INtroduction
The three-year old Donner Company has positioned itself well within both the small volume, customized (contract) printed circuit boards market as well as the large volume, generic (captive) printed circuit boards market. Large electronic firms (AT&T, IBM) produced their components in captive shops, while smaller sized companies, or when large and small quantities of simple technology or fast turn-around prototype boards were required, these requests usually are fulfilled by contract shops.

With a company that is managed primarily by engineers, Donner’s core competency was, obviously, its engineering expertise, and it produced specialized circuit boards known as “soldermask over bare copper” (SMOBC) boards. Donner positioned itself to manufacture these boards to small and large electronic firms and management envisioned it as one of the industry leaders. With 750 competitors in the US alone, and a market that is volatile, Donner’s ability to anticipate and resolve design problems and prototype techniques enabled it to maintain its competitive edge. However, this competitive edge has been compromised by poor on-time delivery and high rate of product return, in addition to planning and manufacturing problems that caused bottlenecks, shifting bottlenecks and improper utilization of labor. These problems began to hamper the overall performance of the firm, and management started evaluating the company’s position and different strategic policies.

1. Draw the process flow diagram for a normal order that goes through the production system at Donner.
Receive "Master" artwork from customer
Produce negative image from circuit. Repeat image on each panel
Inspect for visual defects
Shear laminate into panel. Punch holes

Raw material purchase
Transfer pattern to panel
Copper immersion bath
* Wash
* Scrub
* Coat Photoresist
*DFPR processing
* Electroplate
* Tin plating
Preparation
* Etching
*Silkscreening
* Solder bath
CNC routing
20tn punch press
* Inspect board
* Electrically test boards
Image Transfer
Package Boards
SHIP Boards
FABRICATION STAGE CNC vs.Drill
Receive "Master" artwork from customer
Produce negative image from circuit. Repeat image on each panel
Inspect for visual defects
Shear laminate into panel. Punch holes

Raw material purchase
Transfer pattern to panel
Copper immersion bath
* Wash
* Scrub
* Coat Photoresist
*DFPR processing
* Electroplate
* Tin plating
Preparation
* Etching
*Silkscreening
* Solder bath
CNC routing
20tn punch press
* Inspect board
* Electrically test boards
Image Transfer
Package Boards
SHIP Boards
FABRICATION STAGE CNC vs.Drill

Per order Time Estimation | | | | Processes | S. No. | Sub Processes | Sub-process time
(Set up+Run time) (in Mins) | Total Time (Process wise time)
(in Mins) | PREPARATION | 1 | Artwork Generation | 29 | = [59+(.125p) ] | | 2 | Inspect and Shear | 20+(0.0625p) | | | 3 | Punch Tooling Holes | 10+(0.0625p) | | IMAGE TRANSFER | 1(a) | Drill holes - a) Manual | 15+(40p) | [a) Manual Drill = 110+(41.50625p)]

[b) CNC Drill = 335+(3.50625p)] | | 1(b) | Drill holes - b) CNC drill | 240+(2p) | | | 2 | Metallization | 10+(0.09375p) | | | 3(a) | DFPR - a) | 10+(0.025p) | | | 3(b) | DFPR - b) Laminate and Expose | 10+(0.25p) | | | 3(c) | DFPR - c) Develop | 10+(0.025p) | | | 4 | Electroplate | 25+(1.0625p) | | | 5 | Strip DFPR | 5+(0.025p) | | | 6 | Etch and Tin Strip | 10+(0.025p) | | FABRICATION | 1 | Soldermask | 45+(0.1875p) | [a) Manual Profile = 170+(2.75p)]

[a) CNC Profile = 270+(2.5p)] | | 2 | Solder Dip | 30+(0.0625p) | | | 3(a) | Profile - a) Punch Press | 50+(p) | | | 3(b) | Profile - a) CNC Router | 150+(0.5p) | | | 4 | Inspect, Test, Pack | 45+(1.5p) | | where p = No. of PCBs/ order | | | |

2. What orders [by way of batch size] would you schedule on the CNC drill? On the CNC router?

Drilling Process
According to Exhibit 2, time taken for each of the process (one order) is as follows: Manual Drilling: 15 + p *0.08* 500 = 15 + 40p Where p= number of boards CNC : 240 + x* 0.004*500 = 240 + 2p
Now equating the two equations for p:-> 15 +p *0.08* 500 = 240 + p* 0.004*500
We get p=5.92 for which both the processes take the same time. So, at any value greater than or equal to 6 the CNC drilling will consume lesser time.

