Signal trace

In electronics, a signal trace or circuit trace on a printed circuit board (PCB) or integrated circuit (IC) is the equivalent of a wire for conducting signals. Each trace consists of a flat, narrow part of the copper foil that remains after etching. Signal traces are usually narrower than power or ground traces because the current carrying requirements are usually much less.


Anisotropic conductive film

Anisotropic conductive film (ACF) is an adhesive interconnect system that is commonly used in liquid crystal display manufacturing to make the electrical and mechanical connections from the driver electronics to the glass substrates of the LCD. The material is also available in a paste form referred to as anisotropic conductive paste (ACP), and both are grouped together as anisotropic conductive adhesives (ACAs). ACAs have more recently been used to perform the flex-to-board or flex-to-flex connections used in handheld electronic devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players, or in the assembly of CMOS camera modules.
History.
ACAs developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with heat seal connectors by Nippon Graphite Industries, and ACFs by Hitachi Chemicals and Dexerials (formerly known as Sony Chemicals & Information Devices). Currently there are many manufacturers of heat seal connectors and ACAs, but Hitachi and Sony continue to dominate the industry in terms of market share. Other manufacturers of ACAs include 3M, Loctite, DELO, Creative Materials, Henkel, Sun Ray Scientific, Kyocera, Three Bond, Panacol, and Btech.
In the very early years, ACAs were made from rubber, acrylic, and other adhesive compounds, but they rapidly converged on several different variations of thermoset biphenyl type epoxy resins. The temperatures required were relatively high at 170-180C, however, and the market leaders Sony and Hitachi developed and released acrylic-based materials in the early 2000s that brought the curing temperatures down below 150C while keeping the curing times in the 10–12 second range. Further advances in the acrylic compounds used decreased the curing cycle times to below 5 seconds in many cases, which is where they remain as of this writing. Specification sheets are available at all of the manufacturers' sites listed above.
Current market.
ACF continues to be the most popular form factor for ACAs, largely due to the ability to precisely control the volume of material, density of the particles in any sample, and the distribution of those particles within the sample. This is particularly true in the traditional ACF stronghold of display interconnects, but ACF has also seen strong growth out of the display industry and into areas long dominated by surface-mount technologies. The ability to make interconnections in a very small XYZ space has been the key driver in this expansion, helped by the ability under certain conditions to greatly lower cost either by the reduction of component counts or total material used.
ACPs are widely used in lower-end applications, primarily in the assembly of chips on to RFID antenna substrates. They are also used in some board or flex assembly applications, but at a much lower level than ACFs. While ACPs are generally lower cost than ACFs, they cannot provide the same level of control in adhesive quantity and particle dispersion as ACF. For this reason it is very difficult to use them for high-density applications.
Technology overview.
ACF technology is used in chip-on-glass (COG), flex-on-glass (FOG), flex-on-board (FOB), flex-on-flex (FOF), chip-on-flex (COF), chip-on-board (COB), and similar applications for higher signal densities and smaller overall packages. ACPs are typically used only in chip-on-flex (COF) applications with low densities and cost requirements, such as for RFID antennas, or in FOF and FOB assemblies in handheld electronics. COG, in particular, also uses gold bumps to connect to the display.
In all cases the anisotropic material, for example, a thermosetting resin containing conductive particles, is first deposited on the base substrate. This may be done using a lamination process for ACF, or either a dispense or printing process for ACP. The device or secondary substrate is then placed in position over the base substrate and the two sides are pressed together to mount the secondary substrate or device to the base substrate. In many cases this mounting process is done with no heat or a minimal amount of heat that is just sufficient to cause the anisotropic material to become slightly tacky. In the case of using a thermosetting resin containing conductive particles, the particles are trapped between prominent points, such as electrodes, between the substrate and the component, thereby creating an electrical connection therebetween. Other particles are insulated by the thermosetting resin. In some cases this mounting step is skipped and the two sides go directly to the bonding portion of the process. In high volume manufacturing, however, this would lead to inefficiencies in the manufacturing process, so direct bonding is usually done only in the lab or in small scale manufacturing.
Bonding is the third and final process required to complete an ACF assembly. In the first two processes the temperatures can range from ambient to 100 °C, with the heat applied for 1 second or less. For bonding, the amount of thermal energy required is higher due to the need to first flow the adhesive and allow the two sides to come together into electrical contact, and then to cure the adhesive and create a lasting reliable bond. The temperatures, times, and pressure required for these processes can vary as shown in the following table.
Table 1: Common ACF Assembly Conditions
▲ Pressures for flex assemblies (FOG, FOB, FOF) are measured across the entire area under the bondhead.
※Pressures for chip assemblies (COG, COF) are calculated on the cumulative surface area of the bumps on the chip.


List of electronics brands

This list of electronics brands is specialized as the list of brands of companies that provide electronics equipment.
Categories.
Electronics equipment includes the following categories (abbreviations used in parentheses):
Other indications:


Hirose U.FL

Hirose U.FL, I-PEX MHF I, AMC or UMCC is a miniature RF connector for high-frequency signals up to 6 GHz manufactured by Hirose Electric Group, I-PEX, and others.
U.FL connectors are commonly used in applications where space is of critical concern, such as in smartphones and Laptop WiFi cards. U.FL connectors are commonly used inside laptops and embedded systems to connect the Wi-Fi antenna to a Mini PCI, Mini PCIe or M.2 WiFi card. Another common use is connecting GPS antennas.
Female U.FL connectors are not designed with reconnection in mind, and they are only rated for a few reconnects (approximately 30 mating cycles) before replacement is needed. The female U.FL connectors are generally not sold separately, but rather as part of a pigtail with a high-quality 1.32 mm doubly shielded cable, which allows for a low-loss connection, insulated with fluorinated resin.
The male connectors are surface-mounted (SMT) and soldered directly to the printed circuit board (PCB). They are designed to have a characteristic impedance of 50 ohms. The mated connection is only 2.5 mm high and takes as little as 9 mm2 (3.0 × 3.1 mm2) of board space.
Much like many other electronic components, Hirose U.FL connectors were protected by patents and trademarks. However, compatible third party connectors are available under many other names, e.g. Sunridge MCB.
Hirose W.FL.
The Hirose W.FL, also known as Amphenol AMMC, is an ultra small RF connector used in handheld electronic products. It is manufactured by Hirose Electric Group and has a frequency range up to 6 GHz. Compared to its predecessor U.FL it occupies even less area (2.0 mm diameter) and height (1.4 mm).
Like U.FL, W.FL also has many more names assigned to it by those producing compatible connectors.


