Stable production speed despite increasing complexity of SMD stencils:

Delivering orders within one day, guaranteeing a 4 hour express service without surcharge and at the same time increasing demands on the stencil in the SMD, LTCC or wafer manufacturing sectors, reflect today's demanding industry challenges. But only a few can meet this high level of quality. This makes the ambitions of individual market players, such as BECKTRONIC GmbH, all the greater. Despite ever more complex designs of SMD stencils and an increasing volume of orders, the SMD stencil producer is relaxed about the increasing production challenges. This is made possible by optimal processes and the use of an ERP system adapted to the value chain.

In the age of industry 4.0, customers expect transparent communication during the processing phase and the highest quality standards in all areas. Higher packing densities on ever smaller surfaces, increasingly complex pad patterns and an increasing mix of different components lead to a steady rise in the level of SMD stencil production. However, this increase in complexity in the manufacturing process inevitably has an effect on the manufacturing time and prolongs it.

In order to maintain the speed and accuracy of stencil production and to meet its high quality standards, BECKTRONIC GmbH invests more and more in the optimization of internal processes. By digitizing individual production steps, the company not only differentiates itself from its competitors, but at the same time enters future-oriented territory. The heart of the innovation is an individualized ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning), which combines the requirements of stencil production and business processes.

In a second step, the integration of a DMS (Document Management System) is planned. The company is thus pursuing the implementation of paperless offices with determination: Redundancies are avoided, findability is accelerated by indexing and individually adapted structures. This maximization of efficiency leads to sustainable quality improvements despite tight time windows.

"With the introduction of a comprehensive ERP system, we have now created a sound basis for a complete recording of the value chain. We will successively integrate the diverse functions of the system into our processes, so that in future we will be able to map technical and commercial processes in a linked manner. In this way we create the greatest possible transparency for our customers and can precisely document and retrieve special requirements," explains Thomas Schulte-Brinker, Managing Director of BECKTRONIC GmbH.

With these innovations BECKTRONIC proves digital development competence and sustainable corporate management. The company has always attached great importance to an environmentally conscious corporate policy and strives for a responsible handling of raw materials and recyclables that goes beyond legislation. The path taken towards paperlessness is reflected in the latest efforts.

This investment is one of many measures for continuous process-oriented quality optimization in SMD stencil production. Further steps will follow in the course of the year and are in intensive preparation.