Panasonic Starts Accepting Orders for Manufacturing Operations Optimizer MFO

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Panasonic Corporation has started accepting orders for its new software solution, "Manufacturing Operations Optimizer MFO", a system that improves productivity by utilizing a simulation model that accurately emulates the mounting process of electronic components on printed circuit boards.

In recent years, as customers' needs have diversified, manufacturers are required to successfully implement mass customization that realizes productivity equivalent to that of mass-production in multi-product, high-mix and low-volume production. In order to implement mass customization, manufacturers need to minimize model changeover to improve productivity and operate the production line more efficiently. This requires highly precise production plans that take production facility capacity and site resources into account.

At many production sites, it is common for experts to create manufacturing execution plans manually-often adjusting the sequence of production orders for each printed circuit board, preparing the setup work plan, and allocating workers based on the production plan. In addition, the production plan frequently requires continuous adjustment at the site level. Creating an optimal manufacturing execution plan requires excessive man-hours and expert's know-how, which resulted in a gap between production plan and actual production, and decrease of productivity. To solve these problems, Panasonic integrated a Siemens production process simulator "Plant Simulation" module and Panasonic's proprietary know-how on mounting process to develop the new system.

This system dynamically analyzes changes in production details according to the site conditions by simulating the entire mounting process including equipment of other companies and workers, and based on the results, automatically determines the optimal execution plan to connect the production plan and actual production.

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development of diverse electronics technologies and solutions for customers in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B businesses. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2018, the company has expanded globally and now operates 495 subsidiaries and 91 associated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.343 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2017. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for its customers. To learn more about Panasonic, click here.