Before outlays of hundreds of thousands of dollars are made towards building an SMT line, it is always a smart practice to simulate the productivity of the system so that returns on investment can be analyzed. Stochastic process simulation tools are widely used for such modeling with tremendous flexibility. In fact, animated simulations of the proposed production lines are a tremendous capability of these packages. While the authors do favor the use of these tools, it is important to realize that, in some instances, they may offer much more analysis power than is needed. This situation is especially true for the small-to-mid-sized contract manufacturer that cannot justify the substantial cost (in terms of purchasing and training) of these simulation packages. Therefore, one logical question can be raised, "Is it possible to model SMT lines without these types of tools?" We determined that the answer to this question is yes. As a result, we de 'eloped a Microsoft Excel based software program that is able to model a wide variety of SMT assembly lines when applied. It also instantly generates the simulation results, whereas the running of some simulations in the more versatile packages may take hours. We have compared the throughput results from this type of tool to those from one of the sophisticated process simulation tools with favorable results. This paper reviews the development of this new software tool and discusses the analysis of an SMT line with it.
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