FPC flexible printed circuit board industry characteristics

Ⅰ. Flexible printed circuit board industry (hereinafter commonly referred to as the FPC industry), all belong to the order and then organize the production of business form enterprises, known as order-based production enterprises. Its production characteristics are designed by customers after the product's wiring diagram, to the printed circuit board companies OEM production. With a variety of orders, a limited number of orders, orders only when needed, strict quality requirements, short delivery cycle and other characteristics. Companies must not only pay attention to and develop processing technology, but also work closely with customer designers to achieve design/engineering integration. In addition, the choice of materials, process control, process parameters, processing methods, and product standards vary depending on the product design requirements. Managers need to integrate the application of materials, equipment, and processes to achieve printed board product processing and ensure that the products fully meet the circuit design and boxing requirements.

Ⅱ. FPC manufacturing is a knowledge- and technology-intensive industry with high technological content, which is more closely integrated with information technology. In today's FPC industry, information technology is the main tool, knowledge is a strategic asset, the awareness of enterprise informatization is getting stronger and stronger, and building an enterprise resource planning information management system is the way to challenge survival. Among the production characteristics of the FPC flexible circuit board industry emphasizes the integration with the downstream assembly process, which will also have unique requirements for MRP.

Specific needs of ERP system for flexible printed circuit board companies

FPC industry product characteristics: FPC industry has a wide range of products. In the industry customer base, each customer product will have different product requirements, such as size, number of layers, material, thickness, product control, quality certification, etc. There may even be a customer specifically designated a brand of substrate, ink, etc., and rarely will there be a shared product situation. This makes FPC have some special management requirements in terms of products in addition to the regular demand for ERP products.

Cycle Code Management Requirements

Based on the characteristics of FPC product quality management, companies will record the production batches of products through cycle codes. And the cycle code affects the whole process from the production arrangement to the purchase of cycle code printing stencil to the storage of finished products. So whether the cycle code management is effective or not directly affects whether the production chain of FPC enterprises is reasonable and efficient.

The Need For Unit Conversion

As the main raw materials for FPC industry are substrate, copper foil, fiber, etc., the substrate and copper foil are fed in sheets with different brands, sizes, thicknesses and other parameters. After the material is opened and cut, it will be run in the dual measurement unit of Panel and Pcs, and it may be put into storage and shipped in the way of single or set of panels respectively until the production is finished. Therefore, the conversion from Sheet, to Panel, to Pcs, and to Set is a very important item for production management.

Production business characteristics:

FPC industry often appear "more do not want, less do not accept, the next time do not use" orders, so the correct assessment of the number of production and the number of open sheets is very important.

Production card management requirements:

● Specify the number of cards to be produced in production batches and the corresponding flow card numbers.

● Printed process flow card with flow card number and process number.

● The number of completed processes and the corresponding card numbers can be reported at the same time when reporting.

● Engineering change requirement: FPC industry is a kind of OEM industry, the design of the product is changed very frequently and the version is changed frequently. Once the customer changes the version, the manufacturing instructions and process flow cards must also be changed, and there may even be a situation where part of the product is changed and part is not. When there are multiple versions of a product put into production on site, ERP software must be able to assist in controlling: the new version must not enter the site until the old version leaves the site, in order to avoid the old and new versions appearing in a process at the same time leading to a mixed board situation.

● Alternative material management requirements: In the FPC industry production planning and management business, the components used in the product need to be conditionally substituted for each other, the use of alternative materials can be fully used, especially in the planning stage and production stage so that the planners can balance the use of the main and alternative materials according to the material substitution relationship, thus reducing inventory, the specific requirements of alternative material management points are as follows.

● Ability to set material primary and alternative materials in the product BOM.

● Automatic calculation of material requirements by major component system when the master plan is running.

● The ability to change the use of components according to the inventory when placing production orders:The mold and jig used in the production of FPC products are as diverse as the products. In addition to the regular management requirements of purchasing, inventory, receiving and scrapping, it is also necessary to manage the number of uses (life), production capacity, maintenance, etc. These management information need to be reflected in the ERP system.

