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Brent A. Fischthal, Head of Global Marketing, Koh Young Technology
USI, Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., is a global leader in electronic design and manufacturing as well as a leader in the field of SiP (System-in-Package) technology. With the acquisitions of Asteelflash and Hirschmann Car Communication, USI has thirty (30) production and service locations across the four continents of Asia, Europe, Americas, and Africa, and offers customer diversified electronic solutions, material procurement, logistics, and maintenance services. USI is a subsidiary of ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (TWSE: 3711, NYSE: ASX).
On our visit to USI’s facility in Guadalajara, México we spoke to their Regional Test Engineering Director, Juan Manuel Rivera Mejia and Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez about the facility, the selection and application of Koh Young’s inspection equipment, and about their plans for the future.
This is a story focused on understanding the value of technology and of strategic partnerships with vendors that are deep and enduring. USI’s selection of Koh Young Technology as their inspection partner was considered, detailed, and took account of global and local needs within USI and at their customers.
"We have 24 SMT lines all working with SPI (Solder Paste Inspection) and AOI (Automated Optical Inspection), supporting different programs and industries, including automotive, industrial, telecommunications." - Regional Test Engineering Director, Juan Manuel Rivera Mejia
"The general strategy for equipment selection uses a list of the requirements from the customers, our own technical requirements, plus those of USI. We combine these documents and evaluate what technology is needed and necessary." - Regional Test Engineering Director, Juan Manuel Rivera Mejia
More than just a good machine
"The quality of the machine is important, but the most important to me is the level of support and service that we have and, and to be honest, with Koh Young, we are having here a very good level of support and service. If the machine went down for any reason, we have the support in just 30 minutes, much faster than other brands where support for those machines or those platforms is taking hours. Hours that we have stopped the line." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
"If we have a very high-quality machine but with a poor level of support and service. When the machine is down, it takes days sometimes to fix it.” That is why the evaluation team is careful to “perform a full cost-benefit analysis for the long term, not just taking care of the first purchase on the first day!" - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
Accelerating NPI
"Koh Young is good technology because it helps us to very quickly develop and to improve the NPI process, including the fine-tuning of these projects." - Regional Test Engineering Director, Juan Manuel Rivera Mejia
"Making the programs to inspect the PCBs is really easy. And now they have released a platform that is teaching the PCB, so it is doing the program itself with almost 90% accuracy, and my people are just making the fine tuning and in just a couple of hours we can have an inspection program done and validated from scratch. This is in comparison with other machines where that is taking maybe six hours of programming." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
Leveraging data through KSMART
USI uses KSMART to improve performance, to reduce the time spent on analysis.
"The KSMART technology helps us to improve the technical engineer working times. In the past we spent a lot of time analyzing the results of the machines. The KSMART helped us to improve these times and you can see the results, and we have the opportunity to improve on the process and spend time fine-tuning and debugging this program in the AOI." - Regional Test Engineering Director, Juan Manuel Rivera Mejia
Juan Carlos believes that KSMART moves Koh Young from pure equipment to an end-to-end solution, and that is particularly important to USI.
"The solution that is provided by Koh Young is end-to-end. It’s not just a high-quality machine with a good level of support and service. The KSMART solution is analyzing all the data, so it helps us to figure it out what is wrong, and not just what is wrong, but we can detect and prevent an issue because at the end, we are analyzing the trend and the trend is going back, so we can put in place the preventive actions before it fails." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
Building on a great inspection platform
USI started working with Koh Young in SPI and AOI for their SMT lines. Currently they have started on the evaluation for the conformal coating inspection, and there is even more to come.
"It is an advantage to have a standard platform over the whole process from SPI, AOI, SMT, through hole, and now the customers are requiring a final inspection before packaging in order to, not just to inspect the PCB, but to have pictures as evidence about the conditions before shipping." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
"The solution that we are evaluating right now is the KPY3 model from Koh Young that has a flipper conveyor and the C-axis is adjustable. It’s an advantage because at the end we are expecting not just PCB, but sometimes we are expecting assemblies. We need a machine that we can use for different heights, and different shapes, to inspect the different characteristics." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
"The solutions that Koh Young is offering are end-to-end and this last evaluation that is taking place in our facilities will give us a very good solution and will mean more of the SMT lines include Koh Young." - Regional Test Engineering Director, Juan Manuel Rivera Mejia
Matching R&D Commitment and Spend
"Something that has been evaluated that we are taking care of. This is the evaluation of the R&D investment of the company. You know, some companies are offering the machine for the first time, and they are good looking or high tech, but those companies are not investing in R&D and over time we will have exactly the same conditions and the capabilities of the machines are the same. Koh Young continues investing in its R&D. Year after year, we are receiving new features, machines, and capabilities." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
"That is an advantage as well, because at the end, the manufacturing process is moving forward, and the requirements are moving as well. I can tell you that year after year, I receive visits from the team from Korea and the team here in México in order to start discussing and learning from the CMs to know what are the new demands, what issues do we have, all in order to start working on the solutions and offer us those new solutions." - Engineering Manager, Juan Carlos Hernandez Alvarez
USI’s approach to this entire process, their focus on selecting the right machines, the right software, the right technology, the right local and global service and support, and the right company that can match their expectation in R&D and investment in the future is a textbook example of how to appraise and create lasting strategic vendor partnerships.
They selected Koh Young for many reasons and really did their homework before they did. The 24 SMT line facility in Guadalajara is set to grow to almost double in the near future with a view to adding even more capacity and eventually becoming a 70+ line campus. Koh Young will be there to support that development 100% with new and existing solutions to add value, to add capability, to add performance and to add scale.
You can learn more about USI at https://www.usiglobal.com/en and watch the video case study at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4OmaXHNxnwniJGhTQPzrumKno0l7OSh7
USI Guadalajara has Koh Young SPI and AOI, discover 3D Inspection Solutions at Koh Young.
