Achieving full fungibility and Quick Changeover by turning knobs in tape and Reel machine by applying SMED theory

In semiconductor industry high volume manufacturing, on time customer delivery is given priority. On time delivery leads to major usage of SMED or Quick Changeover. Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is one of the many lean production methods for reducing waste in a manufacturing process. It provides a rapid and efficient way of converting a manufacturing process from running the current product to running the next product. It is also often referred to as Quick Changeover (QCO). Performing faster change-over is important in manufacturing, or any process, because they make low cost flexible operations possible. SMED and quick changeover programs have many benefits for manufacturers. Single minute does not mean that all changeovers and startups should take only one minute, but that they should take less than 10 minutes ("single digit minute"). In Intel Penang Factory operations, PLCC Tape and Reel machine is one of the bottleneck on the packing operations for Network Communication products. SMED concept was applied on the PLCC Tape and Reel machines by using semi-automated system which operates with 12 simple to-operate-knobs. The conversion time was successfully improved from 84 minutes to <; 1 minute conversion with perfect alignment.