Profiling Process
According to Exhibit 2, Time Taken for each of the process (one order) is as follows: Punch Press: 50 + p *1.0 Where p= number of boards CNC router: 150 + p* 0.5
Now equating the two equations for p:-> 50 + p *1.0 = 150+p* 0.5
We get p=200, for which both the processes take the same time. So, at any value greater than or equal to 200 the CNC router will consume lesser time.

3. What is the capacity of the Dry Film Photoresist area? How does capacity change with order size?

The Dry Film Photoresist consists of three sub-processes – a) Panel Prep b) Laminate and Expose c) Develop

The standard labor time for the three process is highest for the Laminate and Expose (22 minutes) for one panel (= 8 boards). Hence this is the bottleneck within the Dry film Photoresist area.

Hence capacity of dry film photo resist area= capacity of the bottleneck process

Therefore, capacitypanelperhour=# of panelsbottleneck process time (hours) =122/60= 2.73 panels per hour

The variation according to order size can be evaluated as :

Standard Production Time (in Minutes) | Total Standard Production (in Minutes) | Operation | Setup | Run | 1 board | 8 boards (1 panel) | 200 boards (25 panels) | 1. Panel Prep | 5 | 0.2/panel | 5.2 | 5.2 | 10 | 2. Laminate and Expose | 20 | 2/panel | 22 | 22 | 70 | 3. Develop | 20 | 0.2/panel | 20.2 | 20.2 | 25 |

4. What is the standard labor time for an order of one board? 8 boards? 200 boards?
Standard labor time for (1 board / order)
1 panel consists of 8 boards and is worked on until the profile cutting stage of fabrication. Hence the time taken for one board is same as one panel.

Preparation Stage: Artwork Generation: 29 minutes (Setup/board) Inspect & Shear : 20 (Setup) + (0.5/ panel) = 20.5 minutes Punch Tooling holes: 10 (Setup) + (0.5/panel) =10.5 minutes
Image Transfer Stage: Drill Holes: According to shop floor policy, CNC drill is used for order size >100 Manual: 15 (Setup )+ (.08/hole) *(500 holes/board) *1 board=55 minutes Metallization: 10 (Setup) + (0.75/panel) = 10.75 minutes
Dry Film photo resist: Panel Pre: 5 ( Setup) + (0.2/panel) = 5.2 minutes Laminate & Expose: 20 (Setup) + (2/panel) =22 minutes Develop: 20 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) =20.2 minutes
Electroplate: 25 (Setup) + (8.5/panel) =33.5 minutes
Strip DFPR : 5 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) = 5.2 minutes
Etch and Tin Strip: 10 (Setup) + (0.2/panel)=10.2 minutes
Fabrication:
Soldermask: 45 (Setup) + (1.5/panel)=46.5 minutes
Solder Dip: 30 (Setup) + (0.5/panel) = 30.5 minutes
Profile: Punch press: 50 (Setup) + (1 / board)=51 minutes
Inspect and Pack: 45 (Setup) + (1.5/board)= 46.5 minutes
The total time taken for producing 1 board is 396.55 minutes.
Standard labour time for (8 boards / order)
1 panel consists of 8 boards and is worked on until the profile cutting stage of fabrication. Hence the time taken for one board is same as one panel.
Preparation Stage: Artwork Generation: 29 minutes (Setup/board) Inspect & Shear : 20 (Setup) + (0.5/ panel) = 20.5 minutes Punch Tooling holes: 10 (Setup) + (0.5/panel) =10.5 minutes
Image Transfer Stage: Drill Holes: According to shop floor policy, CNC drill is used for order size >100 Manual: 15 (Setup)+(.08/hole) *(500 holes/board) *8 boards=335 minutes Metallization: 10 (Setup) + (0.75/panel) = 10.75 minutes
Dry Film photo resist: Panel Pre: 5 ( Setup) + (0.2/panel) = 5.2 minutes Laminate & Expose: 20 (Setup) + (2/panel) =22 minutes Develop: 20 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) =20.2 minutes
Electroplate: 25 (Setup) + (8.5/panel) =33.5 minutes
Strip DFPR : 5 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) = 5.2 minutes
Etch and Tin Strip: 10 (Setup) + (0.2/panel)=10.2 minutes
Fabrication:
Solder mask: 45 (Setup) + (1.5/panel)=46.5 minutes
Solder Dip: 30 (Setup) + (0.5/panel) = 30.5 minutes
Profile
Punch press: 50 (Setup) + (1 / board)*8 boards=58 minutes
Inspect and Pack: 45 (Setup) + (1.5/board)* 8 boards= 57 minutes
The total time taken for producing 8 boards is 694.05 minutes.

