Circuit Board Case Study
Circuit Board Case Study
Circuit Board Fabricators, Inc. is a circuit board manufacturer based in California. They produce circuit boards to large organizations like Apple and Hewlett-Packard. The large computer companies hire Circuit Board Fabricators, Inc. (CBF) to make to circuit boards for the large companies new prototypes. CBF implements a large automated process that follows standard codes to produce these circuit boards efficiently and with above average customer service; however, recently CBF has been experiencing losses. CBF believes that the loss 's the company is facing is due to the current automated system used. The CBF process engineers designed the plant has the capacity to produce 1,000 circuit boards per day; however, the plant has been producing 700. Nearly 20% of the circuit boards produced daily are defected, and CBF is not producing enough high quality boards per day to meet the consumer’s demands. The following analysis will address the process flow structure, the capacity of the process, losses of the process, short and long-term recommendations for improvement opportunities.
Flow Structure
CBF currently uses a common manufacturing process called the batch shop flow process. This process is used when a company as a stable line products. This type of flow process is commonly used within the electronics industry as the products are similar with on a few differences in production. The fabricators insist that the plant has the capability to produce 1,000 useable circuit boards per day using this process.
Diagram Process
Operation No. Operation Description Dept. Setup/hr Rate Pc. Hr.
1. Order Acceptance Engineering
2. NC Machine Programming Engineering
3. Board Fabrication a. Load Fabrication 5 0.33 b. Clean Fabrication 0.5 c. Coat Fabrication 0.5 d. Unload Fabrication 0.33 e. Expose Fabrication 15 1.72 f. Load Fabrication 5 0.33 g. Develop Fabrication 0.33 h. Inspect Fabrication 0.5 i. Bake
Circuit Board Fabricators, Inc. is a circuit board manufacturer based in California. They produce circuit boards to large organizations like Apple and Hewlett-Packard. The large computer companies hire Circuit Board Fabricators, Inc. (CBF) to make to circuit boards for the large companies new prototypes. CBF implements a large automated process that follows standard codes to produce these circuit boards efficiently and with above average customer service; however, recently CBF has been experiencing losses. CBF believes that the loss 's the company is facing is due to the current automated system used. The CBF process engineers designed the plant has the capacity to produce 1,000 circuit boards per day; however, the plant has been producing 700. Nearly 20% of the circuit boards produced daily are defected, and CBF is not producing enough high quality boards per day to meet the consumer’s demands. The following analysis will address the process flow structure, the capacity of the process, losses of the process, short and long-term recommendations for improvement opportunities.
Flow Structure
CBF currently uses a common manufacturing process called the batch shop flow process. This process is used when a company as a stable line products. This type of flow process is commonly used within the electronics industry as the products are similar with on a few differences in production. The fabricators insist that the plant has the capability to produce 1,000 useable circuit boards per day using this process.
Diagram Process
Operation No. Operation Description Dept. Setup/hr Rate Pc. Hr.
1. Order Acceptance Engineering
2. NC Machine Programming Engineering
3. Board Fabrication a. Load Fabrication 5 0.33 b. Clean Fabrication 0.5 c. Coat Fabrication 0.5 d. Unload Fabrication 0.33 e. Expose Fabrication 15 1.72 f. Load Fabrication 5 0.33 g. Develop Fabrication 0.33 h. Inspect Fabrication 0.5 i. Bake