SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE Building the

siemens.com/software

SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE

Building the infrastructure for holistic, end-to-end manufacturing

Integrating PCB production and box-build

Executive summaryIn this paper, we look briefly at some of the essentials needed to build a connected end-to-end manufacturing environment that can respond to today’s market challenges. We look at a real-world case study that implements this approach and discuss some of the ways Siemens helps manufacturers build a holistic PCB manufacturing and assembly operation.

Oren Manor Director of Business Development, Valor

As we rely more heavily on electronic devices in

our daily lives, these products are becoming

increasingly complex and customized. Companies

are driven to generate constant innovations to

compete in a limited, demanding and increasingly

sophisticated market.

In manufacturing, there is a traditional separation

between the manufacturing of electronics and

mechanical parts for a product. One company or

location designs the product, another produces

the PCB, and another completes the final product

assembly (box-build). Each has its own data and

processes that are siloed and disconnected.

That must change. An entirely different, holistic

approach is required to succeed in today’s market

and remain competitive in the future.

Managing PCB production and box build as a

holistic, end-to-end process allows manufacturers to

boost efficiency and reduce time-to-market. But

how can manufacturers adapt and create a smart,

agile manufacturing process that is connected from

end to end? How can they break down the silos

between disciplines?

Introduction

Electronics are everywhere, across multiple industries.

SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE 2

White Paper – Building the infrastructure for holistic, end-to-end manufacturing

Seven trends keeping manufacturing executives up at night

1. Rapid time to market

Whether introducing an existing product into a new

geographical area or a new product into an existing

market, industry executives say time to market is

one of the top factors that impact its success.

Product lifecycles might last several years, but a

significant portion of the lifetime profit is often

earned in the first few quarters.

2. Increasing market demand

In the last century, many new and exciting products

became available to anyone who could afford to buy

them. Today, consumer demand has become a beast

with a voracious appetite. Snowballing innovations

allowed companies to build and sell more products

at more affordable prices, and electronic devices are

now ubiquitous globally. Electronic products have

improved communication, safety and quality of life

for many people, and the expectation for contin-

uous supply has become a market mindset.

Companies are under constant pressure to meet that

demand.

In addition, small appliance companies are short-

ening their refresh cycle to encourage people to buy

new appliances to get new features, rather than

only when they wear out. Because supplies are

finite, it is harder than ever to meet the demand.

3. Sustainability requirements

Opportunities are expanding in new energy technol-

ogies, and there is a growing demand for greater

efficiency and longer product life. Sustainable

Common trends across all industries where electronics are integrated.



product manufacturing is becoming a must, but it

presents challenges that manufacturers will be

required to address in the future.

4. Expanded use of electronics

Electronics are now used in everything from cars to

appliances to infrastructure. Bosch, a high-end

appliance manufacturer, mentioned recently in one

of Siemens’ public forums that embedding elec-

tronics into their appliances and making them smart

and connected was imperative to maintain their

premium status in the marketplace.

5. Globalization

In today’s globalized world, electronic design, manu-

facturing and market fulfillment are conducted

across countries, continents and between compa-

nies, and more businesses are outsourcing manufac-

turing. For example, leading smartphones are

designed by brand-name companies in the United

States, built by Foxconn and other contract manu-

facturers in China and shipped to customers around

the world.

6. Fast pace of innovation

Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that this century will

create 20,000 years’ worth of progress if we

continue to advance at the current rate, and the

electronic products market is one of the most inno-

vative emerging technology industries. Take 5G, for

example. There is an entire ecosystem, from

network infrastructure players such as Nokia and

Ericsson, to smartphone providers like Samsung

looking to use 5G to enhance performance.

However, to take advantage of this new technology,

manufacturers must overcome significant design

and test challenges; for instance, how to pack more

electronic functions into small mechanical enclo-

sures, access a wider bandwidth and use the new

beamforming technology.

7. Mixed product lifecycles

As electronics manufacturers evolve their operations

toward the high-mix, high-volume future, they face

the added complexity created by key operational

differences between PCB and box-build manufac-

turing. Box-build design and production volume

tend to vary somewhat less than the PCB (a change

to PCB design does not always entail a change to the

enclosure). However, the box-build manufacturing

process is not as standardized as PCB production

and requires the remodeling the production line

often. It is less automated, requiring a more

hands-on management. These differences create

mixed product lifecycles, with more complex

product assembly.

