Cycle time estimation for printed circuit board assemblies

Competitive pressures force the electronics industry to keep costs down and to reduce product development cycle times. These goals must be accomplished while maintaining product quality and keeping up with current technology. Increasingly, electronics companies are collaborating with other companies to achieve their business goals and to stay competitive. This has taken the form of outsourcing entire operations and services in addition to outsourcing certain components. Such efforts result in a distributed manufacturing environment and places increased stress on the information infrastructure, requiring firms to implement technological changes in order to compete using these business and enterprise practices. The Electronics Agile Manufacturing Research Institute (EAMRI) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was formed to develop tools to support distributed electronics manufacturing environments. As part of this effort, the EAMRI has developed a cycle time estimation model that determines the cycle time or time duration for a PCB assembly before its realization. We model the PCB as going through three stages of realization: design, resource planning, and manufacturing. The cycle time model provides an estimate for each phase based on information available about the PCB before that phase has commenced. This model allows for greater flexibility and insight into planning the PCB development process and in allocating the resources to assure that each PCB meets its schedule. This paper details the development of cycle time estimation models and describes their potential use in a collaborative, distributed manufacturing environment