Manufacturing flexibility: SMT factors study

Electronics manufacturers are facing evolutionary and highly dynamic environment. Flexibility is becoming a must in their manufacturing processes especially those using surface mount technology (SMT). This study consists of assessing and predicting the effects of different strategies of products family formation based on different group technology policies (GSU and SDS); other operational variables are the flexibility and the performance of a SMT assembly line and reduction of setup time. Simulation and experimental design are used in order to predict the line performance.