Operations management for services

Operations management for services has the functional responsibility for producing the services of an organization and providing them directly to its customers. It specifically deals with decisions required by operations managers for simultaneous production and consumption of an intangible product. These decisions concern the process, people, information and the system that produces and delivers the service. It differs from operations management in general, since the processes of service organizations differ from those of manufacturing organizations.
In a post-industrial economy, service firms provide most of the GDP and employment. As a result, management of service operations within these service firms is essential for the economy.
The services sector treats services as intangible products, service as a customer experience and service as a package of facilitating goods and services. Significant aspects of service as a product are a basis for guiding decisions made by service operations managers. The extent and variety of services industries in which operations managers make decisions provides the context for decision making.
The six types of decisions made by operations managers in service organizations are: process, quality management, capacity & scheduling, inventory, service supply chain and information technology.
Definition of services.
There have been many different definitions of service. Russell and Taylor (2011) state that one of the most pervasive, and earliest definitions is “services are intangible products”. According to this definition, service is something that cannot be manufactured. It can be added after manufacturing (e.g. product repair) or it can stand alone as a service (e.g. dentistry) delivered directly to the customer. This definition has been expanded to include such ideas as “service is a customer experience.” In this case the customer is brought into the definition as the experience the customer receives while “consuming” the service.
A third definition of service concerns the perceived service as consisting of physical facilitating goods, explicit service and implicit service. In this case the facilitating goods are the buildings and inventory used to provide the service. For example, in a restaurant the facilitating goods are the building and the food. The explicit service is what is perceived as the observable part of the service (the sights, sounds and look of the service). In a restaurant the explicit service is the time spent waiting for service, the appearance of the facility and the employees, and the ambience of sounds and light and the decor. The implicit service is the feeling of safety, psychological well-being and happiness associated with the service.
Comparison of manufacturing and services.
According to Fitzsimmons, Fitzsimmons and Bordoloi (2014) differences between manufactured goods and services are as follows:
These four comparisons indicate how management of service operations are quite different from manufacturing regarding such issues as capacity requirements (highly variable), quality assurance (hard to quantify), location of facilities (dispersed), and interaction with the customer during delivery of the service (product and process design).
Service industries.
Industries have been defined by economists as consisting of four parts: Agriculture, Mining and Construction, Manufacturing, and Service. Services have existed for centuries. Early service was associated with servants. Servants were hired to do tasks that the wealthy did not want to do for themselves (e.g. cleaning the house, cooking, and washing clothes). Later, services became more organized and were provided to the general public.
In 1900 the U.S. service industry (e.g., consisting of banks, professional services, schools and general stores) was fragmented, except for the railroads and communications. Services were largely local in nature and owned by entrepreneurs and families. The U.S. in 1900 had 31% employment in services, 31% in manufacturing and 38% in agriculture.
Services have now evolved to become the dominant form of employment in industrialized economies. Much of the world has progressed, or is progressing, from agricultural to industrial and now post-industrial economies. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a table of the employment of the 151 million people by industry in the U.S. for 2014.
Source:
The table shows that service industries now constitute 83% of employment in the U.S., while agriculture, mining, construction and manufacturing are only 17% of the total employment. Service industries are very diversified ranging from those that are highly capital intensive (e.g. banks, utilities, airlines, and hospitals) to those that are highly people intensive (e.g. retail, wholesale, and professional services). In capital intensive services the focus is more on technology and automation, while in people intensive services the focus is more on managing service employees that deliver the service.
Service and manufacturing industries are highly interrelated. Manufacturing provides tangible facilitating goods needed to provide services; and services such as banking, accounting and information systems provide important service inputs to manufacturing. Manufacturing companies have an opportunity to provide more services along with their products. This can be an important point of product differentiation, leading to increased sales and profitability for manufacturers.
While the focus is often on service industries, there is an opportunity to apply service principles to internal services in an organization, particularly by focusing on internal customers. Internal services such as payroll, accounting, legal, information systems or human resources often have not identified their internal customers, nor do they understand their customer needs. Service ideas ranging from process design, to lean systems, quality management, capacity and scheduling have been widely applied to internal services.
Service design.
Service design begins with a business strategy and service strategy. The business strategy defines what business the firm is in, for example, the Walt Disney Company defines its business strategy "as making people happy." A business strategy also defines the target market, competitors, financial goals, new products, how the company competes, and perhaps some aspects of operations.
Following from the business strategy is the service concept. It must provide the rationale for why the customer should buy the service offered. It defines what the customer is receiving and what the service organization is providing. The service concept includes:
Managers can use the service concept to create organizational alignment and develop new services. It provides a means for describing the service business from an operations point of view.
After defining the service concept, operations can proceed to define the service-product bundle (or service package) for the organization. It consists of five parts: service facility, facilitating goods, information, explicit service and implicit services. It is important to carefully define each of these elements so that operations can subsequently design and manage a service operation. The service-product bundle must come first before operations decisions.
An example of service-product bundle characteristics follows:
Once the service package is specified, operations is ready to make decisions concerning the process, quality, capacity, inventory, supply chain and information systems. These are the six decision responsibilities of service operations. Other decision responsibilities such as market choice, product positioning, pricing, advertising and channels belong to the marketing function. Finance takes care of financial reporting, investments, capitalization, and profitability.
Operations decisions.
Process decisions.
Process decisions include the physical processes and the people that deliver the services to the customer. A service process consists of all the routines, tasks and steps that are used to deliver service to customers along with the jobs and training for service employees. There are many ways to organize a process to provide customer service in an effective and efficient manner to deliver the service-product bundle. Several ideas have been advanced on how to design a service process.
Customer contact.
Design of a service system must consider the degree of customer contact. The importance of customer contact was first noted by Chase and Tansik (1983). They argued that high customer contact processes should be designed and managed differently from low-contact processes. High-contact processes have the customer in the system while providing the service. This can lead to difficulties in standardizing the service or inefficiencies when the customer makes demands or expects unique services. On the other hand, high-contact also provides the possibility of self-service where customers provide part of the service themselves (e.g. filing your own gas tank, or packing your own groceries). Low-contact services are performed away from the customer in what is often called "the back room." In this case, the service process can be more standardized and efficient (e.g. check clearing in a bank, filling orders in a warehouse) since the customer is not in the system to request preferences, customization or changes. Low-contact services can be managed more like manufacturing, high-contact services cannot.
Production-line approach.
In 1972 Levitt introduced the "production-line approach to service". He argued that service processes could be made more efficient by standardizing them and automating them like manufacturing. He gave the example of McDonald's that has standardized both the services at the front counter and the backroom for producing the food. They have limited the menu, simplified the jobs, trained the managers (at "Hamburger U"), automated production and instituted standards for courtesy, cleanliness, speed and quality. As a result, McDonald's has become a model for other service processes which have been designed for high efficiency, not only in fast food, but in many other services. At the same time, it leaves open the option for more customized and flexible services for customers who are willing to pay more for "better" or more personalized service. While these services are less efficient, they cater more to unique customer's needs.
Service process matrices.
Many different service process matrices have been proposed for explaining the relationship between service products that are selected and corresponding processes. One of these is shown below.
The Service Delivery System Matrix by Collier and Meyer (1998) illustrates the various types of routings used for service process depending on the amount of customization and customer involvement in the process. With high levels of customization and customer involvement, there are many pathways and jumbled flows for service. As a result, the service delivery of Customer-Routed services is less efficient than Co-routed or Provider-Routed processes that have less customization and less customer involvement. Process that should be used for each combination of customization and customer involvement are shown on the diagonal of this matrix.
Self-service.
Self-service is in wide use. For example, in the 1960s gas station attendants came out and pumped your gas, cleaned your windshield and even checked your oil. Fast food is famous for self-service, since customers have been trained to order their own food, pay immediately, find a table, and clean up the trash. ATM's have replaced many traditional tellers and online banking provides even more self-service.
When self-service is accepted by the customer, it can reduce costs and even provide better service in the customer's eyes—faster service with less hassle. Self-service falls in the provider-routed or co-routed part of the Service delivery matrix. Services that were previously customer-routed have been moved down the diagonal to be more efficient and accepted by customers.
Service Blueprint
The service blueprint is a way to describe the flow of a customer through a service operation from the start to the finish, along with the actions provided by the service providers both in interaction with the customer and in the "back room" out of sight of the customer. For example, if a customer wishes to purchase a suit, the service blueprint starts with entry to the store, next the customer is greeted by a sales representative, the customer then provides information on his/her needs, the sales representative searches for appropriate suits, one or more suits are selected and tried-on for a fitting, a suit is selected and then alterations are done (which take place away from the customer), the customer pays for the suit and returns later to pick it up. A blueprint flowchart shows every step in the process and can be used to illustrate the process and improve it.
Lean thinking.
If lean thinking is applied, the time taken for each step in a service blueprint flowchart can be recorded, or a separate value-stream map can be constructed. Then the process can be analyzed for time reductions to reduce waiting and non-value added steps. Changes are made to reduce time and waste in the process. Waste is anything that does not add value to the process including waiting time in line, possibility of more self-service, customer hassle, and defects in service. But, lean thinking also requires attention to the customer and the people providing the service. It is important to apply important principles such as completely solve the customer's problem, don't waste time and provide exactly what the customer requires.
Leite and Vieira (2015) state that service managers must realize that the customer will be happy if the service provided meets or exceeds expectations. Also the interaction between the customer and the people providing the service is essential to achieve satisfied customers. Employee involvement is often emphasized as part of lean thinking to achieve high levels of commitment by service employees.
Queuing.
Queuing is an analytic method for determining waiting time when customers must wait in line to get service. The length of the queue and waiting time can be calculated based on the arrival rate, service rate, number of servers and type of lines. There are many formulas for various types of queuing theory problems. The formulas generally predict that the "average" service time must be significantly less than the "average" time between arrivals when there is randomness in arrivals and/or service time. The reason for this is that a long line will build up when randomness of arrivals occurs faster than the average and service times are longer than the average. If the distributions of arrival times and service times are known, formulas are available for calculating the exact waiting times and line lengths for many different queuing configurations of servers, types of lines, server distributions and arrival distributions.
Service-profit chain.
Heskett, Sasser and Schlensinger (1997) proposed the service-profit chain as a way to design service processes. The service-profit chain links various aspects and tasks required to deliver superior service and profits. It starts with a high level of internal quality leading to employee satisfaction and productivity to deliver superior external customer service leading to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and finally high revenues and profits.

