The Shaughnessy Report: Watt About Power Integrity?
Global PCB Connections: Understanding Your Fabricator’s Capabilities (or Niche)
Elementary Mr. Watson: Chasing Checkmarks, Not Signal Integrity
Factory Material Manager from ASMPT
October 24, 2024 | ASMPTEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Having accurate inventory data is the basis for making any improvements in your material flow, and the Factory Material Manager application delivers total data transparency. By optimizing your setup procedures and ensuring that components make it to the line in time, it provides a significant productivity boost in electronics manufacturing.
“A modern SMT factory can have up to 100,000 component packages in the warehouse and on the shop floor,” says Rob Raine, Senior Product Manager for Automation Solutions at ASMPT. “Factory Material Manager is aware of each of them and knows its location at all times.”
Where is which component reel located? Which materials are needed for the next production run? Was the expiration date taken into account during picking? By having the answers to questions like these with reliable real-time data, the Factory Material Manager relieves valuable operators of time-consuming routine tasks such as manual data entries or inventory checks. This leads to a considerable gain in efficiency, especially in modern high-mix/low-volume productions that must deal with a wide range of production orders, a broad spectrum of components, and storage locations that are often spread over the entire plant.
Up-to-date inventory data – from receiving to production
As soon as goods are received, each package or reel gets a label with a unique user ID (UID), The UID is linked to data on the manufacturer, batch number, delivery date, and special features such as MSD (moisture-sensitive device) or the expiration date.
Whenever a component package changes its location, its ID gets scanned and logged in the system. As a result, Factory Material Manager always works with current real-time data. Based on all this information, the software generates path-optimized pick lists, supports setup procedures, and ensures seamless material tracking along the entire production cycle.
Factory Material Manager also communicates with automatic storage systems, including those made by third parties. Operating on a strict first in, first out basis protects against losses due to expired materials, and a tracking system that’s always up to date prevents inventory shortfalls and line stops resulting from material shortages. This kind of permanent and fully automated inventory monitoring does not only improve your process stability and efficiency, it also reduces your costs because it cuts down on your need for emergency stocks. According to findings made by SMT manufacturers, material inventories can be reduced by 5 percent.
A powerful pair for the Intelligent Factory
“Factory Material Manager implements the Intelligent Factory principle in a consistent manner,” says Raine. “It collects data from a broad spectrum of sources ranging from the shop floor to the enterprise level, processes it, and uses it to make your processes more efficient.”
In combination with WORKS Logistics, which is ASMPT’s application for optimizing the material flows on the shop floor, Factory Material Manager optimizes and automates material flows throughout the entire production. The two connected applications from ASMPT ensure the demand-oriented supply of materials, reduce transportation and setup costs, trigger operators and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and even support automatic program changeovers on the line. With this software combination, electronics manufacturers can maximize their ROI and gain a clear competitive advantage.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Our marketing partnership with I-Connect007 is already delivering. Just a day after our press release went live, we received a direct inquiry about our updated products!"
Rachael Temple - AlltematedSuggested Items
Beyond Thermal Conductivity: Exploring Polymer-based TIM Strategies for High-power-density Electronics
10/13/2025 | Padmanabha Shakthivelu and Nico Bruijnis, MacDermid Alpha Electronics SolutionsAs power density and thermal loads continue to increase, effective thermal management becomes increasingly important. Rapid and efficient heat transfer from power semiconductor chip packages is essential for achieving optimal performance and ensuring long-term reliability of temperature-sensitive components. This is particularly crucial in power systems that support advanced applications such as green energy generation, electric vehicles, aerospace, and defense, along with high-speed computing for data centers and artificial intelligence (AI).
Is Glass Finally Coming of Age?
10/13/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Substrates, by definition, form the base of all electronic devices. Whether discussing silicon wafers for semiconductors, glass-and-epoxy materials in printed circuits, or the base of choice for interposers, all these materials function as substrates. While other substrates have come and gone, silicon and FR-4 have remained the de facto standards for the industry.
Creative Materials to Showcase Innovative Functional Inks for Medical Devices at COMPAMED 2025
10/09/2025 | Creative Materials, Inc.Creative Materials, a leading manufacturer of high-performance functional inks and coatings, is pleased to announce its participation in COMPAMED 2025, taking place November 17–20 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Alpha Insights, Performance by Design: The Future of PCB Manufacturing in the Midwest
10/07/2025 | Team Alpha -- Column: Alpha Insights: Performance by DesignFor years, Midwest PCB manufacturing was often viewed as a low-cost, high-volume business—good for standard builds but not for the high-reliability programs that demand tight process control. Defense primes and medical OEMs frequently turned to coastal or overseas suppliers for advanced work.
Jiva Leading the Charge Toward Sustainable Innovation
09/30/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineEnvironmental sustainability in business—product circularity—is a high priority these days. “Circularity,” the term meant to replace “recycling,” in its simplest definition, describes a full circle life for electronic products and all their elements. The result is re-use or a near-complete reintroduction of the base materials back into the supply chain, leaving very little left for waste. For what cannot be reused productively, the ultimate hope is to have better, less harmful means of disposal and/or materials that can seamlessly and harmlessly decompose and integrate back into the natural environment. That is where Jiva and Soluboard come in.