Standard labour time for (200 boards / order)
1 panel consists of 8 boards and is worked on until the profile cutting stage of fabrication. Hence the time taken for 200 boards is same as 25 panels.
Preparation Stage: Artwork Generation: 29 minutes (Setup/board) Inspect & Shear: 20(Setup) + (0.5/ panel)*200 boards /(8 boards/panel)= 32.5 minutes Punch Tooling holes:10(Setup)+(0.5/panel)*200 boards /(8 boards/panel) =22.5 minutes

Image Transfer Stage: Drill Holes: According to shop floor policy, CNC drill is used for order size >100 CNC Drill: 240 (Setup)+(0.004/hole) *(500 holes/board) *200 boards=640 minutes Metallization: 10 (Setup) + (0.75/panel)* 200 boards /(8 boards/panel) = 28.75 minutes
Dry Film photo resist: Panel Prep: 5 ( Setup) + (0.2/panel) * 200 boards /(8 boards/panel) = 10 minutes Laminate & Expose: 20 (Setup) + (2/panel)*200 boards /(8 boards/panel) =70min Develop: 20 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) *200 boards /(8 boards/panel) =25 minutes
Electroplate: 25 (Setup) + (8.5/panel) *200 boards /(8 boards/panel) = 237.5 minutes
Strip DFPR : 5 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) *200 boards /(8 boards/panel) = 10 minutes
Etch and Tin Strip: 10 (Setup) + (0.2/panel) *200 boards /(8 boards/panel)=15 minutes
Fabrication:
Solder mask: 45 (Setup) + (1.5/panel) *200 boards /(8 boards/panel)=82.5 minutes
Solder Dip: 30 (Setup) + (0.5/panel) *200 boards /(8 boards/panel) = 42.5 minutes
Profile
Punch press: 50 (Setup) + (1 / board)*200 boards=250 minutes (Note: The CNC Router will take the same time)
Inspect and Pack: 45 (Setup) + (1.5/board) *200 boards= 345 minutes
The total time taken for producing 200 boards is 1840.25 minutes.

5. What are the problems faced by Donner?

1. Operation Related * Customized designs according to customer specification (like change of design by customer’s engineer’s due to design problems) and rush order interrupt normal work flows. These include : a) Four – day rush order (usually 3/week) b) Artwork modifications or design change (1-9/week) c) Delay in job due to customer’s engineer (1/4th job delays) d) Delay in Customer permission to proceed with job (1-2 week delay) * Special boards require additional steps * When operators are working on a specific project, they may require additional raw material (which takes about 1 – 2 days to locate, then additional days to be delivered to Donner). * Company concentrating more on small order sizes and has a lower delivery time (3 weeks) vis-à-vis its competitor. Small order delivery cannot be delayed to prevent revenue target constraint. This means that, no matter what, rush orders are a priority (Donner faced pressure from its competitors concerning the fulfillment of rush orders). Although, the rush orders(handled by senior executive) had practically zero rejections or problems, taking up these orders can have cascading impact. If raw material is needed for rush orders, it is obtained from the existing inventory, which is originally bought to fulfill large orders. This causes possible shortages in inventory, which means that Donner’s purchasing has to locate and purchase additional material (a process that takes 2 days). The result is possibly stopping an operation process until new raw material is obtained, which also means down time for the operators (down time at one process, hence a bottleneck at a specific process).

2. Production Related :
With frequent down times and order changes, management cited the fact that machines are idle for longer than expected. In addition, standard labor time for each process did not reflect accurate time at Donner itself, rather it was based upon industry standards and competitors.