Every link in this chain is important and the linkage between the service providers and the customer is essential in service operations. The service manager should not break any of the links in order to receive the results of high probability and growth.
Quality management.
SERVQUAL measurement.
Using the customer experience approach, a questionnaire called SERVQUAL has been developed to measure the customer's perception of the service. The dimensions of SERVQUAL are designed to measure the customer experience in both explicit and implicit measures. The dimensions are:
A debate about SERVQUAL has ensued about whether customer service should be measured in absolute terms or relative to expectations. Some argue that if high levels on all SERVQUAL dimensions are provided then the service is high quality. Others argue that ultimately the service result is judged by the customer relative to the customer's expectations and not by the service provider. If customer expectations are low, even low levels on SERVQUAL dimensions provides high quality.
Quality management approaches.
Quality management practices for services have much in common with manufacturing, despite the fact that the product is intangible. The following approaches are widely used for quality improvement in both manufacturing and services:
These approaches have several things in common. They begin with defining and measuring the customer's needs (e.g. using SERVQUAL). Any service that does not meet a customer's need is considered a defect. Then these approaches seek to reduce defects through statistical methods, cause-and-effect analysis, problem solving teams, and involvement of employees. They focus on improving the processes that underlie production of the service.
In addition to intangibility, there are two approaches about quality that are unique to service operations management.
Service recovery.
For manufactured products, quality problems are handled through warranties, returns and repair after the product is delivered. In high contact services there is no time to fix quality problems later; they must be handled by service recovery as the service is delivered. For example, if soup is spilled on the customer in a restaurant, the waiter might apologize, offer to pay to have the suit cleaned and provide a free meal. If a hotel room is not ready when promised, the staff could apologize, offer to store the customer's luggage or provide an upgraded room. Service recovery is intended to fix the problem on the spot and go even further to offer the customer some form of consolation and compensation. The objective is to make the customer satisfied with the situation, even though there was a service failure.
Service guarantee.
A service guarantee is similar to a manufacturing guarantee, except the service product cannot be returned. A service guarantee provides a specific monetary reward for failure of service delivery. Some examples are:
Service guarantees serve to assure the customer of quality and they provide a way for the employees to know the cost of service failure.
Capacity and scheduling.
Forecasting.
Forecasting demand is a prerequisite for managing capacity and scheduling. Forecasting demand often uses big data to predict customer behavior. The data comes from scanners at retail locations or other service locations. In some cases traditional time series methods are also used to predict trends and seasonality. Future demand is forecasted based on past demand patterns. Many of the same time-series and statistical methods for forecasting are used for manufacturing or service operations.
Capacity planning.
Capacity planning is quite different between manufacturing and services given that service cannot be stored or shipped to another location. As a result, location of services is very dispersed to be near the customer. Customers are only willing to travel short distances to receive most services. Exceptions are health care when the illness requires a specialist, airline transportation when the service is to move the customer, and other services where local expertise is not available. Aside from these exceptions, location analysis depends on the "drawing power" based on the distance a customer is willing to travel to a service site relative to competitive offerings and locations. The drawing power of a site for a particular customer is high if the site is close by and provides the required service. High drawing power is related to high sales and profits. This is very different from manufacturing locations which depend on the cost of building a factory plus the cost of transporting the goods to the customers. Manufacturing plants are located on the basis of low costs rather than high revenues and profits for services.
A second difference from manufacturing is planning for capacity utilization once a facility is built. Since the product cannot be stored in inventory and sold later, service capacity is perishable and must meet peak demand at any point in time. There are two ways to deal with this problem. First, management can attempt to reduce peak demand and level it over time by the following actions.
Management can also use various methods to manage the supply of services including:
While some of these same mechanisms are used in manufacturing, they are much more crucial in service operations.
Revenue management.
Revenue management is unique to services, since capacity is perishable. This applies to the airline industry. When the plane leaves the runway, empty seats generate no revenue, but the cost of the flight is almost the same. As a result, mathematical models have been formulated to allocate capacity at various prices and times as the flight is booked in advance. Initially, a certain number of seats are reserved for first class, coach, premium coach and various other categories. Based on the elasticity of demand, seats prices are lowered at the last minute in order to fill empty seats and maximize the revenue of the flight. Similar models have also been developed for revenue management in hotels, where the capacity is also perishable.
Scheduling.
Scheduling has some differences between manufacturing and service. In manufacturing, jobs are scheduled through a factory to sequence them in the best order to meet due dates and reduce costs. In services, it is customers who are being scheduled. As a result, waiting time becomes much more critical. While manufacturing orders don't mind waiting in line or waiting in inventory, real customer's do mind. Some of the scheduling applications for services are: scheduling of patients to operating rooms in hospitals and scheduling students to classes. Many scheduling problems have been solved by using operations research methods to optimize the schedule.
Inventory.
Inventory management and control is needed in service operations with facilitating goods. Almost every service uses some amount of facilitating goods. The presence of facilitating goods is critical in retail and wholesale operations but these operations don't manufacture anything, rather they distribute goods and provide service while doing it. One difference from manufacturing inventories is that services use only finished goods, while manufacturing has finished goods, work-in-process and raw-materials inventories. As a result, manufacturing uses a Materials Requirements Planning System, while services do not. Services use Replenishment inventory control systems such as order-point and periodic-review systems.
Service supply chains.
Supply chains for service operations are critical to supply facilitating goods. A typical hospital supply chain is an example. A hospital will use many goods from suppliers to construct and furnish the building. During day-to-day operation of the hospital, inventories of supplies will be held for the operating rooms and throughout the building. The pharmacy will hold drugs and the kitchen will need supplies of food. The supply chain of facilitating goods in hospitals is extensive.
Purchasing controls a large part of costs in retail and wholesale operations, approximately 75% of all costs are for purchased goods. Outside of retail and wholesale operations, facilitating goods are a much smaller part of total costs reaching a low of 10% for most professional services. Both manufacturing and service organizations purchase goods and must deal with outsourcing and offshoring, as well as, domestic products.
Service inputs are critical for manufacturing including capital from banks, energy, information systems and human resources. Services are part of the manufacturing supply chain, just like the physical inputs of products from other manufacturing companies.
Both manufacturing and service operations can purchase services from outside the organization. Internal business services such as accounting, legal, human resources, call centers, and information systems may be outsourced in part or entirely. Some of these services can also be purchased from offshore. Logistics services may be outsourced to Third Party Logistics (3PL) providers. These services include transportation, warehousing, order fulfillment, returns and tariffs.
Information technology.
The Internet and information technology has dramatically changed the delivery of services. Some of the major changes are as follows:
Management science and operations research (MSOR).
Analysis using MSOR methods has been extensive in services. Areas where they have been heavily applied are in inventory, capacity, scheduling, queuing and forecasting. With the advent of the Internet, information systems, big data and analytics, there are many opportunities to make improvements in decision making for services. The analytic techniques include statistics, management science and operations research.


CaseStack

CaseStack is an American company that provides supply chain management (SCM) services, including warehousing, transportation, and supply chain management software (SCMS) to consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs). It uses a proprietary software as a service platform for its collaborative retailer consolidation programs. CaseStack has been recognized in Food Logistics' Top 85 3PL Providers, Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies 100 Great Supply Chain Partners and Inbound Logistics' Top 100 3PL Providers.
History.
CaseStack was founded in 1999 by former Procter & Gamble executive, Dan Sanker. CaseStack began with a headquarters based in Santa Monica, California, and added another in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2007.
CaseStack offers three distinct technology editions for logistics services: a Transportation Edition for clients who outsource only transportation services; a Logistics Edition that includes warehousing; and an Enterprise Edition for clients who integrate with their enterprise-wide systems.
In April 2018, CaseStack announced a strategic partnership with ShipChain, a blockchain based solution provider for the transport and logistics industry.
In November 2018, CaseStack announced it was being acquired as a division of Hub Group, a transportation management company.
In December 2018, Hub Group completed the acquisition of CaseStack.


