ON THE SELECTION OF A PRINTED-CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY-LINE SYSTEM

As in most arenas, the electronics manufacturing industry is facing high competition in today's world market. One of the most significant decisions a printed circuit (PCB) manufacturer has to make in order to remain competitive is the selection of the best (in terms of operating cost and production performance) assembly line configuration on which to produce its PCBs from among a set of alternatives. On the other hand, distributors of printed circuit board assembly line systems have the task of providing the different assembly line configuration alternatives for selection to their electronics manufacturing customers. This paper is concerned with the integration of various software packages into a decision support system which is being used to aid a manufacturer of PCB assembly line systems in proposing alternative configurations to its potential customers.