Original Date: 10/10/2005
Revision Date: / /

(equipment: Intermec Vista 1800 Programmable Handheld Bar Code Reader)
The process of data entry at Raytheon Integrated Air Defense Center at Andover uses bar codes to cut cycle times in high-volume manufacturing areas. The Integrated Technology Team has successfully integrated bar coding with the Shop Floor Data Management system.

Data entry into the Shop Floor Data Management (SFDM) system previously involved manually typing the primary part number and its serial number as the Shop Floor Control (SFC) tracking number – a tedious and error-prone process. To improve the process, the IT Team at Raytheon’s Andover facility introduced programmable bar code readers and program codes to prefix part numbers to their serial number on scans where used.

This new process has been deployed to three manufacturing areas – surface radar final assembly, circuit card assembly (CCA) high-volume lines, and conformal coating high-volume lines. One of the major problems at the surface radar final assembly line has been the maintenance of serial numbers and reference designator data in SFDM for more than 3,000 serialized boards. To resolve this issue, a wireless data matrix bar code imager (Code Reader 2.0) is used to capture the SFC’s consumed and reference designators. Using this scanner, the operator captures the data directly into SFDM. Another issue was that at the CCA high volume lines, circuit cards were labeled with a bar-coded serial number only. This has been resolved with the use of a programmable bar code reader (Intermec Vista 1800) along with program codes to prefix the part number to the serial number on scans where operators scan the part number of the circuit card to program the prefix, then scan the serial number from the card. The system appends these two numbers to create an SFC number. The Intermec Vista 1800 bar code reader is also used at the conformal coating high-volume lines to create an SFC number, display it in the task list window in SFDM, and start the job.

The benefits of the bar code reader include the elimination of any operator key strokes to start the operation in SFDM; the elimination of record-keeping errors; an improved work environment for assemblers; a reduced cycle time from 3 minutes per component to under 1 minute in the surface radar final assembly; an increase in the circuit card assembly (CCA) high-volume lines to more than 80 per day; and an increase in the cycle time in conformal coating high-volume lines from 30 boards per hour to more than 90 boards per hour.

With documented improvements in the assembly lines and positive feedback from operators, the IT Team plans to improve and expand the use of bar code readers in the SFDM system to read the part number serial number directly into SFDM.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.