Amoskeag Locomotive Works

The Amoskeag Locomotive Works, in Manchester, New Hampshire, built steam locomotives at the dawn of the railroad era in the United States. The locomotive works operated as a division of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company between 1848 and 1859.
Besides building locomotives for railroad use, Amoskeag also built steam fire engines until 1876. A steam-driven self-propelled appliance was made by Amoskeag was used to fight the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Amoskeag fire engines served as the initial fleet for the New York City Fire Department and the first Los Angeles Fire Department fire company. The Firefighters Museum in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, has an 1863 Amoskeag fire engine.
Company history.
The locomotive manufacturing operations began within a new machine shop built for the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. The shop opened in 1848, and the first locomotive was built there in 1849. In 1856 the shop built 60 locomotives.
In 1859 Amoskeag Manufacturing sold the locomotive business to Manchester Locomotive Works, of which Oliver W. Bayley and Aretas Blood were principals. Amoskeag Manufacturing sold the fire engine business to the Manchester Locomotive Works in 1876.


Toyota Motor Manufacturing Missouri

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Missouri (TMMMO) is a manufacturing plant in Troy, Missouri that focuses on building cylinder heads for straight-four engines built by Toyota. It is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America, itself a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan.
The company traces its roots back to 1912 when Jesse Bodine founded the Bodine Pattern Company in St. Louis. Bodine produced mold castings for various customers including automotive. When Toyota started to expand its manufacturing presence in North America in the late 1980s turned to Bodine to supply aluminum parts. In 1990, the automaker purchased the company, renaming it Bodine Aluminum.
In 1991, Toyota broke ground on an additional plant in Troy, Missouri that would open in 1993. Bodine Aluminum opened a plant in Jackson, Tennessee in 2003, and closed its St. Louis plant in December 2018.
In 2020, the company's name changed from Bodine Aluminum to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Missouri, while the Jackson plant became Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Missouri has the ability to build more than 3 million cylinder heads annually on three production lines.
The plant is located next to Missouri Smelting Technology (MOST), an aluminum recycler that provides raw material to TMMMO. MOST is a subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho, another company in Japan's Toyota Group.


Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee (TMMTN) is a manufacturing plant located in Jackson, Tennessee that focuses on mold casting aluminum engine blocks and hybrid transaxle casings. It is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America, itself a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan.
The plant was established in 2003 as part of Toyota's Bodine Aluminum division, which also operates a plant in Troy, Missouri.
In 2020, the company's name changed from Bodine Aluminum to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee. The company still shares leadership with the Missouri plant, now renamed Toyota Motor Manufacturing Missouri.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee has the ability to build more than 2 million engine blocks annually.


Cooper Mark X

The Cooper Mk.X, and its evolutions, the Mk.XI, the Mk.XII, and the Mk.XIII, are open-wheel Formula Three race cars, designed, developed, and built by British manufacturer Cooper in 1956 (with production continuing through 1959). It was virtually identical in design to the previous Mk.IX. The internal designation, dubbed the T42, was powered by a JA Prestwich Industries (JAP) single-cylinder engine, and featured a singular brake disk at the rear of the car, flatter springs to mitigate ground clearance, altered and adjusted center spring mountings, and reworked engine mounts. The second version featured an elongated chassis and body, and a larger and more powerful OHV V-2 engine. Weight and chassis dimensions were essentially identical to the previous model.


Roller burnishing

Roller burnishing is a surface finishing technique where hardened rollers cold work surface imperfections to reduce surface roughness. Roller burnishing differs from abrasive surface finishing techniques in that material is displaced rather than removed. The tooling typically consists of a hardened sphere or cylindrical roller. The tooling is pressed into the surface of the part while it is rotated (in some applications, the tools are rotated instead of the part). The burnishing tool rolls against the surface of the part at a constant speed, producing a very consistent finish across the part. A surface finish of less than Ra 0.1 µm is achievable with roller burnishing. A side effect is that the outer surface of the part is work hardened.
Roller burnishing is used in the production of some crankshafts. A dual roller (cylindrical) tool is moved into the thrust bearing journal of a crankshaft, while the crankshaft is spinning the tool is indexed (so each roller is perpendicular to the thrust surface while backing each other up) deforming the surfaces. So the diameters of each roller added together (compensated for elastic deformation) equals the finish dimension of the thrust bearing.
In deep hole machining, a roller burnishing tool is often combined with skiving knives on the same tool. The skiving knives pass first, scraping the inside layer of metal, followed by the burnishing rollers, which cold work the tube to create a mirror surface finish. Skive-burnishing is often used in hydraulic cylinder applications. This process can happen on a deep hole drilling machine or a dedicated skiving machine.
References.
Experimental investigation of mild steel components by Roller Burnishing process and mechanical properties by Taguchi method. https://www.irjet.net/archives/V6/i2/IRJET-V6I2398.pdf


Supplier risk management

Supplier risk management (SRM) is an evolving discipline in operations management for manufacturers, retailers, financial services companies and government agencies where an organization is dependent on suppliers to achieve business objectives.
The complexity and globally outsourced nature of modern supply chains, combined with the practice of optimization techniques such as lean and just-in-time manufacturing in order to improve efficiency, has increased supply chain vulnerabilities to even minor supply disruptions. While these models have allowed companies to reduce overall costs and expand quickly into new markets, they also expose the company to the risk of a supplier bankruptcy, closing operations, data breach or being acquired. Among the several types of supply disruptions, most severe are those that have a relatively low probability of occurrence with a very high severity of impact when they do occur. While such risks cannot be eliminated, however, its severity can be reduced.
Objectives.
To overcome these challenges, companies mitigate supply chain interruptions and reduce risk with strategies and tactics that address supplier-centric risk at multiple stages in the relationship:
Supplier risk in recession and recovery.
In 2008–2009, manufacturers experienced the startling speed at which suppliers can move from stability to shutting down operations. The devastating impact of a crucial supplier failure has moved risk management from add-on service to mission-critical. With a new focus on risk management, manufacturers have seen value whether the economy is stagnant or thriving.
With a transparent, accessible and comprehensive set of supplier information, manufacturers have been able to monitor suppliers for behavioral changes which contribute to overall stability, including:
Changes in any of these conditions can be defined as parameters for raising an alert. For example, a financially stable supplier may in fact be about to lose it CEO to retirement – which may cause issues within the management team. Early visibility into that change gives the manufacturer time to ensure it does not affect customers negatively.
Based on the criticality of the supplier and the nature of the alert received, the manufacturer can then choose to take necessary action, such as calling or visiting the supplier, increasing monitoring, or moving towards terminating the relationship with the supplier and finding a replacement.
Benefits.
Reducing supplier risk can:


Flip chip

Flip chip, also known as controlled collapse chip connection or its abbreviation, C4, is a method for interconnecting dies such as semiconductor devices, IC chips, integrated passive devices and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), to external circuitry with solder bumps that have been deposited onto the chip pads. The technique was developed by General Electric's Light Military Electronics Department, Utica, New York. The solder bumps are deposited on the chip pads on the top side of the wafer during the final wafer processing step. In order to mount the chip to external circuitry (e.g., a circuit board or another chip or wafer), it is flipped over so that its top side faces down, and aligned so that its pads align with matching pads on the external circuit, and then the solder is reflowed to complete the interconnect. This is in contrast to wire bonding, in which the chip is mounted upright and fine wires are welded onto the chip pads and lead frame contacts to interconnect the chip pads to external circuitry.
Comparison of mounting technologies.
Wire bonding/thermosonic bonding.
In typical semiconductor fabrication systems, chips are built up in large numbers on a single large wafer of semiconductor material, typically silicon. The individual chips are patterned with small pads of metal near their edges that serve as the connections to an eventual mechanical carrier. The chips are then cut out of the wafer and attached to their carriers, typically via wire bonding such as thermosonic bonding. These wires eventually lead to pins on the outside of the carriers, which are attached to the rest of the circuitry making up the electronic system.
Flip chip.
Processing a flip chip is similar to conventional IC fabrication, with a few additional steps. Near the end of the manufacturing process, the attachment pads are metalized to make them more receptive to solder. This typically consists of several treatments. A small dot of solder is then deposited on each metalized pad. The chips are then cut out of the wafer as normal.
To attach the flip chip into a circuit, the chip is inverted to bring the solder dots down onto connectors on the underlying electronics or circuit board. The solder is then re-melted to produce an electrical connection, typically using a thermosonic bonding or alternatively reflow solder process.
This also leaves a small space between the chip's circuitry and the underlying mounting. In many cases an electrically-insulating adhesive is then "underfilled" to provide a stronger mechanical connection, provide a heat bridge, and to ensure the solder joints are not stressed due to differential heating of the chip and the rest of the system.
The underfill distributes the thermal expansion mismatch between the chip and the board, preventing stress concentration in the solder joints which would lead to premature failure.
In 2008, High-speed mounting methods evolved through a cooperation between Reel Service Ltd. and Siemens AG in the development of a high speed mounting tape known as 'MicroTape'. By adding a tape-and-reel process into the assembly methodology, placement at high speed is possible, achieving a 99.90% pick rate and a placement rate of 21,000 cph (components per hour), using standard PCB assembly equipment.
Tape-automated bonding.
Tape-automated bonding (TAB) was developed for connecting dies with thermocompression or thermosonic bonding to a flexible substrate including from one to three conductive layers. Also with TAB it is possible to connect die pins all at the same time as with the soldering based flip chip mounting. Originally TAB could produce finer pitch interconnections compared to flip chip, but with the development of the flip chip this advantage has diminished and has kept TAB to be a specialized interconnection technique of display drivers or similar requiring specific TAB compliant roll-to-roll (R2R, reel-to-reel) like assembly system.
Advantages.
The resulting completed flip chip assembly is much smaller than a traditional carrier-based system; the chip sits directly on the circuit board, and is much smaller than the carrier both in area and height. The short wires greatly reduce inductance, allowing higher-speed signals, and also conduct heat better.
Disadvantages.
Flip chips have several disadvantages.
The lack of a carrier means they are not suitable for easy replacement, or unaided manual installation. They also require very flat mounting surfaces, which is not always easy to arrange, or sometimes difficult to maintain as the boards heat and cool. This limits the maximum device size.
Also, the short connections are very stiff, so the thermal expansion of the chip must be matched to the supporting board or the connections can crack. The underfill material acts as an intermediate between the difference in CTE of the chip and board.
History.
The process was originally introduced commercially by IBM in the 1960s for individual transistors and diodes packaged for use in their mainframe systems.
Alternatives.
Since the flip chip's introduction a number of alternatives to the solder bumps have been introduced, including gold balls or molded studs, electrically conductive polymer and the "plated bump" process that "removes" an insulating plating by chemical means. Flip chips have recently gained popularity among manufacturers of cell phones and other small electronics where the size savings are valuable.


