About SigmaTron

International

SigmaTron International (NASDAQ:SGMA) is a full service EMS provider with a network of manufacturing facilities in the United States, Mexico, China and Vietnam. We focus on companies who want highly customized service plus a scalable global manufacturing footprint. We serve a diversified set of markets which include: aero-space/defense, appliance, consumer electronics, gaming, fitness, industrial electronics, med-ical/life sciences, semiconductor, telecommunications and automo-tive. Our quality certifications include ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, IATF 16949:2016 and AS9100D. We are also International Traffic in Arms Regu-lations (ITAR) registered.

Inside this issue:

Materials Article 2

Volume Fourth Quarter 2018

Design Services Can Fill Gaps In Customer Team

SigmaTron International’s facili-

ty in Tijuana, Mexico continues

to grow the automotive-related

sector of its business. A driver

of that growth is its team’s fo-

cus on Lean manufacturing

practices and continued invest-

ment in automated equipment

able to address the manufac-

turing challenges associated

with the smaller product form

factors and leading edge

technologies.

“Automotive manufacturers face the unique

combination of leading edge technologies,

SigmaTron International’s Design Services

team often fills gaps in its customer’s engineer-

ing teams.

“Many OEMs have cut back their engineering

staff or focused their team’s talents on newer

technology. Our team can seamlessly inte-

grate with our customer’s team to address

issues such as legacy product upgrades, prod-

ucts requiring use of technologies with which

their team is unfamiliar or even work over-

load,” said Jerry Johnson, SigmaTron Interna-

tional’s General Manager, Appliance & De-

sign.

For example, an industrial customer was de-

signing a pair of companion products with

simultaneous launch date. One product was

more complex than the other and was monop-

olizing their limited electronics engineering

resources. SigmaTron’s team was able to force

multiply the customer’s resources by designing

Tijuana Facility Enhances Support For Automotive Projects

their capacitive touch user interface and control

board. The first prototypes were acceptable

and launched with only minor modifications.

In another case, a consumer products customer

was buying proprietary electronic sensing

switches whose cost had become non-

competitive. SigmaTron’s team worked with the

customer to develop a switch that met the cus-

tomer’s superior quality requirements at half

the cost.

SigmaTron’s design services team can support

customer needs that range from test system and

manufacturing process development, systems

integration to traditional services: electronic

hardware design, software development, PCB

layout, enclosure design, mechanical design

support, solid modeling, 3D printing, and more.

In some cases, the team even acts as systems

integrator, developing electronic control solu-

(Continued on page 3)

extreme operating environments and significant

cost pressure. This requires a strong focus on su-

(Continued on page 2)

The Tijuana facility continues to invest in equipment to support the manu-

facturing challenges associated with leading edge technology.

chain management practices and the role

of systems in executing supply chain

strategy was discussed. Best practices in

forecasting and tradeoffs in inventory

management practices were also cov-

ered.

Read the full article here.

Page 2

“Partnering in a Constrained Market” Featured in Circuits Assembly

SigmaTron International’s Vice President –

Director of Materials and Supply Chain

John Sheehan wrote an article that ap-

peared in the September 2018 issue of

Circuits Assembly focused on partnering in

a constrained materials market.

The article looked at finding the balance

between the efficiencies of Lean manufac-

turing principles and the realities of a ma-

terials market where extended lead-times

and allocation exist. SigmaTron’s supply

Automotive

perior quality and manufacturabil-

ity. It isn’t good enough to just de-

tect and correct defects through test

and inspection. It is necessary to

determine the root cause and then

eliminate the opportunity for those

defects to exist,” said Raj Upadh-

yaya, Executive Vice President,

West Coast Operations.

One example of this focus on elimi-

nating defect opportunities was a

kaizen event performed at the

Tijuana facility.

An automotive product printed circuit

board assembly (PCBA) which included a

flex cable was experiencing intermittent

failures following in-circuit test. Sig-

maTron’s Tijuana team scheduled a kaizen

event to analyze the test process and de-

termine the root cause of this potential

failure mode. The team determined that in

some cases, the flex cable could catch in

gaps in the test fixture bed as it was being

removed creating an undetected defect.

