Procoat Hal, Inc.
.
HAL, Inc.1
MMM Program
Northwestern University
December 1996
Revised March 2001
1. Background
It is May 1992. HAL, Inc. is a major manufacturer of computers and computer components. In their
Lubbock, TX plant they make printed circuit boards (PCB's, also referred to as “panels”), which are used by other plants in the company in a variety of computer products. The Lubbock plant, built in 1982, represents an $80 million investment and has approximately 450,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
The plant runs 3 shifts per day (19.5 hours/day when breaks, lunches and shift changes are considered) and makes two families of products:
1.
Small Panels: 10" x 15" panels are the original product of the facility and are used primarily for mainframe computer cards. There are roughly 40,000 different types of small panels, most of which are made for replacement parts in older computers. The overall demand for small panels is gradually declining. 2.
Large Panels: 19.5" x 24" panels are a newer product, introduced in 1987, used primarily for personal computer cards. The larger size serves to reduce the cost per card and therefore most new cards are produced in this format. There are currently about 150 different types of large panel, but this number is steadily increasing.
Both product families go through the following basic sequence of manufacturing operations:
•
Treater Process: woven fiberglass cloth is impregnated with epoxy to make “prepreg,” the insulator used in multi-layer printed circuit boards.
•
Lamination-Core: layers of copper and prepreg are pressed together to form cores (blank boards).
There are 8 different core blanks, from which all of the finished boards are made.
•
Machining: the cores are trimmed to size.
•
Internal Circuitize: through a photographic exposing and subsequent etching process, circuitry is produced in the copper layers of the blanks, giving the cores “personality” (i.e., a unique
HAL, Inc.1
MMM Program
Northwestern University
December 1996
Revised March 2001
1. Background
It is May 1992. HAL, Inc. is a major manufacturer of computers and computer components. In their
Lubbock, TX plant they make printed circuit boards (PCB's, also referred to as “panels”), which are used by other plants in the company in a variety of computer products. The Lubbock plant, built in 1982, represents an $80 million investment and has approximately 450,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
The plant runs 3 shifts per day (19.5 hours/day when breaks, lunches and shift changes are considered) and makes two families of products:
1.
Small Panels: 10" x 15" panels are the original product of the facility and are used primarily for mainframe computer cards. There are roughly 40,000 different types of small panels, most of which are made for replacement parts in older computers. The overall demand for small panels is gradually declining. 2.
Large Panels: 19.5" x 24" panels are a newer product, introduced in 1987, used primarily for personal computer cards. The larger size serves to reduce the cost per card and therefore most new cards are produced in this format. There are currently about 150 different types of large panel, but this number is steadily increasing.
Both product families go through the following basic sequence of manufacturing operations:
•
Treater Process: woven fiberglass cloth is impregnated with epoxy to make “prepreg,” the insulator used in multi-layer printed circuit boards.
•
Lamination-Core: layers of copper and prepreg are pressed together to form cores (blank boards).
There are 8 different core blanks, from which all of the finished boards are made.
•
Machining: the cores are trimmed to size.
•
Internal Circuitize: through a photographic exposing and subsequent etching process, circuitry is produced in the copper layers of the blanks, giving the cores “personality” (i.e., a unique