Focus on electronica: Standards and the Factory of the Future

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Dr. Thomas Marktscheffel, director of product management software solutions for ASMPT, gave a presentation at electronica 2024 titled Standards Driving the Factory of the Future. We asked Thomas to share his thoughts about the class, why this topic is so important, and what he hoped attendees would take away from his class.

I-Connect007: Tell us a bit about your electronica class on standards and the factory of the future.

Dr. Thomas Marktscheffel: The factory of the future will be automated, transparent, smart and intelligent, not to forget cyber security. Data will play a key role in driving, optimizing and stabilizing the manufacturing process. Data analytics and AI will help analyze deviations and provide solutions for solving such problems. This can be an open-loop approach, i.e., an operator finally decides about executing data analytics’ proposal or AI’s proposal, or it can be closed-loop, i.e., fully automated. Hence, the factory of the future will be an intelligent factory.


However, such an intelligent factory cannot be bought off the shelf: There are different equipment vendors, different software vendors, not just one supplier for all. So, interoperability of different equipment and software is key; dominance of one supplier does not lead to a reasonable solution and may even hinder technical progress. Standards provide the basis for all equipment and software solutions speaking the same language, and they enable interoperability of solutions and help manufacturers avoid being tied to specific vendors.

The presentation explained an example of closed-loop print process optimization and placement process optimization—all vendor-independent, with no dependencies upon specific equipment and software vendors. The print process accounts for about 50-70% of the problems in SMT manufacturing. A carefully optimized print process significantly increases quality and yield. This shows the huge benefit of using a standard such as CFX in an SMT manufacturing line.

I-Connect007: Why was this class important?


Marktscheffel: Data is driving the factory of the future, and it is the basis for automation, data analytics, and AI. Today, all these technologies are readily available and different vendors already provide data-driven solutions for their equipment. However, the SMT manufacturing process and its subprocesses usually involve multiple pieces of equipment. So, controlling and improving these processes involves dealing with multiple types of equipment, which means that equipment usually from different vendors has to be managed. This gap concerning vendor-specific meaning and content of equipment data needs to be bridged to be able to use this data successfully for automation, data analytics and AI. Standards not only enable interoperability of equipment and software solutions, but also provide a sound basis for cybersecurity. Standards avoid costly implementation of vendor specific interfaces, simplify integration, support future extensibility and help keeping maintenance effort low.

I-Connect007: What do you hope attendees took away from your class?


Marktscheffel: I hope that everyone came away with an understanding that the factory of the future needs actionable data and interoperability among all involved machine and software vendors. Standards are the key to such vendor-neutral cooperation.