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Leveraging
automated optical inspection: Micro Dynamics Enhances Productivity
and Product Quality with AOI Meeting Electronics Manufacturing
Challenges
Micro Dynamics Corp., a Minnesota-based company, has been providing
contract electronics manufacturing services to original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) since 1981. With manufacturing facilities
in both Eden Prairie and Montevideo, the company specializes
in building custom printed circuit card assemblies (PCAs) and
offers a full range of services, ranging from design through
fulfillment, for customers in the military, aerospace, computing,
communications, medical and industrial market segments.
Micro Dynamics’ company’s low volume, high mix manufacturing
ratio resulted in a wide variety of products that required inspection.
We needed to reduce variation in inspection activity,
but more importantly, we were looking for process feedback,”
says Tim Voeller, Quality Manager for Micro Dynamics Corp. “Although
we maintained IPC certified operators doing visual, we did not
have other inspection systems in place.” Voeller and his
team realized that the implementation of automated optical inspection
(AOI) technology could result in numerous benefits, including
higher levels of productivity, product quality and customer
satisfaction. AOI systems are able to find defects within a
fraction of the time required by human inspectors, and without
the element of fatigue. He evaluated several different AOI systems
before purchasing two YTV Series AOI systems in December 2003
from Southern California-based YESTech. One was installed at
the Eden Prarie facility, configured in-line, while the other
went to the Montevideo facility and is being operated in batch
mode.
For Micro Dynamics, one of the most important criteria when
selecting a system was quick programming with reasonable results.
The YTV offered quick setup, allowing operators to create a
complete inspection program in under 45 minutes. Often, Voeller’s
team will also take a complete set of images from the board
and utilize the YTV’s offline programming capability to
maintain cycle time.
Quick programming allows us to shorten our cycle time
and respond more quickly to our customers,” comments Voeller.
Typically, we ship boards back out to our customers within
40 hours of the time we receive them. We needed a system that
could allow some inspection within this turnaround time. The
YTV’s quick programming also makes it easy to modify or
improve programs when our board volume increases. Internally,
we are using some of the data coming back out of the system
to identify or quantify problems that otherwise would get lost
in the day to day activity.” Micro Dynamics also benefits
from YTV technology features, including proprietary color megapixel
Thin Camera™ technology for exceptional defect coverage.
The system’s image processing technology integrates color,
normalized correlation and rule-based algorithms for complete
inspection coverage with an extremely low false failure rate.
Reaping the Benefits of AOI
We have definitely seen an increase in quality for untested
assemblies,” says Voeller. “Product performance
has been really good, and all the programmers like the machine.
Even more importantly, we’re seeing an increase in customer
satisfaction. The overall perception of quality has definitely
gone up since we put the system in place. AOI is seen as a way
of helping fill the gap between human inspection and high volume
test solutions such as ICT or functional test. Overall, our
customers have been very impressed with our investment in advanced
AOI technology.” The YTV system has also made sense for
Micro Dynamics from a financial perspective. The company’s
intention was to make a long term investment in a total platform
they could grow with, rather than just a piece of equipment
that would cover a single project.
When we factored in how long it took to program, allowed
some factors for ongoing program modification, and amortized
the cost over years, the YTV system represented very good value,”
says Voeller. “It worked better with our business model
than the other systems we evaluated. We see enough of a payback
that we have recently purchased an additional AOI and x-ray
system from YESTech and are considering purchasing additional
systems.” “The customer service has also been really
good,” continues Voeller. “I was pleasantly surprised,
considering that YESTech is a fairly new company, by how quick
they were to fix any problems that were identified. They’ve
been very responsive to making system improvements, based on
things we suggested, that would enhance the system for all their
customers. We feel like they have always come from a point of
honesty and integrity, and that is very important.” As
for the overall future of AOI, Voeller sees a bright road ahead.
We’re seeing others in the industry adopt AOI systems.
Several years ago, it was questionable how effective AOI could
be, especially for low volume, high mix environments, but improvements
in computing technologies and speeds have now made AOI systems
a viable product for electronics manufacturers. I know this
technology will be an asset for our organization for years to
come.”
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