2018–19 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round (Main Path)

This page summarises the Main Path matches of 2018–19 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round.
Times are CEST , as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Preliminary round.
Summary.

Matches.
"Prishtina won 6–1 on aggregate."
"Gżira United won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Engordany won 3–2 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate. B36 Tórshavn won 4–2 on penalties."
"KÍ Klaksvík won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Tre Fiori won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Trakai won 2–1 on aggregate."
First qualifying round.
Summary.

Notes

Matches.
"Stjarnan won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Slavia Sofia won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Žalgiris won 3–2 on aggregate."
"0–0 on aggregate. Fola Esch won 5–4 on penalties."
"Molde won 6–3 on aggregate."
"DAC Dunajská Streda won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Apollon Limassol won 2–1 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate. Domžale won on away goals."
"Rangers won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Progrès Niederkorn won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Viitorul Constanța won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Tobol won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Maribor won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Újpest won 5–3 on aggregate."
"Trenčín won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Dinamo Minsk won 3–2 on aggregate."
"B36 Tórshavn won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Górnik Zabrze won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Spartak Subotica won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Pyunik won 3–0 on aggregate."
"AIK won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Shakhtyor Soligorsk won 5–1 on aggregate."
"FH won 3–0 on aggregate."
"Ventspils won 8–3 on aggregate."
"Nordsjælland won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Sarajevo won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Kairat won 10–1 on aggregate"
"Osijek won 3–2 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate. Laçi won on away goals.
"Maccabi Tel Aviv won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Balzan won 5–3 on aggregate."
"Honvéd won 5–2 on aggregate."
"Partizan won 6–0 on aggregate."
"1–1 on aggregate. CSKA Sofia won 5–3 on penalties."
"Slovan Bratislava won 9–2 on aggregate."
"Radnički Niš won 5–0 on aggregate."
"Lech Poznań won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Chikhura Sachkhere won 2–1 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate. Vaduz won on away goals."
"Željezničar won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Trakai won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Hibernian won 12–5 on aggregate."
"Rudar Velenje won 10–0 on aggregate."
"Dundalk won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Sarpsborg 08 won 6–0 on aggregate."
"Copenhagen won 2–1 on aggregate."
"BK Häcken won 4–2 on aggregate."
Second qualifying round.
Summary.

Notes

Matches.
"Molde won 5–0 on aggregate."
"Atalanta won 10–2 on aggregate."
"Žalgiris won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Kairat won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Burnley won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Partizan won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Slovan Bratislava won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Nordsjælland won 2–0 on aggregate."
"FCSB won 6–0 on aggregate."
"Hapoel Haifa won 2–1 on aggregate."
"AEK Larnaca won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Trenčín won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Maccabi Tel Aviv won 4–2 on aggregate."
"CSKA Sofia won 6–1 on aggregate."
"Spartak Subotica won 3–2 on aggregate."
"RB Leipzig won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Copenhagen won 7–0 on aggregate."
"1–1 on aggregate. Ufa won on away goals."
"2–2 on aggregate. Pyunik won on away goals."
"Jagiellonia Białystok won 5–4 on aggregate."
"LASK won 6–1 on aggregate."
"Progrès Niederkorn won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Rangers won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Beşiktaş won 8–0 on aggregate."
"Dinamo Minsk won 7–2 on aggregate."
"Bordeaux won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Apollon Limassol won 5–2 on aggregate."
"Vitesse won 5–3 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate. Sarpsborg 08 won on away goals."
"Dynamo Brest won 5–4 on aggregate."
"Sevilla won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Lech Poznań won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Hibernian won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Maribor won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Genk won 9–1 on aggregate."
"Mariupol won 3–2 on aggregate."
"Hajduk Split won 4–2 on aggregate."
Third qualifying round.
Summary.

Matches.
"Maccabi Tel Aviv won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Zenit Saint Petersburg won 8–5 on aggregate."
"AEK Larnaca won 7–0 on aggregate."
"Sarpsborg 08 won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Burnley won 1–0 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate. Zorya Luhansk won on away goals."
"Atalanta won 6–1 on aggregate."
"Genk won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Basel won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Partizan won 5–3 on aggregate."
"Molde won 3–0 on aggregate."
"FCSB won 2–1 on aggregate."
"Sevilla won 6–0 on aggregate."
"Sigma Olomouc won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Rapid Wien won 5–2 on aggregate."
"Bordeaux won 5–2 on aggregate."
"Copenhagen won 4–2 on aggregate."
"Olympiacos won 7–1 on aggregate."
"Rangers won 3–1 on aggregate."
"Trenčín won 5–1 on aggregate."
"Gent won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Brøndby won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Ufa won 4–3 on aggregate."
"2–2 on aggregate. Beşiktaş won on away goals."
"Apollon Limassol won 4–1 on aggregate."
"RB Leipzig won 4–2 on aggregate."
Play-off round.
Summary.

Notes

Matches.
"Sevilla won 4–0 on aggregate."
"Sarpsborg 08 won 4–3 on aggregate."
"Bordeaux won 2–0 on aggregate."
"Beşiktaş won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Rapid Wien won 4–3 on aggregate."
"3–3 on aggregate. Apollon Limassol won on away goals."
"Rangers won 2–1 on aggregate."
"0–0 on aggregate. Copenhagen won 4–3 on penalties."
"Zenit Saint Petersburg won 4–3 on aggregate."
"AEK Larnaca won 4–1 on aggregate."
"Genk won 9–4 on aggregate."
"Olympiacos won 4–2 on aggregate."
"RB Leipzig won 3–2 on aggregate."


