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Shop Floor Repair (ReX)- Rework Management
| Internal failures
within a captive or contract manufacturing environment increase costs, lengthen cycle
times and waste valuable resources! There is an opportunity to significantly reduce the
impact of internal failures by implementing a rework management solution that speeds up
the troubleshooting and repair process, while collecting the data needed to prevent
problems from reoccurring. Derby's Rework Management solution not only reduces the impact of internal failures, but it also collects important defect and repair data in real time from the shop floor or the supply chain so it can be correlated with production and test data to improve decision support and root cause analysis. Derby's Rework Management consists of the following software modules:
|
Drive Down the
Rework ... with Intelligent Rework Solutions |
Shop Floor Rework - REX ReX is an Advanced Rework solution for the electronics manufacturing shop floor and supply chain—from Visual Inspection to Repair-After-Test and from Warranty Returns to Repair Center Services. ReX automatically collects failure data from test stages and provides powerful graphical rework and analysis tools that significantly improve the productivity of people and resources involved in the rework process.
ReX is highly scaleable and can be configured from a single user all the way up to over 100 concurrent users across the entire shop floor or throughout the supply chain. The ReX Graphical Users Interface (GUI) is based on a single screen with minimal pull-down and pop-up menus, which simplifies ease of use and operator training. Operators can use a mouse or a touch screen to navigate around the ReX interface.
ReX provides real-time decision support during the rework process that increases productivity and reduces the impact of internal or external failures on the shop floor and across the manufacturing supply chain.
ReX Features
Automated data collection from all
test processes
Paperless/graphical repair for the
entire test workcell
Visual Inspection mode
Advanced troubleshooting tools (Find
Shorts/Trace)
User definable repair cause/action
codes
On-line board history and parts
information
Automated data logging for quality
analysis
Highly scaleable (e.g.1 to >100
concurrent users)
Open interface to other applications
Automated Test/Defect/Repair Data Collection
ReX can be linked to a variety of commercial Automate Test Equipment (ATE) including incircuit test, optical inspection, X-Ray inspection and functional test to ensure that valuable test and failure data is automatically collected from ALL appraisal sources on the shop floor. ReX utilizes Derby’s Shop Floor Connect solution—to collect data automatically and seamlessly from leading ATE systems.
Repair-After-Test Mode
By scanning in the serial number of a faulty board, ReX will automatically display the board graphics and electronic failure ticket from the tester to the operator. The repair operator can then use ReX’s board visualization and analysis tools to troubleshoot the fault, before making a repair. Upon completion of each repair, the board history is automatically updated with the exact repair action taken and identified cause of the problem. At the end of the repair session data logged against the failing board is automatically collected and sent to ReX’s on-line repair database and other Derby applications (e.g. quality management) or third party software for analysis.
Visual Inspection Mode
ReX also supports a Visual Inspection mode, which enables an operator to capture defect and repair data during visual inspection. If a defect is found during visual inspection the operator can use ReX’s board visualization interface to simplify and automate data collection, thereby removing the need for paper reports and tick sheets.
ReX also manages data logging across multiple process steps. For example, if visual inspection is the first test stage in the process, ReX will create a new record in the repair database for all failing boards. If the same board fails again during visual inspection or at another test stage in the process (e.g. incircuit or functional test), ReX will append all subsequent test and failure data to the existing record in the repair database. Board history data can be viewed at any time by entering the serial number of a board at any ReX station. This feature enhances decision support by allowing operators and technicians to see what has previously happened to a board before taking action.
Integrating ReXIntegrating ReX into other solutions has been simplified by providing open input and output routines that can be customized to support system integration. ReX is also based on Derby’s open ASCII Data Collection Format (DCFormat). This flexibility enables ReX to be easily integrated with Derby, third party or in-house applications including quality management and inventory tracking solutions.
Intelligent Repair - IR
Finding the cause for a failure on an electronic printed circuit board is becoming increasingly more difficult as products become more complex, test coverage decreases and skilled technical resources become scarce. Without some level of intelligent assistance during troubleshooting, repair times, test/repair loops and scrap levels drive up the cost of internal failures! The quicker an operator or technician can effectively eliminate the cause for a failure, the lower the cost related to that failure will be.
IR is an Intelligent Repair solution for the electronics manufacturing test and repair workcell. IR focuses on reducing the impact of internal failures by reducing the time and skill level it takes to find failures on a printed circuit board during the repair process, where troubleshooting failures can be a challenging task, often requiring very skilled resources. IR provides repair technicians with on-line recommendations of possible causes for a failure, based on past history of successful repairs.
Within a ReX repair session a user is able to push a button and ask IR to provide intelligent assistance during the troubleshooting process. On request IR will display a pareto chart that identifies and ranks the most successful repairs for a given failure. IR can also work with other commercial repair or troubleshooting software or hardware as the application is based on Derby’s open ASCII Data Collection Format (DCF).
The effort to set-up and maintain IR is minimal because the product is based on an inference engine that uses historical information to create its repair recommendations, so there is no need to have expert product knowledge to set-up or use IR.
IR Features
Board Viewer - RX
RX is a board visualization solution that can be used in design, on the shop floor for visual inspection or repair and in repair centers to view an electronics printed circuit board (pcb). RX enables users to actively view a pcb and display parts/pins, inner layers, single or multiple traces, single/groups/or all parts, the silkscreen and part details.
RX can be controlled manually by an operator on the shop floor or via an application programming interface, which enables the software to be integrated into other shop floor solutions. Derby's clients have found many novel ways to effectively use RX, including a solution that enabled one customer to remove silkcreens on the shop floor and another that provided real-time feedback to the SMT process via RX's active board view interface.