Assembly - January 2009 - (Page 38) Assembly in Action NXP Uses Automation to Remain Competitive N XP Semiconductors (Eindhoven, Netherlands) manufactures nearly a third of all the mobile-phone loudspeakers used worldwide, despite having to compete with an increasing number of companies in China and other low-cost Asian countries. assembly of new products much more quickly than is possible when employing hundreds of manual workers who must all be individually trained. In fact, the company cites its low time to volume as being critical to its success. “Given the short innovation cycles prevailing in the industry, cross-functional product development processes The company’s low time to volume is critical to its success. play a key role,” says NXP Semiconductors automation manager Friedrich Barisits. “The development of the products and technical processes, their integration into the product design and then the incorporation of the product design in the automation system are all closely intermeshed. Every single step in the entire development process is assessed and undertaken in the light of the available technologies.” Central to this business plan are the 40 separate production lines the company operates at its plant in Vienna. Each line employs test and assembly equipment from Mikron Corp. (Aurora, CO), including Mikron’s Flexcell linear assembly systems and machines from Mikron’s new G05 product line. The latter, in particular, have allowed NXP to reduce its cycle times from 3 seconds to 0.6 second, even as the size of the loudspeakers has shrunk to just 7 by 10 by 2 millimeters. Recently, the company began transferring some of its older automated lines to its facility in China. NXP’s automated loudspeaker production systems are amortized in about 2 years, so NXP’s automated assembly processes and low time to volume are critical to its ability to compete globally. NXP has been successful thanks to its highly efficient cross-functional product development program and the fact that its manufacturing processes are highly automated. For example, its assembly plant in Vienna, Austria, requires about two-dozen people to operate. To do the same work manually in Asia would require approximately 1,000 employees. In addition to lowering labor costs and improving quality, NXP’s automated processes allow it to ramp up 38 ASSEMBLY / January 2009 www.assemblymag.com http://www.assemblymag.com
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