Muda (Japanese term)

 is a Japanese word meaning "futility", "uselessness", or "wastefulness", and is a key concept in lean process thinking such as in the Toyota Production System (TPS), denoting one of three types of deviation from optimal allocation of resources. The other types are known by the Japanese terms "mura" ("unevenness") and "muri" ("overload"). Waste in this context refers to the wasting of time or resources rather than wasteful by-products and should not be confused with Waste reduction.
From an end-customer's point of view, value-added work is any activity that produces goods or provides a service for which a customer is willing to pay; "muda" is any constraint or impediment that causes waste to occur.
There are two types of muda:
Toyota's (Ohno's) Seven Forms of Waste.
One of the key steps in lean process and TPS is to identify which activities add value and which do not, then to progressively work to improve or eliminate them.
Taiichi Ohno, "father" of the Toyota Production System, originally identified seven forms of "muda" or waste:
A mnemonic may be useful for remembering the categories of waste, such as TIM WOOD or TIM WOODS.
Transportation.
Every time a product is touched or moved unnecessarily there is a risk that it could be damaged, lost, delayed, etc. as well as being a cost for no added value. Transportation does not add value to the product, i.e. is not a transformation for which the consumer is willing to pay.
Inventory.
Whether in the form of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), or finished goods, represents a capital outlay that cannot yet produce an income. The longer a product sits in one of these states, the more it contributes to waste. The smooth, continuous flow of work through each process ensures excess amounts of inventory are minimized.
Motion.
In contrast to transportation, which refers to damage and transaction costs associated with moving the product, motion refers to the damage and costs inflicted on what creates the product. This can include wear and tear for equipment, repetitive strain injuries for workers or unnecessary downtime.
Waiting.
Whenever the product is not in transportation or being processed, it is waiting (typically in a queue). In traditional processes, a large part of an individual product's life is spent waiting to be worked on.
Overproduction.
Making more of a product than is required results in several forms of waste, typically caused by production in large batches. The customer's needs often change over the time it takes to produce a larger batch. Over-production has been described as the worst kind of waste.
Over processing.
Doing more to a product than is required by the end-customer results in it taking longer and costing more to produce. This also includes using components that are more precise, complex, expensive or higher quality than absolutely required.
Defects.
Having to discard or rework a product due to earlier defective work or components results in additional cost and delays.
Unused skills.
Organizations often under-utilize the skills their workers have or permit workers to operate in silos so that knowledge is not shared. This was added to the original seven forms of waste, as resolving this waste is a key enabler to resolving the others.
Alternative forms of waste.
The eight forms of waste were developed for Toyota specific processes.
Other companies and individuals have elucidated or identified other forms of waste. Some examples follow:
Confusion.
General uncertainty about the right thing to do, or absence of documented procedures and operating statements.
Self-doubt.
Writer Jim Womack described "thinking you can't" as the worst form of waste, quoting Henry Ford's aphorism:
Implementation.
Shigeo Shingo divides process related activity into Process and Operation. He distinguishes "Process", the course of material that is transformed into product, from "Operation" which are the actions performed on the material by workers and machines. This distinction is not generally recognized because most people would view the "Operations" performed on the raw materials of a product by workers and machines as the "Process" by which those raw materials are transformed into the final product. Shingo breaks down the process into four phenomena, Transportation, Inspection, Processing and Delay. He makes this distinction because value is only added during the processing steps in the process not by the transportation, inspection and delay steps. He states that whereas many see Process and Operations in parallel he sees them at right angles (orthogonal) (see Value Stream Mapping). This starkly throws most of the operations into the waste category.
Many of the TPS/Lean techniques work in a similar way. By planning to reduce manpower, or reduce change-over times, or reduce campaign lengths, or reduce lot sizes, the question of waste comes immediately into focus upon those elements that prevent the plan being implemented. Often it is in the operations' area rather than the process area that muda can be eliminated and remove the blockage to the plan. Tools of many types and methodologies can then be employed on these wastes to reduce or eliminate them.
The plan is therefore to build a fast, flexible process where the immediate impact is to reduce waste and therefore costs. By ratcheting the process towards this aim with focused muda reduction to achieve each step, the improvements are 'locked in' and become required for the process to function. Without this intent to build a fast, flexible process there is a significant danger that any improvements achieved will not be sustained because they are "just" desirable and can slip back towards old behaviours without the process stopping.


Workforce management

Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human resource management, performance and training management, data collection, recruiting, budgeting, forecasting, scheduling and analytics.
Workforce management provides a common set of performance-based tools and software to support corporate management, front-line supervisors, store managers and workers across manufacturing, distribution, transportation, and retail operations. It is sometimes referred to as HRM systems, or Workforce asset management, or part of ERP systems.
Definition.
As workforce management has developed from a traditional approach of staff scheduling to improve time management, it has become more integrated and demand-oriented to optimize the scheduling of staff. Besides the two core aspects of demand-orientation and optimization, workforce management may also incorporate:
The starting point is a clear definition of the work required through engineered standards and optimal methods for performing each task as efficiently and safely as possible. Based on this foundation and demand-based forecasts, workers are scheduled, tasks are assigned, performance is measured, feedback is provided and incentives are computed and paid. In addition, online training is provided along with supervisor-based coaching to bring all workers up to required levels of proficiency. Workforce management is a complete approach designed to make workforce as productive as possible, reduce labor costs, and improve customer service.
Field service management.
Workforce management also uses the process of field service management in order to have oversight of company's resources not used on company property. Examples include:
Market growth.
In the 1980s and 1990s, entrepreneurs focused on topics such as supply chain management, production planning systems or enterprise resource planning. As cost pressures have increased, managers have turned their attention to human resources issues. In all personnel-intensive industries, workforce management has become an important strategic element in corporate management. The process has experienced growth in all sectors, including healthcare. The rise of the gig economy has also gone hand in hand with the rise of workforce management preactices.
Mobile workforce management.
As our society continues to adopt new technologies such as smartphones and enterprise mobility tools, more companies are allowing employees to become mobile. Mobile workforce management refers to activities used to schedule the employees working outside the company premises. It helps distribute workforce efficiently across various departments in an institution. The need for social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes in both employer's and employee's vision of remote work, which will likely have a long-lasting impact on workforce organization and management in the coming years.
Software.
Workforce management solutions can be deployed enterprise-wide and through mobile platforms. While special software is commonly used in numerous areas such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), SLM (service lifecycle management), CRM (customer relationship management) and HR (human resources) management, the management of the workforce is often still handled using spreadsheet programs or time recording. This often results in expensive overtime, non-productive idle times, high fluctuation rates, poor customer service and opportunity costs being incurred. By using a software solution for demand-oriented workforce management, planners can optimize staffing by creating schedules that at all times conform to the forecasted requirements. At the same time, a workforce management solution helps users to observe all relevant legislations, local agreements and the contracts of individual employees – including work-life balance guidelines.
A key aspect of workforce management is scheduling. This is achieved by establishing likely demand by analyzing historical data (such as the number and duration of customer contacts, sales figures, check-out transactions or orders to be handled). Many workforce management systems also offer manual adjustment capabilities. The calculated forecast values are then converted into actual staffing requirements by means of an algorithm that is adjusted to the particular use case. The algorithm itself is based on the work of Erlang though most modern adaptations of workforce management have shifted towards a richer state management, and optimizations to the original idea.
Current and future staffing requirements, short-term peak loads, availabilities, holidays, budget allowances, skills, labour law-related restrictions, as well as wage and contractual terms have to be integrated into the planning process to guarantee optimal staff deployment. In the workforce management process, the integration of employees is an important factor. In several workforce management systems, employees can log in their availability or planned absences and they can bid for specific shifts so long as they have the necessary skills for the activities planned for these shifts.
Delivery.
The three methods of delivery for contact center technologies are on-premises solution, hosted or cloud-based computing.


Chip-scale package

A chip scale package or chip-scale package (CSP) is a type of integrated circuit package.
Originally, CSP was the acronym for "chip-size packaging." Since only a few packages are chip size, the meaning of the acronym was adapted to "chip-scale packaging". According to IPC's standard J-STD-012, "Implementation of Flip Chip and Chip Scale Technology", in order to qualify as chip scale, the package must have an area no greater than 1.2 times that of the die and it must be a single-die, direct surface mountable package. Another criterion that is often applied to qualify these packages as CSPs is their ball pitch should be no more than 1 mm.
The concept was first proposed by Junichi Kasai of Fujitsu and Gen Murakami of Hitachi Cable in 1993. The first concept demonstration however came from Mitsubishi Electric.
The die may be mounted on an interposer upon which pads or balls are formed, like with flip chip ball grid array (BGA) packaging, or the pads may be etched or printed directly onto the silicon wafer, resulting in a package very close to the size of the silicon die: such a package is called a wafer-level package (WLP) or a wafer-level chip-scale package (WL-CSP). WL-CSP had been in development since 1990s, and several companies begun volume production in early 2000, such as Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE).
Types.
Chip scale packages can be classified into the following groups:


Overprinting

Overprinting refers to the process of printing one colour on top of another in reprographics. This is closely linked to the reprographic technique of 'trapping'. Another use of overprinting is to create a rich black (often regarded as a colour that is "blacker than black") by printing black over another dark colour.
It is also the term used in the production of envelopes customised to order by printing images (such as logos) and texts (such as slogans) on mass-produced machine-made envelopes; the alternative way of producing such envelopes is to print "on the flat" and then cut out the individual shapes and fold them to form the envelopes. However the latter method is generally only economically viable for large print runs offering returns to scale.
Overprinting also refers to the printing of additional information onto self-adhesive labels and product packaging. "Best Before", "Use By" dates and batch codes are printed in situ onto product
packaging as the items are packed. Generally thermal printers, ink jet printers or laser printers are used.


