E.D.&A. again received the Factory of the Future Award. Every day we prove that manufacturing in Belgium is possible as long as you are willing to invest in people and automation. The jury was extremely impressed.
Over the past year, we have invested heavily in a further automation of our production. In addition to a through-hole placement machine, the first real robot has found its way to our production.
The Omron TM5-900 CoBot is used to relieve our operators of certain pick-and-place operations and other time-consuming, repetitive tasks. In this way we can automate more flexibly.
Our company building in Kalmthout will be doubled in surface area by the end of 2020/early 2021. This is necessary to be able to continue to grow and to create enough space for all our (new) colleagues and machines. At the moment the works are at a standstill due to the annual construction holidays, but everything will start again at the beginning of August.
Our Continuous Improvement Team consisting of operators, manufacturing engineers and production management continues to focus on reducing lead times. The production process was further mapped and the first actions regarding the running times of various machines are already yielding results.
The downside of digitisation and the connection machines and devices to the internet is that they become more vulnerable to cyber attacks and other risks. Cyber security will demand more and more attention from both electronics developers (like us) and machine and appliance constructors (like you) in the coming years. What is E.D.&A.'s role in cybersecurity?
Our electronics manufacturing story began in 2012 with a single SMD line and a small team. Today, we operate a high-tech production environment featuring smart automation, AGVs, MES integration and automated component storage (Essegi). Through continuous investments in digitalization, automation and quality assurance, we have grown into a recognized Factory of the Future. And we are not standing still.
To further optimize our production processes, we invested in two advanced storage cabinets for SMD components. Thanks to integration with our MES system, automated component dispensing and built-in humidity control, we are taking another important step forward. #smartmanufacturing #smartwarehousing