We are entering an age where change is seemingly

chaotic. Companies are driven to redefine them-

selves at an increasingly rapid pace. Electronics

technology includes infinite opportunities, but

challenges have led to an unprecedented level of

industry complexity and disruption that are

expected to increase in the coming years. Those

who have the vision to navigate and adapt to

change will be the companies building the future.



Case study

Scanfil is a midsize EMS company (1,200 employees)

with a plant in Suzhou, China, where the company

is instituting a smart operations program, which is a

five-year initiative to integrate digitalization and

automation within their manufacturing operations.

Scanfil has ten sites worldwide on three continents

and seven countries, with headquarters in Finland.

Their customers are global.

As an end-to-end provider, Scanfil conducts PCB

assembly, mechatronics box-build, final assembly

and more. The company sells its manufacturing

services as well as providing services to its own

electronics manufacturing, mechanical assembly

and system integration throughout the product life

cycle. It serves industrial, medical, advanced

consumer applications and energy automation

companies.

The company’s motivation for implementing a

holistic manufacturing operation system was to

improve manufacturing services to customers. A key

priority was to continuously improve productivity,

quality control and planning efficiency to keep

customers happy, as well as

provide professional new product

introductions (NPIs) and trace-

ability to comply with regulatory

requirements.

Because the company works with

mechanical products as well as

electronics manufacturing and

wanted to integrate the two

businesses internally, Siemens’

strong offering in SMT control, as

well as NPI tools and process

preparation offered the ideal

solution.

The scope of implementation had

to cover the full production

environment from SMT to inte-

gration testing, as well as

assembly inspection, and it

needed to be fully integrated

with Scanfil’s ERP system. One of

their goals, and a major chal-

lenge, was to streamline Photo courtesy of Scanfil.



“To be honest, it has been a roller coaster, taking a significant effort from our team and from Siemens support, but today I can say that we have successfully been able to roll out the system. We may have started with a plan that was too ambitious for the challenges that 2020 presented. We were forced to work remotely, resulting in a delay of four to six months. Now, I’m happy to say that we are seeing benefits every day.”

Christian Guest, General Manager Scanfil Suzhou, China

processes between factories in different countries,

to harmonize the processes and everything between

the between factories. They worked with a Siemens

project manager who worked with them throughout

the entire process.

The company has transformed its factory in China, is

rolling out the plan at a plant in Poland and is

continuing with an ongoing rollout of the NPI tools

in its other electronics manufacturing sites. Scanfil

has seen direct improvements in productivity of at

least 10 percent as the result of more efficient

changeover, eliminating some manual data collec-

tion, and gaining other efficiency improvements.

Costs related to poor quality have been reduced by

approximately 20 percent. Other benefits come

from improved quality control throughout the entire

manufacturing process.

Process preparation time has been significantly

reduced, with an efficiency improvement in the

range of 40 percent. This enables quicker implemen-

tation, time to market and introduction of new

products on the manufacturing shop floor.

Scanfil’s experience illustrates that good control of

your current processes and production environment

is the starting point when going digital. In addition,

a well-documented process is needed to be

successful, forming the foundation for digitalization

and realizing improvements.

Scanfil focused on simplicity, implementation and

security. It is now using predictive analytics to

better control the manufacturing process, and the

company plans to apply machine learning, prescrip-

tive analytics and autonomous operations soon to

reach its goal of intelligent manufacturing.



Individual siloed systems for PCB and box build

cannot collaborate horizontally. As we see digitaliza-

tion as the most effective approach to manufac-

turing for end-to-end electronics manufacturers,

Siemens looks first at the broader picture of digital

transformation that starts with an integrated manu-

facturing execution system (MES) solution. Such a

system is needed to create an end-to-end process

from design to automation to human operations.

