WILSONVILLE, Ore., Feb. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mentor
Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced that Phoenix
Contact, the German-based market leader of device connectors,
electronic components and industrial automation technologies, has
adopted the Mentor Graphics® Valor IoT Manufacturing solution for
factory automation. Phoenix Contact, headquartered in Blomberg,
Germany, manufactures over 60,000
products and serves more than 100 countries. They selected the
Valor® IoT Manufacturing and Valor MSS products for their
manufacturing processes to help achieve zero-defect operational
results. The Valor technologies enabled Phoenix Contact to collect
and utilize traceability data from a variety of surface mount
technology (SMT) machine vendors and workflow processes to ensure
manufactured product quality and optimum productivity and
profitability.
Phoenix Contact uses SMT machines in their factories from
different vendors (ASM and Fuji), which provide their own detailed
and accurate traceability data; however, their data is not
compatible with each other, and difficult for Phoenix Contact to
integrate. This is a problem for the company since its products
have been produced using both vendor machines at different phases
in the manufacturing process. Committed to quality and engineering
excellence, Phoenix Contact sought Mentor's Valor technologies to
manage a central, single repository of traceability information
that can combine data from the two machine vendor platforms, to
include the ability to collect additional data from the company's
other processes, such as manual assembly and repairs.
"Before we used Valor MSS with Valor IoT Manufacturing, we were
always conscious, like almost every other company, of mistakes that
may be made when attempting to construct the overall traceability
data for a product. Now, with the Valor software and hardware
solution working in full integration with the machine vendors'
hardware and software solutions, the entire work is automated,"
said Stefan Schnake from PCB Design
and Product Support responsible for Manufacturing Data Support at
Phoenix Contact.
He added, "As well as knowing the integrity of the data, it is
also available immediately as production is running. This means
that we can use the data for our zero-defect quality initiative,
for which it has proven to be invaluable. We are getting continuous
value from it. I can say that we are saving significant manpower
for the data collection and reporting, as well as a reduction in
defects quality due to the use of the traceability information in
real-time."
Valor MSS Traceability Software
Phoenix Contact is
realizing true zero-defect manufacturing enabled by the Valor MSS
Traceability software, which provides the infrastructure for
shop-floor materials including a unique identification of materials
used for manufacturing products. Each individual material has a
specific tracked history associated with it (when and where it's
used, part number, supplier, batch code, incoming delivery date,
manufacturer, etc.), so this unique tracking system allows Phoenix
Contact to precisely track each material used for production.
Automatic tracking ensures the accuracy and total count of Phoenix
Contact components, and the Valor MSS tool also helps manage other
things, such as manufacturing, supply and distribution (MSD) or LED
binning.
The Valor MSS software provides the unique material tracking
information to the machine platforms as they perform their
operations (material set-up verification, materials reels on smart
feeders, confirmation of feeder position on the machine, etc.).
Thus, Phoenix Contact's verification processes are
mistake-proof, optimizing the hardware and software features
available in the different SMT machine platforms. As production
runs, the machine vendor software compiles the material
traceability information in their native format, which is then
communicated to the Valor product through a single connection.
Data Consolidation Enabled by the Valor IoT Manufacturing
Solution
The Valor IoT Manufacturing hardware, comprising
embedded advanced interfaces for both ASM and Fuji vendor
platforms, receives the production data and automatically
normalizes it into the single Open Manufacturing Language (OML)
format. The Valor MSS traceability software then takes the OML
format, processes the combined information and stores it into a
traceability database. The Valor IoT manufacturing product can
collect data from any other manufacturing process in various ways:
another embedded advanced interface, flexible connections from
machines without interfaces, or manual data collected from
processes such as repairs. The Valor IoT Manufacturing solution
includes a software development kit (SDK) for these purposes.
Accurate traceability reports can then be generated immediately to
analyze any suspected defects, document production compliance,
understand the exact cause of defective materials (including
counterfeits), if discovered. This provides Phoenix Contact with
the ideal traceability solution to help achieve zero-defect
manufacturing with optimum product quality.
Product Availability
The Valor MSS and Valor IoT
Manufacturing solution are available today. To learn more, visit
the product website:
https://www.mentor.com/pcb-manufacturing-assembly/iot-valor-manufacturing/.
Mentor Graphics Valor Division will also showcase their latest
technologies at the IPC-APEX Expo in San
Diego, California (booth #809), February 14-16, 2017.
About Mentor Graphics
Mentor Graphics Corporation
(NASDAQ: MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and
software design solutions, providing products, consulting services
and award-winning support for the world's most successful
electronic, semiconductor and systems companies. Established in
1981, the company reported revenues in the last fiscal year of
approximately $1.18 billion.
Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road,
Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777.
World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.
(Mentor Graphics, Mentor and Valor are registered trademarks of
Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are
the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective
owners.)
For more information,
please contact:
|
Larry Toda
Mentor
Graphics
503.685.1664
larry_toda@mentor.com
|
|
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SOURCE Mentor Graphics Corporation