The instructor in action at AP&S
Small series in mechanical engineering are always an economic challenge. At AP&S, the specialist for processes in microchip production, tepcon demonstrates the potential of the tepcon instructor in in-process documentation and guidance.
The challenge
- Reduce construction time per system and thus free up capacity to increase production volume
Solution
- Simple creation of digital work and assembly instructions using the tepcon instructor
Result
- Construction time for one system reduced by more than 50%
- 30% less reworking time
- Significant increase in quality
- Greater transparency
"Specifically, the construction time for a CB III was reduced by more than 50 percent. The time saved more than doubled the output quantity."
Few industries have been under as much pressure in recent years as the semiconductor industry. Constantly growing demand, coupled with global challenges in the supply of raw materials and components and the increasingly significant shortage of skilled workers, are creating the most difficult conditions. As a renowned manufacturer of special machines, AP&S AP&S International GmbH from Donaueschingen is also part of the complex production chain in the semiconductor industry. With three plants, the company develops and produces batch and single wafer wet process solutions for the semiconductor, MEMS and microstructuring industries as a leading global supplier. With the CleanStep-Box CB III, AP&S produces a cleaning system for common carrier types. In order to respond professionally to the increased challenges of the industry, the managers at AP&S decided on a project to optimize the production process of the small series manufactured in cycle production. The objective was to reduce the construction time for each system and thus free up capacity to increase production volumes.
Step 1: Inventory
An in-depth analysis of production-relevant processes identified the hoped-for optimization potential in the area of workflow documentation. The established, evolved system for creating and retrieving work and assembly instructions and their basic structure proved to be an area with recognizable potential for improving process efficiency.
At the start of the project, assembly instructions were largely created in the form of Word or Microsoft PowerPoint documents. The documentation of individual work steps in comprehensible instructions proved to be increasingly time-consuming in this form. As a result, static documents proved to be less efficient for use as instructions and user-friendly guidance for the worker, also due to their lack of a uniform structure. In addition, the Office documents were difficult to use effectively on the move despite being stored on a local server. As a result, the workers sometimes used simple printouts. Under these circumstances, it could not be ruled out that different, possibly even outdated versions of a document remained in circulation. Work plans and test reports were also created by hand. A uniformly standardized creation process, approval guidelines and traceable version marking were correspondingly challenging and time-consuming.
Step 2: Optimization process
Based on a comprehensive analysis, tepcon planned an optimization project with the help of the tepcon instructor. With its support, it is easy to create digital work and assembly instructions. When used with a PC or mobile devices, images, assembly and work steps are documented directly at the workplace and explanatory work instructions are easily inserted. At the same time, working with symbols and color coding simplifies and speeds up the entire process of creating instructions. The structured approach also enables instructions to be tailored to the user's level of knowledge. This means that less experienced employees receive detailed, easy-to-follow instructions, while users with prior knowledge can concentrate on the details that are relevant to them.
In order to be able to use the potential of tepcon instructor effectively, suitable end devices are essential. In the case of AP&S, it was therefore decided to equip all assembly workstations or employees working at them with tablet PCs. In combination with the use of QR codes on work plans, workers can now access the documents relevant to them directly on the move, without having to search in advance and without the previously required document printing.
The instructor enables a reliable approval process and versioning. From now on, only documents released by authorized persons are available. A notification of changes to a previous version is automatically displayed the first time the new version of a document is called up and ensures a reliable flow of information, both for use by workers and in the approval process.
Digital logs replace simple routing slips and can be made accessible to other systems via an export function and interfaces.
Step 3: Checking the results
After the measures were implemented, their effects were compared with the targets. As a result, tepcon was able to meet and even exceed expectations with the instructor.
Specifically, the construction time for a CB III was reduced by more than 50 percent. This time saving has enabled the output quantity to be more than doubled. Despite the impressive increase in production, further qualitative progress was also demonstrated: With a 30 percent reduction in the time required for reworking at the customer's premises, AP&S has achieved a significant increase in quality. At the same time, the tepcon instructor increases transparency across the entire process chain. The standardized, seamless and easily accessible documentation and logging of work processes forms the basis for a continuous optimization process.
In addition to these structural improvements, the use of tepcon instructor has also resulted in other relevant improvements. For example, the comprehensive digitization of documents and instructions enables them to be easily translated into other languages. This also supports the training of foreign employees. Since the introduction of tepcon instructor, several new employees without extensive knowledge of German have already been hired and efficiently trained for their area of responsibility. In addition, a quality matrix has been implemented with the tepcon instructor, which can be used to record the qualifications of individual employees and identify training requirements.
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