Research needs and opportunities in electronics assembly

This paper investigates whether investments in research and development could have a significant impact in either reducing the cost and/or enhancing the effectiveness of electronics assembly. The methodology followed in this study consisted of industrial surveys, on-site data gathering visits, literature surveys of academic and trade publications, and interaction with experts in the field of assembly. The industrial assessment was conducted on 24 product lines across companies ranging in size from $10 million to $2 billion in annual sales. Approximately 64% of the assembly dollar value surveyed corresponded to DoD products. This paper describes the distribution of assembly cost across setup, support, and process activities. Breakdowns by manual, semi-automated, and automated assembly are also documented. A needs and trend analysis was conducted to determine the perception of the industrial participants regarding their current investment, need for investment and cost impact potential of assembly activities. We present these findings for government contractors versus commercial firms, prime contractors versus sub-tier contractors, and for electrically intense operations. Our research methodology included the analysis of qualitative data from open-ended questions and interviews. This information was subjected to content and lexical analysis and identified three major assembly issues: R&D opportunities, R&D inhibitors, and technology transfer. These findings are also summarized.