Scheduling Production of Surface-Mount Devices

SMD production lines can have very different cycle times depending on the product. Changeover times also need to be taken into account. Production facilities need to schedule manual placement, testing, and assembly. Grouping is desired, but it is difficult to manually consider grouping rules when the number of variables is high—order priorities, material shortages, and other constraints only further increase the complexity of planning. Finally, NPI needs to be easily incorporated into the schedule, and delays and lost production time should be minimized as a result.