Want to Increase Productivity, Reduce Costs, and Accelerate TTM?
Choose a Partner With Advanced Pick & Place Surface Mount Technology Automation
Automated Pick and Place (P&P) Surface Mount Technology (SMT) has made incredible advances in the last ten years by combining artificial intelligence, computer vision, motion mapping, and IoT technologies to provide a dramatically more efficient and cost-effective approach to high-volume production.
Advanced P&P SMT works by applying surface-mount devices (SMDs) onto a printed circuit board (PCB). It is the most efficient and effective electronic manufacturing solution for medical, industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. And it has applications across a broad array of product categories.
At Pivot International, our extensive investment in digital transformation provides state-of-the-art P&P SMT solutions. As a leading product design, development, manufacturing, and global supply chain management company, we deploy advanced P&P SMT to help our partners create some of the world’s most exciting and award-winning products. With one-source expertise across fourteen industries and 320,000 square feet of tri-continental manufacturing might, we are a premium partner to clients worldwide.
How does advanced P&P SMT enhance efficiency, drive cost savings, and accelerate time-to-market (TTM) at a rate well above and beyond traditional methods? Let’s take a look.
Increased Productivity
Advanced P&P SMT automation delivers speed that leaves manual P&P in the dust, swapping out modules and handling different parts and components with dizzying speed. The fastest P&P SMT machines can process as many as 136,000-200,000 components per hour (cph) — exponentially more than a human worker.
Using precision APIs and industrialized hardware design, automated P&P SMT can increase productivity by four to five times. And as the saying goes, time is money. The faster a product can be created, the faster it can be delivered to market. Whether this applies to the launch of a new product or simply the need to ramp up production in response to market demand, advanced P&P SMT is a critical part of the overall success equation.
Flexible Manufacturing
Advanced P&P SMT can be programmed according to precise specifications to flexibly accommodate a wide variety of components and to perform a wide array of operations. This flexibility applies not only to product parameters but also to actual manufacturing sites and the ability to scale production to demand. For example, Pivot’s investment in high-speed, twinned SMT lines in its US-based Omaha, NE facilities, as well as in its South Asia, Philippines-based Manila facilities, enables customers who distribute globally to flexibly shift and scale production between them.
Flawless Execution
Advanced P&P SMT also provides for uncanny levels of accuracy unmatched by the human eye or manual dexterity. Using optical sensors, these devices essentially perform an incredibly precise “target lock” from which to perform the next step of their activity. Advanced P&P SMT is so accurate that its margin of deviation is less than 1/10,000th of an inch. Not only does this level of precision and accuracy result in a better, more competitive product, it dramatically reduces quality issues.
Optimized Resource Allocation
Advanced P&P SMT works hand in hand with broader supply chain considerations, business operations, and more significant growth goals. Its speed, efficiency, and flexibility support strategic planning and resource allocation. For example, advanced P&P SMT can make organizations leaner by reducing the need for human workers. Conversely, they can free up these workers to invest their time and focus in areas of greater value. What’s more, advanced P&P SMT provides analytics that are essential to business intelligence, risk management, process optimization, innovation, and more. When advanced P&P SMT automation is combined with human ingenuity and insight, the benefits of each can be realized to their fullest.
If you’re looking for a trusted product development and manufacturing partner with the latest in P&P SMT automation, Pivot brings nearly a half-century of experience. With nine subsidiaries, including five that employ this winning technology (Avatar, DigitTron, Castle, EDM, and DCI), Pivot is the answer to your high-volume electronics manufacturing needs. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow!
