SMD stencil production on course for the future:

The striving for continuous improvement to achieve a high-level production and quality level is unbroken. The players in the Japanese market in particular are experts when it comes to serving the entire value chain seamlessly and highly efficiently. Their secret? Kaizen and Kanban: two methods to increase productivity. Both models reflect a very disciplined and employee-oriented work philosophy with which the SMD stencil specialist BECKTRONIC also identifies. In addition to a recently introduced ERP system, the company is increasingly encouraging employees to take the initiative and act on their own responsibility in order to identify further optimisation potential and convert it into performance and thus customer benefit.

Precision as a success factor in printed circuit board assembly

Efficiency and effectiveness at the workplace are the two core drivers for successful SMD, LTCC and wafer production. Particularly in PCB assembly, handling the smallest designs, for example in the field of medical technology, requires the highest possible process reliability and precision. A continuous internal improvement process (CIP) is therefore one of the most important competitive prerequisites in the market. In order to successfully pursue a zero-defect strategy throughout the company, BECKTRONIC will in future not only rely on its own management, but also promote the expertise of its own employees. This promises a higher process, quality and customer orientation with the aim of quality assurance, increased customer satisfaction and cost reduction.

The main players in the internal optimisation process

In order to sustainably strengthen and permanently improve its own company promise to customers, BECKTRONIC puts everything on one card: its employees. Within the framework of the holistic optimization process, the company focuses on actively identifying improvement potentials and, in a second step, designing tailor-made solution models. The Japanese basic principles of Kaizen and Kanban form the basis for this. With the aim of improving the various steps of the production process, material consumption and warehousing, BECKTRONIC relies on the pronounced know-how within individual departments. There, experts work daily according to tried and tested schemes and know the multitude of complex work steps that are necessary for the production of the high-precision tool stencil.  This makes them the decisive success drivers for a more efficient work routine. Potential sources of error are systematically reconsidered and targeted solutions are implemented in direct exchange with each other.

Two challenges, one target-oriented solution

With the two complementary methods Kaizen and Kanban, BECKTRONIC has succeeded in expanding the benefits for customers as well as employee satisfaction and its own corporate strength. "Since its introduction at the beginning of the year, we have already succeeded in sustainably improving first work areas in just a few steps. For example, the handling of tools in the manufacturing process has been standardized and the process routes have been shortened. Ergonomic adjustments, e.g. in the dispatch of goods, were successfully implemented at short notice, explains Thomas Schulte-Brinker, Managing Director of BECKTRONIC GmbH. The active participation and the increased focus on the advancement of employees is reflected in the successful implementation of individual measures and their efficiency gains. For the coming months, the concept is to be integrated into all areas of the company and continuously pursued.

BECKTRONIC is thus continuing its holistic optimization concept. In addition to a more active employee philosophy and further internal improvements, a spatial change is also planned for next month. The company has a larger production area at its new location in Weitefeld. On 700 m² it offers enough space for an optimal design of transport routes and work processes in production. In addition, the expansion will provide BECKTRONIC with important additional capacities. Meeting and social rooms, spacious offices and a showroom round off the available space.