New functionalities in Siplace Pro and innovations such as SiCluster MultiLine and the Material Manager have been announced as valuable additions to the Siplace software suite. Combined in line with user’s requirements, these modules deliver consistent, software-supported workflows for SMT-specific planning processes, making it possible to schedule production jobs more quickly and effectively, says the company. They also improve the quality of the schedule: production capacities are used more efficiently, the number of material-related line stops drops, and setup changeover times are minimized. The new software solutions help the scheduler to group in so-called job clusters and minimize setup times. The Material Manager provides electronics manufacturers with an SMT-specific material logistics system as a transparent addition to their ERP systems. Material Manager keeps track of materials and manages it on the individual package level and not as a single total number like most popular ERP systems. It also closes the gap between the ERP, planning and shop floor levels, says Siplace, by controlling automatic storage systems, generating optimized pick lists, keeping track of MSD exposure times and taking into account real material consumption data reported by the placement machines.