The team recommended a fixture redesign

(Continued from page 1)

that placed ESD-safe plastic over the openings

in the fixture bed that created the issue. As a

result, the defect opportunity was eliminated

with no changes to the product design and

minimal fixture modification.

“Our production processes are based upon

Lean manufacturing principles focused on mini-

mizing defect opportunities, variation and

inefficiency. In this example, our team not only

strengthened the process, but did it at minimal

cost. And while this represents a solution for an

Solder paste inspection (SPI) is a key step in minimizing sol-

der joint defects.

automotive customer, the kaizen

process along with other Lean

manufacturing related processes

ultimately benefits all our custom-

ers,” added Raj.

The Tijuana facility is also investing

in several additional pieces of

equipment. Validation is in process

on new wave solder machine which

was installed this quarter. In-line

solder paste inspection (SPI) will

be in place on all SMT lines when

the last three SPI machines are

installed in Q1 2019 and plans are in

place to also add backup solder paste

height measuring equipment to provide

redundancy for current equipment in Q1,

as well. A Yamaha pick and place ma-

chine will be added to line 3 in Q1.

“Our goal is to stay ahead of our cus-

tomers’ needs in terms of capability and

capacity. Solder paste characteristics

have the earliest and most significant

impact on solder joint quality, so our SPI

investments are particularly important in

our quest for superior quality,” said Raj.

Copyright © 2018 SigmaTron International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Have a suggestion or article idea?

Contact Curtis Campbell, VP Sales, West Coast Operations

Phone: 510-477-5004

Email: curtis.campbell@sigmatronintl.com

develop recommendations that can reduce

manufacturing cost, eliminate defect op-

portunities and identify parts with availa-

bility or obsolescence issues. This system

integrates all materials and engineering

data into a single database for efficient

pre-production execution and team com-

munication.

Lean manufacturing principles drive the

team’s approach to DFM. Best practices in

this area include:

• Ensure the PCB layout tool library

includes a DFM layer with the target

facility’s equipment limitations built in

to identify potential issues as the

printed circuit board (PCB) is laid out

• Minimize process thermal cycles and

consider the impact of layout and

component types during thermal cy-

cles

• Ensure the layout minimizes system-

generated noise and sensitivity to

outside noise

• Review clearances both in terms of

component clearance relative to the

rest of the unit and edge clearances

on the printed circuit board assembly

(PCBA) relative to automated han-

dling

• Evaluate potting and coating options

against the shock and vibration nor-

Design

tions that match performance specifica-

tions with other key components of the

end product.

Communication and early identification

of potential issues is a key component in

fast product design cycles.

“During peer review of the first itera-

tion of a design we pull together the

entire team both on our side and the

customer including software develop-

ment, PCB layout, mechanical, hard-

ware, test engineering and the produc-

tion team. While not all individuals may

have direct involvement in the design at

that point, decisions made in that re-

view will have implications that will

impact actions further downstream in

the commercialization process. Having

representatives from all disciplines in-

volved in that process helps ensure ear-

ly identification of challenges and

tradeoffs. This reduces the number of

design spins and the associated non-

value added work that comes with en-

gineering change orders (ECOs) in new

product introduction (NPI),” said Jerry.

A key differentiator in SigmaTron’s

approach to design is the design team’s

focus on manufacturability as early in

the process as possible. The team utiliz-

es Valor tools to perform design for

manufacturability (DFM) analysis and

(Continued from page 1) mally found in the product’s applica-

tion

• Poke yoke the assembly process to

ensure product can only be assembled

one way

• Standardize parts wherever possible

• Avoid over-specification or over-

processing parts

• Optimize panelization to minimize

waste of substrate material and con-

form to the target facility’s preferred

panel dimensions

• Utilize a combination of software

simulation tools and physical samples

to test all assumptions related to de-

sign and processing efficiency.

The end result of this approach to design is

elimination of issues that otherwise can

inflate costs and slow down the commer-

cialization process.

“Our team’s expertise in managing the

design process is often as valuable as the

engineering disciplines team members

represent. Product lifecycles are shorter

because the speed of technological inno-

vation is growing. Our goal is to help our

customers move through design and into

volume production of a high quality prod-

uct that aligns with their market needs as

rapidly as possible,” said Jerry.