NEWS
C-MAC Microcircuits Select Cogiscan for Material Control
15 November 2004
C-MAC Microcircuits in Sherbrooke, Quebec has completed the first phase of implementation of the Cogiscan platform for material control. The system offers a completely automated solution providing real-time visibility and control of materials on the production floor.

Alain Breton, Manufacturing Manager at C-MAC Microcircuits : "We feel that this is a very strategic investment for our facility. We must find new ways to reduce our costs while maintaining and even improving the quality of our products. When you consider that the majority of our costs are associated with the materials themselves, it was clear to us that this was the right place to start. Having real-time and accurate inventory of all materials on the production floor and eliminating the waste caused by human errors contribute directly to reducing our material costs and increasing our competitiveness."

The Cogiscan platform consists of a complete set of hardware and software modules that can be configured to provide the optimal level of automation in various manufacturing operations, for any type of material control application.

The first phase of implementation consists of automating the movement of ceramic substrates in the thick film sector. The substrates are handled in special cassettes from one operation to another. The cassettes are fitted with Cogiscan RF tags and the machine loaders/unloaders and conveyors are equipped with RF antennas.
The Cogiscan platform automatically detects the movement of all cassettes and performs various types of validation in the background. The system validates that the product goes through the proper sequence of operations and it also validates that every machine is properly setup at each operation. This setup validation is accomplished by using RF tags on raw materials (jars of paste), tooling (stencils, blades) and by integrating RF antennas inside the machines themselves.

In this highly complex environment, many opportunities for errors are eliminated with a simple and robust solution. The Cogiscan platform is designed in such a way that the current system can easily be expanded in the future to control other types of materials and other sectors of operations.
About Cogiscan Inc.
Cogiscan supplies automated material control solutions to the electronics manufacturing industry. The Cogiscan platform includes a range of specialized data acquisition hardware and software applications. This unique approach allows manufacturers to enjoy the benefits from current and leading edge technologies such as barcode and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The modular system architecture enables seamless integration with legacy and third-party systems, such as ERP, MRP, CIM and MES. Cogiscan customers include many leading top-tier electronics OEM and EMS companies. Sales and customer service affiliates are located throughout the world, including the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
About C-MAC Microcircuits
A division of C-MAC MicroTechnology, a world leader in providing high-performance microcircuit and frequency product solutions. C-MAC Microcircuits encompasses three manufacturing operations designing and producing a wide range of functional modules for use in telecommunications, wireless and automotive systems. Facilities in Sherbrooke in Canada, Great Yarmouth in the UK, and Ronse in Belgium produce thick-film substrates, surface-mount hybrid circuits, direct chip-attach flipchip and Power conversion modules.