Success story in driving quality enhancements in the indirect materials used in assembly/test electronic packaging manufacturing

Abstract

Summary form only given. Materials used in the electronic packaging industry are generally categorizes as Direct and Indirect materials. Direct materials would constitute items like substrates, underfill, thermal lids, fluxes, solder materials. On the other hand, indirect materials category would include items such as metal carriers, plastic injection molded trays used to transport the electronic components during across the Assembly & test processes, thermoformed trays , JEDEC trays, carrier tapes & reels used for shipping finished components to the customers. Stencils used for printing fluxes and paste during Chip Attach, Capacitor Attach or Ball Attach processes, packing material such as corrugated boxes, shims, strapping bands, moisture barrier bags, desiccant are also included in this category. This paper will provide a brief introduction to the different types of indirect materials and their use in the manufacturing processes from die preparation all the way to assembly, test, finish and packing. Several key materials & quality characteristics which are critical to ensure these indirect materials functions as required will also be discussed eg. How the selection of an appropriate material to provide robustness through transportation and handling?. This will then lead to discussion on why we need to drive enhancements in the indirect material manufacturing industry. In its essence, the indirect material manufacturing industry in the beginning rarely employed more sophisticated quality management systems. The industry would also consider Pass/Fail type of requirements as an outgoing monitor. This was clearly inadequate in order to meet the process window tightening in Assembly/Test/Finish to meet the required One Generation Ahead drive and also to support increased manufacturing yield targets. Initially met with resistance, the team had to breakthrough barriers in mindset in this industry to move beyond a pass/fail requirements towards more stringent methodologies like Process Capability, Statistical Process Control, material and process characterization which have been already widely used in the direct material world. One of the tools used to breakthrough the mindset was the employment of the Quality Operating System, widely referred to as QOS. It is how quality is ensured at Intel and it was time to proliferate this to the suppliers in the indirect materials industry. QOS provides a framework for ensuring predictable and consistent product quality and covers several areas from supplier selection to development, qualification, process control & issue management right up to supplier continuous quality improvements. Within each of this areas, there are sub-areas such as supplier change control management, supplier material disposition management, QOS health assessments, etc. One critical task that had to be accomplished was to show how all this quality systems enhancements would also benefit the indirect material suppliers from a business results standpoint. This was accomplished by showing potential for increased customer satisfaction, reduction of number of issues hence reducing loss of revenue and improving financial bottom lines, etc. This total package was employed in stages across the indirect material supplier base and had managed to drive a change in quality culture and mindset in the industry which had benefited both the suppliers, customers and the whole eco-system in general. This paper will also describe further enhancement on-going towards QOS+ where quality is bring promoted beyond a customer expectation towards becoming a value, a choice vs. compliance and further change in mindset that all problems can be anticipated and prevented.