Knife making

Knife making is the process of manufacturing a knife by any one or a combination of processes: stock removal, forging to shape, welded lamination or investment cast. Typical metals used come from the carbon steel, tool, or stainless steel families. Primitive knives have been made from bronze, copper, brass, iron, obsidian, and flint.
Materials for blades.
Different steels are suited to different applications. There is a trade off between hardness, toughness, edge retention, corrosion resistance, and achievable sharpness. Some examples of blade material and their relative trade offs:
Unusual non-metallic materials may also be used; manufacturing techniques are quite different from metal:
Blade making process.
Initial forging.
The initial shaping of a knife is traditionally done through forging though stock removal or blanking can be used. Steel can be folded either to form decorative pattern welded steel or to refine raw steel, or as the Japanese call it, tamahagane. Grain size is kept at a minimum as grain growth can happen quite easily if the blade material is overheated.
In a mass production environment, or in a well equipped private shop, the blanking process is used to make "blade blanks." This can be achieved by a number of different methods, depending upon the thickness of the material and the alloy content of steel to be cut. Thinner cross section, lower alloy blanks can be stamped from sheet material. Materials that are more difficult to work with, or jobs that require higher production volume, can be accomplished with water jet cutters, lasers or electron beam cutting. These two lend themselves towards larger custom shops.
Knife makers will sometimes contract out to a shop with the above capabilities to do blanking. For lower production makers, or lower budgets, other methods must suffice. Knife makers may use many different methods to profile a blank. These can include hacksaws, files, belt grinders, wheel grinders, oxy-acetylene torches, CNC mills, bandsaws, or any number of other methods depending on budget.
Grinding.
If no power equipment is available, this can be done with files if the piece of steel has not yet been hardened. Grinding wheels, or small belt sanders are usually what a beginner uses. Well equipped makers usually use a large industrial belt grinder, or a belt grinder made specifically for knife making. The standard size for a knifemakers' belt grinder is a grinder that runs a belt size of 2" by 72". Pre-polish grinding on a heat treated blade can be done if the blade is kept cool, to preserve the temper of the steel. Overheating can be observed in the knife by watching for heat discoloration. Some knife makers will use a coolant mist on the grinder to achieve this.
Heat treatment.
Methods of heat treatment: atmosphere furnace, molten salt, vacuum furnace, coal (coke) forge, oxy/acetylene torch. Quenching after heat treatment differs according to type of metal and personal preferences. Quenching can be done with oil, animal tallow, water, air, or brine. Most steels will require a specific temperature, soak time, and tempering heat for the different grades.
Blade finishes.
The finish quality of the blade is determined by the Grit of the finishing grind. These can range from a low-shine 280-320 grit finish to a mirror-shine. The high polish shine can be accomplished by buffing with chrome oxide (ex. white chrome, green chrome), hand rubbing with extremely fine wet-or-dry abrasive paper, or with a Japanese water-stone, which has an approximate grit of 10,000-12,000. The knife might also have a different direction in scratch pattern, depending on the method of finishing.
Handle making process.
Handle making can be done in several different ways depending on the tang of the knife. Full tang knives usually have handle scales either pinned, riveted, or screwed on to the tang itself while knives without a full tang may be inserted into a solid handle and then attached in one of the previously stated methods. Handle materials can range from natural materials including wood or elk horn to man-made materials like brass, plastic, carbon fiber, polymer or micarta. A knife makers grinder may have additional attachments for making knife handles, such as small diameter contact wheels.


Fillet (mechanics)

In mechanical engineering, a fillet is a rounding of an interior or exterior corner of a part designed in CAD. An interior or exterior corner, with an angle or type of bevel, is called a "chamfer". Fillet geometry, when on an interior corner is a line of concave function, whereas a fillet on an exterior corner is a line of convex function (in these cases, fillets are typically referred to as rounds). Fillets commonly appear on welded, soldered, or brazed joints.
Depending on a geometric modelling kernel different CAD software products may provide different fillet functionality. Usually fillets can be quickly designed onto parts using 3D solid modeling engineering by picking edges of interest and invoking the function. Smooth edges connecting two simple flat features are generally simple for a computer to create and fast for a human user to specify. Once these features are included in the CAD design of a part, they are often manufactured automatically using computer-numerical control.
Terminology.
Different design packages use different names for the same operations.
Other 3D solid modeling software programs outside of engineering, such as gameSpace, have similar functions.


