Process Development Plan for the In-line Inspection and Rework of Printed Circuit Boards

Abstract

PCBnation is a leader in GPS-based navigational devices for the aviation industry. The company is vertically integrated and thus assembles all of its products internally from the individual piece parts to the final product. PCBnation’s Printed Circuit Board (PCB) assembly department is responsible for manufacturing all of PCBnation’s printed circuit boards. Process engineers within this department have made significant strides in updating equipment to the latest technology and thus improving efficiency, quality and capacity at the same time. However, now that the PCBs are being assembled much faster, the PCB quality inspection and rework process has become the bottleneck within the assembly process. This process development plan was created to solve the manufacturing throughput issue within PCBnation’s Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Total Quality Assurance (TQA) process. The new “inline” SMT TQA inspection and rework process proposed in this document is designed to eliminate the throughput issue by targeting and eliminating the weaknesses of the current process. Some of these weaknesses include database transaction errors, unplanned rework from damaged components, undetectable supplier defects and excessive Non-Value Added work.