Smart Manufacturing for CIS
Intelligence in the manufacture of complex integrated systems must reside at three levels: (1) within a manufacturing facility, (2) across the multiple functions in an enterprise, and (3) across the broader supply chain ecosystem. At all three levels, the heterogeneity and complexity of the integrated designs are key drivers for the adoption of smart manufacturing for CIS.
Smart manufacturing at the facility level
Shifting to more complex integrated systems on the factory/fab floor means a wider variety of materials and component inputs and a wider range of manufacturing capabilities. Increased customization of the output subassemblies and products means more frequent changes in the production line/process configuration.
Wireless, highly reliable communications between equipment and the factory control systems becomes even more critical. Harmonization of data flow formats is also an urgent industry task, given the existence of a number of deployed protocols. Examples include Hermes1, primarily for SMT, and Connected Factory Exchange (CFX)2, an open-source industry-standard data exchange platform.
Another smart manufacturing challenge that is inevitable with CIS manufacturing is that of legacy manufacturing equipment and their integration into a computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) framework. One approach championed by the IPC-CFX Standard Task Group is the development of an open-source software development kit (SDK) and hardware instructions for adaptor boxes. These map proprietary equipment messages to standardized messages and serve as an IPC-CFX endpoint on the shop floor. One goal for this resource is to enable interoperability with legacy equipment.
Smart manufacturing at the enterprise level
As noted already, bringing CIS products to the market is much more than just manufacture and assembly. Design, test, quality and sustainability functions within the manufacturing enterprise need to engage with all the product lifecycle challenges involved. Any enterprise-level smart manufacturing framework must support informative, real-time information exchange across all these functions regarding materials, components, products and the design models, manufacturing equipment, test rigs, etc. Other concepts from smart manufacturing that will help address the increased complexity of CIS products, such as:
Digital twins provide a common reference point for many of these functions.
AI-based algorithms can speed up challenges around fault management and root cause analysis of CIS.
Smart manufacturing at the ecosystem level
With broader and more dynamic lists of material and component inputs, upstream supply chain management for a CIS manufacturer becomes more complex. Harmonization and automation of data exchanges within the supply chain ecosystem reduces dramatically both the costs and time to market for new CIS product introduction and will help reduce yield lost and waste. Given the increased reliability and quality assurance needs of ever more complex products, securely establishing the provenance of data related to supply chain inputs is also a must.
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References
The Hermes Standard Initiative, IPC-HERMES-9852: The Global Standard for Machine-to-Machine Communication in SMT Assembly, v1.5, https://www.the-hermes-standard.info/wp-content/uploads/The_Hermes_Standard_Version_1_5.pdf, January 2022.
IPC, IPC-2591-Version 1.7: Connected Factory Exchange (CFX), https://shop.ipc.org/ipc-2591/ipc-2591-standard-only/Revision-17/english, August 2023.