* Workflow interrupted 6 to 12 times per day to secure more work from upstream process * Daily at least 2 – 3 slow orders (non-rush orders) delayed and need to be expedited * Around 3 rush orders a week * Rework required in rush orders needing rework in one or two operations * Estimated order completion time is a standard rate and not based on capacity utilization as of time order received * Most orders reached manufacturing only 4 days after the bid had been accepted * Scheduling decision takes place only after raw materials arrive * No raw material storage maintained, and procurement initiated with purchasing agent only after order received. (Materials received same day or next day for rush orders. Otherwise it took “several” days) * Prioritization of orders based on work in process at critical points and the manufacturing manager’s assessment of the sale’s possibilities of these orders being held up * Production bottlenecks shifting based on processes utilized, order sizes and differences in designs for different client orders. No pattern available to forecast where the pile-up would take place * Movement of resources from a particular process to meet bottlenecks, which are occupied by the time the order, is expedited to that original process. * Production facilities have been designed primarily around process layout * Constant interruptions due to need for walking from one section to another.

3. Quality and Shipment Related

Lloyd Searby, noted his concerns that Donner’s sales may not exceed $2M in sales (in 1988) if it continued to “bleed” from its quality (returns and re-works) and delivery problems.

Donner did not implement effective quality control measures to inspect the raw material or work in progress. Donner depended on the individual operators’ experience to perform informal examination as the operation shifted from one process to the next. The result was the increase rate of product return. Since, re-works resulted in pulling operators from their current jobs to begin re-works on the returned boards, it in turn caused lack of productivity and bottlenecks. Because all these processes are interconnected, and especially because of the high rate of returns and re-works, Donner failed to meet is delivery dates.

* Customer rejection rates up from 1% to 3% * Returns due to a) Damaged or out of tolerance (10%) b) Process missed out (90%) * Pre-shipment rejection rate = 7% (1% total losses & 6% process missed) * Increase in reprocessing and reshipping costs due to returns * Method improvements not implemented due to output pressure * No overall coordination on increasing efficiency of process as a whole * Quality checks being duplicated (both at beginning and end) as well as informal worker examination * On an average, shipments are 9 days late (September)

6. What are your recommendations to address these problems?

Primarily, as a solution to the problem of the company regarding the production bottleneck and the work pile up and run out in its operations system, the company should only be accepting those orders that are feasible to do and to deliver in time. In this way, the company would be able to focus on the project and the specific demands of the client. Accepting feasible orders from clients would also allow the production line of the company to focus on the quality of the products, with due consideration of the amount of time required by the client. With this, the idle time of employees would be reduced, because all of them have a particular task to do, enough for the time and resources provided to them. This would also reduce the shifting of workers from one job to the next, as each worker in the production line would have something to do, given the enough number of orders compensating the enough time and resources provided to them.

1. Use two production lines
Another possible recommendation that can increase the productivity, quality and delivery of products is by separating the production line into two departments, where one department would be responsible for processing new orders from client, while the other department would be responsible for the rework and the redesign of previously done or accomplished projects. More workers would be assigned to the department that would be responsible for processing new orders, and less workers would be assigned to the department that would reworking and redesigning the previously done products. The separation of the production line into two departments would be “hitting two birds with one stone”, as both departments would be simultaneously doing their jobs. This also reduces the idle time of employees, the piling up of work, and the run out of things to do. This will help ensure that the rework does not affect the on-time delivery of products to clients.

2. Additional chief Supervisor
Since Diane alone monitors production delays, number of rush orders, secures missing supplies or instruction, and communicates with the clients, she is inevitably overloaded. We suggest providing an assistant to Diane, who can share a few responsibilities; one would be in-charge of the manufacturing of new orders, and the other in the processing of rework. Both of them would also be separately handling calls from clients, such that one would be entertaining new orders and the other would be entertaining rework or redesign. In this way, a system would be developed between them, in turn, scheduling all orders simultaneously. This recommendation would be most effective if the company would be able to divide the production line into two.
The company can also assign an assistant for David Flaherty, the company’s supervisor, and who is responsible for the manufacturing and shipping of products. Flaherty and his assistant can divide their tasks between them, thus, one would be responsible for the manufacturing and shipping of new processed products, and the other would be responsible for the manufacturing and shipping of the reworked or redesigned products.