Cost business characteristics

The cost calculation of FPC industry is the most special and complicated among all industries. From material opening, pressing, forming, to FQC, packaging and warehousing, it is necessary to make step-by-step accounting according to the material cost, labor cost and manufacturing cost invested in each process, and then accumulate the cost in batches according to the order product number. And the standard rate of the process will be different for different types of products. In addition, for some products such as blind buried hole plate, sunken gold plate, pressed copper seat plate, because of its process or the special nature of all materials, requires that some special calculation methods must be used for this. The software design must consider the scalability of the calculation model, and the setting of the calculation model will directly affect the calculation and evaluation of WIP costs, finished goods warehouse costs and scrap costs. In addition, the cost calculation of FPC industry has a close relationship with the sales quotation, and the related calculation models can be shared. And the correlation between cost system and quotation system must also be reflected in the ERP software.

Industry-based ERP information solutions

ERP systems have been widely used all over the world. Many companies have benefited from information technology updates more than once or twice. Companies have invested in the redesign and development, integration and acceleration of ERP systems in order to improve business performance. If we visit the websites of ERP vendors, you will always find that the ERP systems they offer are always designed for a certain "industry". The reason for this is that the differences between industries require their software vendors to create a vertical solution that works for them. Microsoft and its business partners are constantly working to develop ERP solutions tailored to the specific needs of these industries, and the following describes how ERP solutions for the FPC industry meet the unique needs of the FPC industry and how they successfully support their business.

Microsoft ERP General Process OverviewThe main features of ERP solutions for FPC industry

I. Product Data Management

● Let more departments and positions use the ERP system to store and use product data information.

● The system will automatically and flexibly generate product cycle codes according to the cycle code settings in the product master file to achieve accurate management and quality tracking of the shelf life of finished goods inventory.

● More in line with the needs of business management practices.

● More convenient and effective solution to the substitution problem.

II. Production Management

• Production card management: According to the characteristics of FPC, the sales order is divided into smaller production units by card to realize the card management of production site.

• Each product can set the number of cards, the number of cards per card, the number of cards produced per day, and the number of days for each production run, so as to precisely coordinate the sales, production, and material procurement quantities.

• Production reporting management: The production process of an FPC product includes not only the production of the product itself, but also the production of its pre-production auxiliary products, such as copper foil and cover film, which would not be able to be understood at a glance by the production, planning and warehouse departments if the production orders were split into several sub-production orders according to the common ERP system. Therefore, the solution provides the method of "production process order" control, which can contain several process orders under one production order, such as "top layer protection film process order", "reinforcement process order ", "Adhesive paper production flow sheet", etc. The production of various semi-finished and finished products can be carried out according to the flow sheet, which reduces the steps of the production reporting process and greatly simplifies the cost accounting process.

• Outsourcing management: A large number of production management in FPC industry involves outsourcing processing business, which is a comprehensive business including production, procurement and inventory. The solution provides a platform for comprehensive management of business data, which is convenient for users to manage outsourcing materials, processing costs, costs and reconciliation.

• Mold management: The FPC solution realizes the specific requirements of mold management in the FPC industry. The system provides the management of mold planning and procurement process, application process, receiving process, consumption and mold life management process, and scrapping process.

Ⅲ. Quality Management

Quality management and control is a very important aspect of the manufacturing process in the FPC industry, where a lot of testing needs to be done before a raw material is warehoused, during the production process and before the product is shipped. This is why the quality management of the FPC industry solution is integrated with the whole manufacturing process. the FPC solution is based on the Dynamics AX standard quality control and quality management functions, combined with the industry characteristics, to develop quality AQL sampling and judging criteria, through the system automation to generate the sampling quantity under the AQL standard. According to the final unqualified quantity to determine whether the AQL acceptance standard is met, the system will give the inspection judgment result of this batch.

IV: Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)

FPC manufacturers use VMI for certain frequently supplied materials in consensus with suppliers to determine the quantity to be purchased based on the actual usage.

In the FPC solution, when the master plan run is completed, the system will generate both the orders transferred from the supplier warehouse to the master warehouse and the purchase orders to the supplier warehouse. When the warehouse acknowledges the planned transfer order between the supplier warehouse to the master warehouse, the system will automatically deduct the quantity in stock in the supplier warehouse and automatically create a purchase line and execute the receipt at the same time. Each billing period (e.g. monthly) is done once for the same supplier to supplier.

