Setup with SIPLACE SiCluster Professional

With its SIPLACE SiCluster Professional optimization software, Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems GmbH & Co.KG (SEAS) expands its wide-ranging portfolio of intelligent setup strategies for electronics manufacturing. In addition to combining products into setup families (clusters), SIPLACE SiCluster Professional is the first program that determines any component overlaps in these family setups. It groups these shared components on "constant component tables", which remain on the machine during setup changeovers, thus saving a significant amount of time. Particularly in high-mix production environments with small to medium lot sizes, SIPLACE SiCluster Professional can reduce the time spent on setups by several hours while reducing the space and investment requirements for feeders and component carts by up to 33 percent. SIPLACE SiCluster Professional is available as an add-on to the programming software SIPLACE Pro from version 7.1.

To maximize the productivity and utilization of SMT lines for all production requirements, SIPLACE offers a broad spectrum of intelligent setup strategies and optimization tools: setups for single products or product families combined with fixed setups, offline setups of feeder tables and changeover tables concepts, or non-stop setup changeovers with SIPLACE LES (Line Execution System) or random setups of individual feeder modules without having to stop the line. For production environments with medium to small lot sizes and lots of product diversity, the new SIPLACE SiCluster Professional software now offers additional improvement potential. SIPLACE SiCluster Professional combines different products into clusters, which with enough feeder capacity can be manufactured as product families without setup changeovers. In addition, the software automatically identifies overlaps between these clusters and groups the shared components on constant component tables.

Constant component tables stay on the line

Since the constant component tables remain on the line during setup changeovers, setups become a lot faster and easier. The higher the number of product and family setups and the higher the share of constant component tables on the line, the more massive the savings in time and effort. Another cost-saving effect of the new SIPLACE setup strategy is the need for feeders and component tables drops considerably, which provides relief for the investment budget, depreciation, and maintenance costs as well as the space requirements for component carts and feeders.

Up to 33 percent fewer feeders needed

The SIPLACE team was able to verify these savings at various manufacturing sites. Depending on the type of production, the number of feeders could be reduced by up to 33 percent, the number of component carts by up to 28 percent, in addition to significant time savings for setup changes per changeover process. Savings of tens of thousands of euros per year are thus realistic, which means that investing in SIPLACE SiCluster Professional and family setups with constant component tables will pay for itself within a few months.

With its SIPLACE machines, Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems GmbH & Co. KG (SEAS) is the world’s leading manufacturer of surface mount technology (SMT) placement machines and solutions. From its early days in 1985 through 2009, the company has installed almost 22,000 placement machines for more than 2,000 customers. The broad SIPLACE portfolio is particularly popular with electronic manufacturing service providers worldwide. SIPLACE placement machines are used in all industrial applications in fields such as telecommunications, automotive, consumer electronics and automation.

For more information about SIPLACE go to: http://www.siplace.com.