide continuous software improvements or innovations. Optel provides an integrated solution and bridges the islands of automation for the shop floor.
These complexities and obstacles are eliminated by the full integration and holistic shop floor control provided by the Optel solution.