3. Focus on large orders (>200)
There is a huge obvious market for larger orders as 90% of the orders in September of Donner were greater than 200 in size. Currently, Donner holds a position in both the contract and captive manufacturing markets. The experience Donner has gained over the last three years would facilitate the firm to concentrate on the large quantities of Simple Technology boards(The current order size stands at 96.01 boards) This will enable Donner to utilize their current core competency and resources, and focus on gaining new strengths, yielding improved quality and on time delivery. Focusing on the captive market will mean that Donner will be in a position to further support its larger customers (i.e. IBM, AT&T, etc) with orders larger than 200 boards (90% of total orders received in September)

Small rush orders, if accepted, should be charged a premium. The firm has highly skilled employees to individually manufacture small order and the company is relatively stronger in anticipating and resolving problems encountered during the design and production of small volumes of boards when compared to the competition. Given its unique abilities, Donner can demand a premium price for small orders of SMOBCs.

| Operation Strategy | | | | | Process | Board Size<6 | 6<=Board Size<200 | Board Size>200 | Drilling | Manual Drill | Y | N | N | | CNC Machine | N | Y | Y | | | | | | Profiling | Punch Press | Y | Y | N | | CNC Router | N | N | Y |

4. Improve Job Scheduling
The present work process requires all the panels that belong to an order to be processed completely in a particular process before moving on to the next process. Thus WIP is built up at each stage causing spikes in the arrival pattern of job from the previous process. To smoothen this it is recommended that the panels that have been processed should move on to the next process without waiting for the entire order to be processed.

5. Inventory Planning
Inventory management needs improvement as rush orders which are given priority upset the schedule and it takes up to 2 days to locate and purchase additional material.
While it is not possible to stock all raw materials, key items related to initiation of manufacturing process should be stocked. Time may also be saved in case of larger orders which use common core materials, if Manufacturing is informed upfront and the procurement order can be placed with a return policy clause with the vendor. 6. Mobility on floor
Management has raised concerns about the amount of time spent by workers in moving around from one shop to the other. This may be cured by either hiring helpers or installing a conveyor belt that could drastically cut down on this time. The cost of either option can be the deciding factor. 7. Improve information flow
The gap between accepting the bid and the orders to reach manufacturing is 4 days. This means that there are bottlenecks in information transmission which need to be resolved by the company. 8. Manage Customization
Frequent order changes have led to machines being idle for longer than expected, according to the management. A regime to manage these last minute order changes has to be put in place, either in form of higher charges or by rescheduling the entire order as lower priority. 9. Quality Improvements
A new Quality strategy should be adopted. Arthur Dief (senior worker) could be used in this role due to his knowledge of the entire manufacturing process and the fact that he had a zero return rate. There are various quality control strategies that could be implemented throughout the entire manufacturing process to detect (early) and prevent product defects, and to monitor the entire manufacturing process (i.e. six sigma, SPC or TQM). Workers should be trained to utilize such methods and new technologies.

Suggested CNC Usages:

CNC Utilizations | | 1 | In Drilling (mins) | 19792.01 | | (in hrs) | 329.9 | 2 | In Profiling (in mins) | 3315.5 | | (in hrs) | 55.3 | | CNC Total Time(in hours) | 385.1 | | Hours per day | 12.8 |

Here, we are suggesting how we can reduce the total production time each month, by managing the involved processes based on Gantt analysis. Mentioned below are 3 cases, each depends on first order size for specific month. These suggest that the total time suggested for month SEP 1987, can be reduced significantly. Suggested Production Approaches: | | | | Case 1. | | | | Case 2. | | | | If first lot order has 1<=p<=5 | | | | If first lot order has 6<=p<=199 | | | | Total Time (for Sep month): | | | | Total Time (for Sep month): | | | | =(339+(44.38*p)
+(110+(41.5*2.6)*24)
+(335+(3.5*162.74))*35) | | | | = (564+(6.38*p)
+(110+(41.5*2.6)*25)
+(335+(3.5*162.74))*34) | | | | | p = 1 | to | p= 5 | | p = 6 | to | p = 199 | Total Time Range (in mins) | 34743.63 | to | 34921.15 | Total Time Range | 34165.84 | to | 35397.18 | Total Time Range (in hrs) | 579.06 | to | 582.02 | Total Time Range | 569.43 | to | 589.95 | | | | | | | | | Case 3. | | | | If first lot order has 200<=p<=1050 | | | | Total Time (for Sep month): | | | | = (564+(6.38*p)
+(110+(41.5*2.6)*25)
+(335+(3.5*162.74))*34) | | | | | p = 200 | to | p = 1050 | Total Time Range (in mins) | 35403.56 | to | 40826.56 | Total Time Range (in hours) | 590.06 | to | 680.44 |