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IPC, NEMI Team to Standardize Factory Floor and Supply Chain Communications
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Herndon, VA · September 7, 1999 · IPC · Association Connecting Electronics Industries and the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) today announced their collaboration on a new suite of standards for communicating on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain.
Under the arrangement, IPC will publish two series of standards: IPC-2540, for factory floor communication, and IPC-2570, for supply chain communication. Members of projects within NEMI’s Factory Information Systems (FIS) Technology Implementation Group (TIG) will collaborate with IPC to spearhead the work, which will follow the rules of the IPC standardization process.
The supply chain standards will aid OEMs, electronic manufacturing service (EMS) providers and component suppliers in describing components and materials. The factory floor standards will standardize the language used by assembly placement and test equipment.
The new standards will be based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), which encodes data into a format that is both human and machine-readable, accommodating their use over the World Wide Web. GenCAM, the industry standard for electronic data transfer, will be used to describe the printed circuit board.
Working titles for the factory floor communication standards are:
- IPC-2541: Generic Requirements for Electronic Manufacturing Shop Floor Equipment Communication
- IPC-2546: Sectional Requirements for Shop Floor Electronic Assembly Equipment Communication
- IPC-2547: Sectional Requirements for Shop Floor Electronic Inspection and Test Equipment Communication
Working titles for the supply chain management standards are:
- IPC-2571: Generic Requirements for Product Definition Exchange (PDX)
- IPC-2572: Sectional Requirements for Quoting Data Exchange (PDX)
- IPC-2578: Sectional Requirements for Bill of Material Data Exchange (PDX)
"The creation of information exchange standards is fundamental in adapting to today's environment of increased reliance on EMS providers," said John Cartwright of Intel, co-chair of the NEMI FIS TIG. "Interoperability on the factory floor as well as among manufacturing partners is critical to the agility that today’s market requires to remain competitive. IPC is the logical standards organization for ratifying the standards that the two NEMI projects have generated. We are working closely with IPC to ensure that the proposed standards are ratified and disseminated into industry as quickly as possible."
Dieter Bergman, IPC director of technology transfer, said, "Since GenCAM defines the product, these new standards are the next step to move product information intelligently into the infrastructure."
For more information, see the IPC GenCAM Web site (www.gencam.org), or the IPC web standards site (http://webstds.ipc.org), or contact Bergman (bergdi@ipc.org) or Jeanne Cooney at (coonje@ipc.org) at IPC.
About NEMI’s Factory Information Systems TIG
The NEMI Factory Information Systems Technical Implementation Group has initiated two projects to define standards that support information exchange partnerships across the manufacturing supply web: the Plug & Play Factory Project and the Virtual Factory Information Interchange Project (VFIIP). The Plug & Play project has generated three draft IPC standards to facilitate interoperability among hardware and software components used in the manufacturing process. Based on XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), these proposed standards provide a common interface among all the hardware components on a PCB manufacturing line. The standards allow data to be collected from all machines · regardless of vendor or geographic location · and displayed inside a web browser.
The NEMI Virtual Factory Information Interchange Project extends the reach of interoperability from within an enterprise to information systems distributed across business partners (the supply chain). VFIIP will spur the development of standards not previously needed when manufacturers performed most functions in-house, and will validate and recommend standards and processes which promise efficiency gains for the electronics industry.
About NEMI
The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative was formed in November 1994 to facilitate long-term North American leadership in electronics. The industry-led consortium is made up of more than 50 electronics equipment manufacturers, suppliers, associations, government agencies and universities. NEMI’s members represent a combined total of more than $200 billion in 1998 revenues and employ more than 1.25 million people.
NEMI roadmaps the needs of the North American electronics industry, identifies gaps in the technology infrastructure, establishes implementation projects to eliminate these gaps, and stimulates standards activities to speed the introduction of new technologies. The consortium also works with government, universities and other funding agencies to set priorities for future industry needs and R&D initiatives.
About IPC
IPC is a US-based trade association dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its nearly 2,600 member companies which represent all facets of the electronic interconnection industry, including design, printed wiring board manufacturing and electronics assembly. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of a $33 billion US industry employing more than 330,000 people.
For further information, contact:
Cynthia Williams
207-871-1260
cwilliams@nemi.org
Dan Green
IPC
847-790-5371
dangreen@ipc.org