Siemens aims to offer a holistic approach that

transforms a siloed landscape into a unified, inte-

grated product and production lifecycle—from

product design to production planning, engineering,

execution and service (from idea to shelf). A fully

digitalized business model with a consistent digital

thread has the power and flexibility to accelerate

processes and optimize production operations. This

approach also requires a joint data storage and data

management system—a unified data backbone that

delivers a collaboration platform throughout all

steps of the value chain.

The Siemens approach is built on virtual representa-

tions of physical products and associated processes.

The Xcelerator platform enables the integration of

digital twins of product and performance, creating

support for the entire value chain. With digital

twins, manufacturers gain foresight by simulating

products, people, processes and resources in the

virtual realm before implementing production on

the manufacturing floor. Then, by matching the real

world to predicted performance, manufacturers gain

additional insights that can be used to drive contin-

uous improvement.

As part of the Xcelerator portfolio, the Opcenter

Execution Electronics MES ensures complete visi-

bility of all operations on the shop floor. It gives PCB

and box-build electronics manufacturers insight into

the raw materials, equipment and personnel

working on each product, as well as process and

product characteristics for each individual produc-

tion run.

Opcenter Execution Electronics enables standardiza-

tion of production processes, making sure that

coordinated PCB and box-build manufacturing

workflows are rolled out easily and consistently.

Best practices can be clearly identified and adopted

to help increase production efficiency and quality.

This MES also provides real-time orchestration of

manufacturing orders and tasks, stitching separate

production steps and resources together into a

unique and efficient manufacturing flow.

Opcenter Execution Electronics grants end-to-end

tracking and enforcement of all manufacturing

resources. It ensures the right material is available,

unexpired and used per the latest revision of the bill

of materials (BOM). It ensures correct operator

actions with electronic work instructions and certifi-

cation that each operator is properly trained and

allowed to perform each task. It ensures the right

equipment is available, well-maintained and certi-

fied for use.

Opcenter Execution Electronics helps end-to-end

electronics manufacturers optimize manufacturing

efficiencies as well as manufacturing quality. The

intelligence gleaned from a single MES orches-

trating the PCB and the box-build processes detects

Siemens provides the MES to support a holistic approach



root causes between assembly and PCB production.

This is a unique capability for a holistic system,

enabling improvements across product revisions.

With a unified MES system assisting the operator,

and data acquired from PCB manufacturing in the

same facility, you can implement more advanced

analyses for quality improvement.

With all the above, Siemens delivers a comprehen-

sive solution for an optimized product and produc-

tion lifecycle: tools for collaboration across

planning, execution, assembly and quality, harmo-

nizing human operations with automation and

electronic PCB manufacturing with box build.

An end-to-end, holistic product lifecycle begins in the design phase and carries through manufacturing.



About Siemens Digital Industries Software

Siemens Digital Industries Software is driving transformation to

enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing

and electronics design meet tomorrow. Xcelerator, the compre-

hensive and integrated portfolio of software and services from

Siemens Digital Industries Software, helps companies of all sizes

create and leverage a comprehensive digital twin that provides

organizations with new insights, opportunities and levels of

automation to drive innovation. For more information on

Siemens Digital Industries Software products and services, visit

siemens.com/software or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter,

Facebook and Instagram. Siemens Digital Industries Software –

Where today meets tomorrow.

About the author

Oren Manor serves as the director of business development for

Valor Division of Siemens Digital Industries Software. His respon-

sibilities include business ownership of Valor’s engineering and

pre-production tools as well as partnerships and OEM engage-

ments. Oren brings over 15 years of experience in sales and

marketing of embedded and industry software. Oren was the

global sales and marketing director for Jungo’s embedded

connectivity business unit which was later acquired by NDS and

Cisco. Before joining Mentor Graphics (now part of Siemens),

Oren was the vice president, sales and marketing of Signature-IT,

a SaaS cloud-based solution for configuring, pricing and quoting

(CPQ) of heavy-industry mechanical products.

siemens.com/software

© 2021 Siemens. A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

00000-D1 6/21 C

Siemens Digital Industries Software

Americas: 1 800 498 5351

EMEA: 00 800 70002222

Asia-Pacific: 001 800 03061910

For additional numbers, click here.

Documents

SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE Building the