Quality Control - Introducing Automated First Article Inspection Series

The Quality Control department is left to perform the duties spelled out by the QA people in their procedures and practices. When the QA department says they must perform a 100% First Article Inspection on all product coming out of SMT they are supposedly bound to do so however at times left with no time to do it. The pressure from production to get the lines moving again is incredible, as long as the lines are not producing, the company is not making money and their massive investment in high speed assembly equipment is laying idle. There is negotiating over the length of time it takes to perform FAI and guess who loses, management think that 1 hour is excessive for FAI and most believe it should only take 10-20 minutes tops.

The simple math is that a PCB that 500 parts on it and manually inspected can be broken down like this:

- 15  seconds to locate each part on the PCB by reference designator using the customers BOM

- 5 seconds to inspect part

- 500 parts X 20 seconds (above) = 10000 secs = 2.77 hrs.

This means that at a minimum using a manual FAI method this inspection will take almost 3 hours not including time to document and file results for traceability. A lot of management are not aware fo this and actually believe that it is a quicker process but these are the simple facts. I machines are run during this process an incredible risk ensues. The manual method checks for 2 things, that the PCB actually contains the parts that the customer requested by checking against the customer BOM and that the Pick and Place file has been converted from the BOM and CAD data properly at the same time.

Using the Cluso Automated FAI the time for the inspection exampled above is reduced to approx. 20 minutes. This is because the Automated FAI uses the P&P file and the customers BOM which has all of the coordinates and part descriptions in them so there is no time required to locate the parts and the full details of what the parts are is on the screen streamlining the whole process. The operator simply starts at the beginning of the dataset and steps through the parts passing or failing as they go. When they get to the end of the parts there is 100% confidence that all parts have been inspected. Also once complete the inspection can produce a report that details the parts inspected as well as failures encountered. The system can also store this inspection as a golden sample for subsequent inspections of the same assembly and the system can even archive the entire process including the scanned image, report and the dataset for full traceability. This wraps up this FAI process into a manageable, simple and fully traceable process that is 100% repeatable and foolproof.

As far as the QA aspects we are discussing using Automated FAI fulfils all requirements of the Quality control plans which are that the inspection is 100% and the traceability of the process is 100%. As well it performs this with a massive time reduction saving money at the same time. The ROI on this type of equipment is measure in months or even weeks in some cases after which it is money in the bank. The QC department finally have a way to perform the 100% inspections demanded from them in the time allocated by the their supreme commanders. 

What more could you ask for.

Greg Ross

Cluso Vision Systems

Quality Assurance - Introducing Automated First Article Inspection Series

I have intentionally kept Quality Assurance separate from Quality Control as they are generically different departments that look at production from a different viewpoint.

Quality Assurance institutes the procedures and practices in a global sense for the company ensuring that all aspects of Quality are covered procedurally as well as all aspects of traceability are covered. The will also ensure that ISO standards are adhered to. The Quality Control people ensure that the procedures, practices and inspections are performed using the correct papers and documenting this fact for traceability reasons.

The aspects of Automated First Article Inspection that affect Quality Assurance are discussed in this blog section of this series. For all processes within manufacturing the QA department must ensure that there are records detailing that the process, inspection or procedure has been performed as well as traceable documents exist relating to this fact. 

At First Article Inspection there normally would be a FAI sheet filled in by the operator signifying that the inspection has been performed. This document would then need to be filed appropriately complying with the traceability aspect of the quality plan for that product. With an Automated FAI such as Cluso this is documented automatically using the reporting and archiving functions contained in the system. The system would automatically document the operator, Batch numbers of inspection, Quantity of part inspected and list all failures noted in the FAI performed. This PDF report would be simply filed in a secure server location by batch number providing full traceability the inspection was performed to satisfaction.