Design for manufacturability

Design for manufacturability (also sometimes known as design for manufacturing or DFM) is the general engineering practice of designing products in such a way that they are easy to manufacture. The concept exists in almost all engineering disciplines, but the implementation differs widely depending on the manufacturing technology. DFM describes the process of designing or engineering a product in order to facilitate the manufacturing process in order to reduce its manufacturing costs. DFM will allow potential problems to be fixed in the design phase which is the least expensive place to address them. Other factors may affect the manufacturability such as the type of raw material, the form of the raw material, dimensional tolerances, and secondary processing such as finishing.
Depending on various types of manufacturing processes there are set guidelines for DFM practices. These DFM guidelines help to precisely define various tolerances, rules and common manufacturing checks related to DFM.
While DFM is applicable to the design process, a similar concept called DFSS (design for Six Sigma) is also practiced in many organizations.
For printed circuit boards (PCB).
In the PCB design process, DFM leads to a set of design guidelines that attempt to ensure manufacturability. By doing so, probable production problems may be addressed during the design stage.
Ideally, DFM guidelines take into account the processes and capabilities of the manufacturing industry. Therefore, DFM is constantly evolving.
As manufacturing companies evolve and automate more and more stages of the processes, these processes tend to become cheaper. DFM is usually used to reduce these costs. For example, if a process may be done automatically by machines (i.e. SMT component placement and soldering), such process is likely to be cheaper than doing so by hand.
For integrated circuits (IC).
Achieving high-yielding designs, in the state of the art VLSI technology has become an extremely challenging task due to the miniaturization as well as the complexity of leading-edge products. Here, the DFM methodology includes a set of techniques to modify the design of integrated circuits (IC) in order to make them more manufacturable, i.e., to improve their functional yield, parametric yield, or their reliability.
Background.
Traditionally, in the pre-nanometer era, DFM consisted of a set of different methodologies trying to enforce some soft (recommended) design rules regarding the shapes and polygons of the physical layout of an integrated circuit. These DFM methodologies worked primarily at the full chip level. Additionally, worst-case simulations at different levels of abstraction were applied to minimize the impact of process variations on performance and other types of parametric yield loss. All these different types of worst-case simulations were essentially based on a base set of worst-case (or corner) SPICE device parameter files that were intended to represent the variability of transistor performance over the full range of variation in a fabrication process. Additionally, SPICE models should have mismatches built into them for analog circuit simulations. Many mismatches are size and orientation dependent, which can be well modeled. Always "copy exactly" when doing analog layouts as many mismatches are not well understood or controlled (i.e. if one device has North to South current flow, all matched devices should have North to South current flow).
Taxonomy of yield loss mechanisms.
The most important yield loss models (YLMs) for VLSI ICs can be classified into several categories based on their nature.
Techniques.
After understanding the causes of yield loss, the next step is to make the design as resistant as possible. Techniques used for this include:
All of these require a detailed understanding of yield loss mechanisms, since these changes trade off against one another. For example, introducing redundant vias will reduce the chance of via problems, but increase the chance of unwanted shorts. Whether this is good idea, therefore, depends on the details of the yield loss models and the characteristics of the particular design.
For CNC machining.
Objective.
The objective is to design for lower cost. The cost is driven by time, so the design must minimize the time required to not just machine (remove the material), but also the set-up time of the CNC machine, NC programming, fixturing and many other activities that are dependent on the complexity and size of the part.
Set-Up time of operations (flip of the part).
Unless a 4th and/or 5th axis is used, a CNC can only approach the part from a single direction. One side must be machined at a time (called an operation or "op"). Then the part must be flipped from side to side to machine all of the features. The geometry of the features dictates whether the part must be flipped over or not. The more ops (flip of the part), the more expensive the part because it incurs substantial set-up and load/unload time.
Each operation (flip of the part) has set-up time, machine time, time to load/unload tools, time to load/unload parts, and time to create the NC program for each operation. If a part has only 1 operation, then parts only have to be loaded/unloaded once. If it has 5 operations, then load/unload time is significant.
The low hanging fruit is minimizing the number of operations (flip of the part) to create significant savings. For example, it may take only 2 minutes to machine the face of a small part, but it will take an hour to set the machine up to do it. Or, if there are 5 operations at 1.5 hours each, but only 30 minutes total machine time, then 7.5 hours is charged for just 30 minutes of machining.
Lastly, the volume (number of parts to machine) plays a critical role in amortizing the set-up time, programming time and other activities into the cost of the part. In the example above, the part in quantities of 10 could cost 7–10 times the cost in quantities of 100.
Typically, the law of diminishing returns presents itself at volumes of 100–300 because set-up times, custom tooling and fixturing can be amortized into the noise.
Material type.
The most easily machined types of metals include aluminum, brass, and softer metals. As materials get harder, denser and stronger, such as steel, stainless steel, titanium, and exotic alloys, they become much harder to machine and take much longer, thus being less manufacturable. Most types of plastic are easy to machine, although additions of fiberglass or carbon fiber can reduce the machinability. Plastics that are particularly soft and gummy may have machinability problems of their own.
Material form.
Metals come in all forms. In the case of aluminum as an example, bar stock and plate are the two most common forms from which machined parts are made. The size and shape of the component may determine which form of material must be used. It is common for engineering drawings to specify one form over the other. Bar stock is generally close to 1/2 of the cost of plate on a per pound basis. So although the material form isn't directly related to the geometry of the component, cost can be removed at the design stage by specifying the least expensive form of the material.
Tolerances.
A significant contributing factor to the cost of a machined component is the geometric tolerance to which the features must be made. The tighter the tolerance required, the more expensive the component will be to machine. When designing, specify the loosest tolerance that will serve the function of the component. Tolerances must be specified on a feature by feature basis. There are creative ways to engineer components with lower tolerances that still perform as well as ones with higher tolerances.
Design and shape.
As machining is a subtractive process, the time to remove the material is a major factor in determining the machining cost. The volume and shape of the material to be removed as well as how fast the tools can be fed will determine the machining time. When using milling cutters, the strength and stiffness of the tool which is determined in part by the length to diameter ratio of the tool will play the largest role in determining that speed. The shorter the tool is relative to its diameter the faster it can be fed through the material. A ratio of 3:1 (L:D) or under is optimum. If that ratio cannot be achieved, a solution like this depicted here can be used. For holes, the length to diameter ratio of the tools are less critical, but should still be kept under 10:1.
There are many other types of features which are more or less expensive to machine. Generally chamfers cost less to machine than radii on outer horizontal edges. 3D interpolation is used to create radii on edges that are not on the same plane which incur 10X the cost. Undercuts are more expensive to machine. Features that require smaller tools, regardless of L:D ratio, are more expensive.
Design for inspection.
The concept of design for inspection (DFI) should complement and work in collaboration with design for manufacturability (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA) to reduce product manufacturing cost and increase manufacturing practicality. There are instances when this method could cause calendar delays since it consumes many hours of additional work such as the case of the need to prepare for design review presentations and documents. To address this, it is proposed that instead of periodic inspections, organizations could adopt the framework of empowerment, particularly at the stage of product development, wherein the senior management empowers the project leader to evaluate manufacturing processes and outcomes against expectations on product performance, cost, quality and development time. Experts, however, cite the necessity for the DFI because it is crucial in performance and quality control, determining key factors such as product reliability, safety, and life cycles. For an aerospace components company, where inspection is mandatory, there is the requirement for the suitability of the manufacturing process for inspection. Here, a mechanism is adopted such as an inspectability index, which evaluates design proposals. Another example of DFI is the concept of cumulative count of conforming chart (CCC chart), which is applied in inspection and maintenance planning for systems where different types of inspection and maintenance are available.
Design for additive manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing broadens the ability of a designer to optimize the design of a product or part (to save materials for example). Designs tailored for additive manufacturing are sometimes very different from designs tailored for machining or forming manufacturing operations.
In addition, due to some size constraints of additive manufacturing machines, sometimes the related bigger designs are split into smaller sections with self-assembly features or fasteners locators.
A common characteristic of additive manufacturing methods, such as fused deposition modeling, is the need for temporary support structures for overhanging part features. Post-processing removal of these temporary support structures increases the overall cost of fabrication. Parts can be designed for additive manufacturing by eliminating or reducing the need for temporary support structures. This can be done by limiting the angle of overhanging structures to less than the limit of the given additive manufacturing machine, material, and process (for example, less than 70 degrees from vertical).


Shaper

In machining, a shaper is a type of machine tool that uses linear relative motion between the workpiece and a single-point cutting tool to machine a linear toolpath. Its cut is analogous to that of a lathe, except that it is (archetypally) linear instead of helical.
A wood shaper is a functionally different woodworking tool, typically with a powered rotating cutting head and manually fed workpiece, usually known simply as a "shaper" in North America and "spindle moulder" in the UK.
A metalworking shaper is somewhat analogous to a metalworking planer, with the cutter riding a ram that moves relative to a stationary workpiece, rather than the workpiece moving beneath the cutter. The ram is typically actuated by a mechanical crank inside the column, though hydraulically actuated shapers are increasingly used. Adding axes of motion to a shaper can yield helical tool
paths, as also done in helical planing.
Process.
A single-point cutting tool is rigidly held in the tool holder, which is mounted on the ram. The work piece is rigidly held in a vise or clamped directly on the table. The table may be supported at the outer end. The ram reciprocates and the cutting tool, held in the tool holder, moves forwards and backwards over the work piece. In a standard shaper, cutting of material takes place during the forward stroke of the ram and the return stroke remains idle. The return is governed by a quick return mechanism. The depth of the cut increments by moving the workpiece, and the workpiece is fed by a pawl and ratchet mechanism.
Types.
Shapers are mainly classified as standard, draw-cut, horizontal, universal, vertical, geared, crank, hydraulic, contour and traveling head, with a horizontal arrangement most common. Vertical shapers are generally fitted with a rotary table to enable curved surfaces to be machined (same idea as in helical planing). The vertical shaper is essentially the same thing as a slotter (slotting machine), although technically a distinction can be made if one defines a true vertical shaper as a machine whose slide can be moved from the vertical. A slotter is fixed in the vertical plane
Operation.
The workpiece mounts on a rigid, box-shaped table in front of the machine. The height of the table can be adjusted to suit this workpiece, and the table can traverse sideways underneath the reciprocating tool, which is mounted on the ram. Table motion may be controlled manually, but is usually advanced by an automatic feed mechanism acting on the feedscrew. The ram slides back and forth above the work. At the front end of the ram is a vertical tool slide that may be adjusted to either side of the vertical plane along the stroke axis. This tool-slide holds the "clapper box " and tool post, from which the tool can be positioned to cut a straight, flat surface on the top of the workpiece. The tool-slide permits feeding the tool downwards to deepen a cut. This flexibility, coupled with the use of specialized cutters and tool holders, enable the operator to cut internal and external gear teeth.
The ram is adjustable for stroke and, due to the geometry of the linkage, it moves faster on the return (non-cutting) stroke than on the forward, cutting stroke. This return stroke is governed by a quick return mechanism.
Uses.
The most common use is to machine straight, flat surfaces, but with ingenuity and some accessories a wide range of work can be done. Other examples of its use are:
History.
Samuel Bentham developed a shaper between 1791 and 1793. However, Roe (1916) credits James Nasmyth with the invention of the shaper in 1836. Shapers were very common in industrial production from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th. In current industrial practice, shapers have been largely superseded by other machine tools (especially of the CNC type), including milling machines, grinding machines, and broaching machines. But the basic function of a shaper is still sound; tooling for them is minimal and very cheap to reproduce; and they are simple and robust in construction, making their repair and upkeep easily achievable. Thus they are still popular in many machine shops, from jobbing shops or repair shops to tool and die shops, where only one or a few pieces are required to be produced and the alternative methods are cost- or tooling-intensive. They also have considerable retro appeal to many hobbyist machinists, who are happy to obtain a used shaper or, in some cases, even to build a new one from scratch.