Defect Actions#
From SMT Template version 3.2.0 onwards, the "Send to Rework" Defect Action will no longer require flowpath configuration
If no return flowpath is configured in the rework associated to the reason of the "Send to Rework" Defect Action being triggered, it will default back to the material's current flowpath.
Overview#
The Defect Actions feature aims to provide the user with the possibility of defining an action to apply to a material(s) of a given product/product group when it has a particular defect. These Defect Actions can be triggered either at the moment of the recording of the defect, or at the track out operation of the material. The user can manage the defect actions per Product.
Background Information
Defect handling in Surface Mount Technology (SMT) manufacturing is a critical process to ensure the quality and reliability of electronic assemblies. SMT involves mounting electronic components directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards (PCBs), and due to the precision required, defects can occur at various steps of the manufacturing process such as at the pick and place or solder paste processes. These defects can include issues like misalignment of components, soldering problems (e.g., solder bridges, voids), and missing components, among others and are normally detected by equipment or operators at an inspection/test step.
Concept#
When a Material completes the predefined operation (either tracking out or recording a defect), the table SMTDefectActionContext is resolved, and based on that context a Defect Action should be triggered.
The operation that triggers the Defect Action is defined by the Operation attribute. This will match the material's Product with the product from that SmartTable, and will then check all the defined Defect Actions of that specific product.
If multiple Defect Actions match the same context, then a precedence order is used to define what specific Defect Action is run, as only one can be run because of a single defect.
Only one defect action will be triggered per material
The general rule you can apply in most cases, is that for any given material, at most only one defect action will be applied to it. However, there are some exceptions:
- If you have multiple "Send a Notification" defect actions set to execute for a material, all of them will be executed.
- If you have multiple defects that trigger a "Terminate Material" defect action set to execute for a panel without serialized boards, all of them will be executed.
The Operation attribute#
The operation that potentially triggers the Defect Action is defined by the Operation attribute present in the Defect Action wizard. These are the available options:
- TrackOut: The Defect Action will only be triggered when the material is tracked out of its current process.
- RecordMaterialDefect: The Defect Action will be triggered as soon as the defect is registered on the material.
Available Defect Actions#
The table below enumerates the available defect actions and their respective effects, ordered by their precedence:
| Defect Action | Description |
|---|---|
| None | Defines that no defect action should happen to a given material. |
| Terminate Material | Defines that a defective board should be terminated when tracked out. Requires the association of a loss reason. In case of line flows, except if it’s the last line step, the loss reason must be configured at the following step where the terminate is to be executed. Can't be directly applied to a panel without specifying a board as the submaterial ID. |
| Hold | Defines that the defective material should be put on hold when tracked out. (Must be a topmost material) |
| Change Material Quantity (deprecated) | Sets the primary quantity of the defective material to a specified value. |
| Go Back To Step | Defines that the defective material, when tracked out, should go back to a previous step of the same line flow or flow. |
| Send to Rework | Defines that the defective material should be sent to a predefined off-flow. Requires the association of an off-flow reason. In case of line flows, except if it’s the last line step, the off-flow reason must be configured at the following step where the terminate is to be executed. |
| Open Protocol | Opens a protocol instance for the defective material. |
| Send a Notification | Sends a notification regarding the defective material to all users, a group or a specific user. |
Precedence
The higher up a defect action is on the table above, the higher priority it has. The defect action "None" has the highest precedence and will override all the others, for example.
Possible Defect Actions per Material Operation#
There are cases where a given defect action only makes sense to be triggered for a given material operation:
| Operation | Allowed Defect Actions |
|---|---|
| Record Material Defect |
|
| Trackout | All |
Setting up a Defect Action#
Consider the below example where a user wants to define that whenever a PCB (material) from the Product "SMT_Product" has a defect reason "Lack of solder paste" recorded at the SMT_SPI step (2), after being tracked out from the SPI step it should go back to the SMT_Printing step(1) to be reprinted.
Configure the SMTDefectActionContext smart table#
Go to the Administration menu and select Tables.
Select Smart Tables and then select the SMTDefectActionContext table.
Select Add.
Configure the table according to the required context.
Notice how the Product, Flow, Step, Defect Reason and Defect Action were configured to match the required configuration example use case.
Configure the Product Defect Actions#
Go to the Product you want the Defect Action to be configured and select the Defects View.
Select the manage defects button.
Configure the defect action according to your needs. The Action Context section provides you with tools to filter defect actions and gives you more granularity over whether they will be executed or not (you can also do this filtering on the ST SMTDefectActionContext). The Action Details section concerns itself more with the execution details of the defect action:
- Operation: Defines from the available operation when the defect action should be triggered.
- Action: Defect Action to be applied
- Depending on the defect action, more specific settings will show up.
You must configure both the SMTDefectActionContext smart table and the Product Defect Actions!
It's very common to configure only one part of the feature, forget about the other and then wonder why the defect actions aren't working.