In Engineering there is a little known hole in the QA process. The SMT Engineering department receive BOM's and CAD data from the customer and convert them into Pick and Place files. The CAD data contains the Reference Designators and X/Y coordinates and the Bill of Material details the parts. The SMT Engineering must manually merge the two datasets together to output the P&P file. This is a manual process that risk which is hidden and normally only found out if a 100% FAI is performed which verifies the assembled PCB sample against the customers BOM. With an automated FAI this process can be desk checked with the differences reported automatically. 

The ultimate effect on QA that an Automated FAI has is extremely positive and a very simple, effective solution for these manual processes. The automated solution streamlines, documents, and turns this incredibly important issue into a simple traceable process solving many problems in one easily implemented solution

Greg Ross

Cluso Vision Systems

Engineering - Introducing Automated First Article Inspection Series

 Engineering is the first area affected by the New Product Introduction of customers PCB's. The customer hands over to them the Bill of Material and PCB CAD files for the product being introduced. The Engineering department must perform a few tasks being entering the customers BOM into the CEM's ERP/MRP system. They then must create a Pick and Place(P&P) file used to populate the PCB in the SMT Area. They also may have to create a AOI Inspection file used by the AOI Equipment. The P&P file and AOI file is created essentially by either manually of semi-automatically combining the customers BOM which tells us what the parts are and the PCB CAD file which tells us where the parts go on the PCB. This process is at best semi-manual and at worst a completely manual process.

This manual process has no way except manually to double check whether or not a mistake has been made. If a mistake is made here then the FAI check against the P&P file will only tell you the PCB file is assembled as per the P&P file, potentially incorrectly. With the AOI program if a mistake is made then all the AOI machine is going to do is verify that all PCB's are assembled wrong but the same.

Using the Cluso First Article inspection System the engineer can desk check to P&P file against the BOM automatically. This will ensure that program contains all the components the customer designed to be placed on the PCB. Both the top and bottom side P&P files can be loaded into system and compared to BOM at the same time. This checked program can then stored stored as a Cluso file for use later at the FAI process. 

W using the Cluso system in Engineering these loopholes in the process are closed and ensure that the output of this Engineering process is 100% perfect.

Greg Ross

Cluso Vision Systems

greg@cluso.com.au

Introduction - Introducing Automated First Article Inspection Series

For anyone who is not aware of who I am by now it is probably best to get an introduction down that will show my interest in First Article Inspection. My name is Greg Ross and my company is the developer of the Cluso Vision Systems Automated First Article Inspection System. The Cluso System is arguably  the first commercial system of it's kind that focuses strictly on FAI systems. Cluso was first developed by a CEM in Sydney, Australia in 2003 and still is manufactured and developed there. Cluso Vision Systems is not an Engineering company disconnected from the manufacturing attempting to second guess features that may or may not be required. Cluso is designed by CEM's for CEM's with no excess technological gadgetry which disguise the operation or usability of the system. It is purely developed to be the very best way to perform a First Article Inspection in the most effective manner.

I was pondering who is affected by introducing an Automated First Article Inspection and have decided it is too large of a topic to cover in a single entry. My definition of a complete FAI is ensuring that the SMT P&P machines are producing what the customer intended them to produce at the right revision level. Sounds simple but because of manual methods of inspecting for this are inherently flawed problems emerge randomly and additional steps are added and because problems turn up with them as well and more steps are added, cascading the complexity into an unmanageable octopus, all manual. A total rethink of the entire process that brings it back to the simple root what is the basic need, was required. This is exactly what the Cluso system was designed to do. It allows companies introducing Automated FAI to streamline a lot of areas which become redundant and enhancing the process as a whole. So I have decided to run a series of Blogs which will cover the individual areas affected by the introduction of an Automated FAI. These will include:

Engineering

Quality Assurance

Quality Control

Surface Mount

Management

Any others that may crop up.

Because I am familiar with Contract Manufacturing this series of topics will be centered around the common methods used by CEM's. I will dissect each area and the problems associated with New Product Introduction and FAI in the manual methods. Then I will go on to explain how an Automated FAI system like Cluso will enhance and make the output more reliable. This series will span over several weeks as I get time to write the sections.

Greg Ross

Cluso Vision Systems

greg@cluso.com.au