V. Cost Management

Financial business integration

Pre-defined posting rules and inventory valuation methods for material categories are automatically generated by the business system as vouchers. And at the end of each month, the manufacturing costs incurred can be apportioned to the production costs according to various rules.

Cost retrospective adjustment

In case of discrepancies between purchase invoices and purchase account estimates, retroactive adjustments can be made to raw materials, semi-finished products, finished goods or cost of sales to meet the requirements of listed companies for retroactive cost adjustments, while accurately calculating the actual cost of production.

Precise cost accounting

Realize different allocation schemes of manufacturing cost and direct labor for different processes according to their production characteristics, including area allocation scheme, sheet allocation scheme, work hour allocation scheme and piecework wage scheme, etc.

The main features of ERP solutions for FPC industry

I. Product Data Management

● Let more departments and positions use the ERP system to store and use product data information.

● The system will automatically and flexibly generate product cycle codes according to the cycle code settings in the product master file to achieve accurate management and quality tracking of the shelf life of finished goods inventory.

● More in line with the needs of business management practices.

● More convenient and effective solution to the substitution problem.

II. Production Management

● Production card management: According to the characteristics of FPC, the sales order is divided into smaller production units by card to realize the card management of production site.

● Each product can set the number of cards, the number of cards per card, the number of cards produced per day, and the number of days for each production run, so as to precisely coordinate the sales, production, and material procurement quantities.

● Production reporting management: The production process of an FPC product includes not only the production of the product itself, but also the production of its pre-production auxiliary products, such as copper foil and cover film, which would not be able to be understood at a glance by the production, planning and warehouse departments if the production orders were split into several sub-production orders according to the common ERP system. Therefore, the solution provides the method of "production process order" control, which can contain several process orders under one production order, such as "top layer protection film process order", "reinforcement process order ", "Adhesive paper production flow sheet", etc. The production of various semi-finished and finished products can be carried out according to the flow sheet, which reduces the steps of the production reporting process and greatly simplifies the cost accounting process.

● Outsourcing management: A large number of production management in FPC industry involves outsourcing processing business, which is a comprehensive business including production, procurement and inventory. The solution provides a platform for comprehensive management of business data, which is convenient for users to manage outsourcing materials, processing costs, costs and reconciliation.

● Mold management: The FPC solution realizes the specific requirements of mold management in the FPC industry. The system provides the management of mold planning and procurement process, application process, receiving process, consumption and mold life management process, and scrapping process.

Ⅲ. Quality Management

Quality management and control is a very important aspect of the manufacturing process in the FPC industry, where a lot of testing needs to be done before a raw material is warehoused, during the production process and before the product is shipped. This is why the quality management of the FPC industry solution is integrated with the whole manufacturing process. the FPC solution is based on the Dynamics AX standard quality control and quality management functions, combined with the industry characteristics, to develop quality AQL sampling and judging criteria, through the system automation to generate the sampling quantity under the AQL standard. According to the final unqualified quantity to determine whether the AQL acceptance standard is met, the system will give the inspection judgment result of this batch.

IV: Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)

FPC manufacturers use VMI for certain frequently supplied materials in consensus with suppliers to determine the quantity to be purchased based on the actual usage.

In the FPC solution, when the master plan run is completed, the system will generate both the orders transferred from the supplier warehouse to the master warehouse and the purchase orders to the supplier warehouse. When the warehouse acknowledges the planned transfer order between the supplier warehouse to the master warehouse, the system will automatically deduct the quantity in stock in the supplier warehouse and automatically create a purchase line and execute the receipt at the same time. Each billing period (e.g. monthly) is done once for the same supplier to supplier.

V. Cost Management

Financial business integration

Pre-defined posting rules and inventory valuation methods for material categories are automatically generated by the business system as vouchers. And at the end of each month, the manufacturing costs incurred can be apportioned to the production costs according to various rules.

Cost retrospective adjustment

In case of discrepancies between purchase invoices and purchase account estimates, retroactive adjustments can be made to raw materials, semi-finished products, finished goods or cost of sales to meet the requirements of listed companies for retroactive cost adjustments, while accurately calculating the actual cost of production.

Precise cost accounting

Realize different allocation schemes of manufacturing cost and direct labor for different processes according to their production characteristics, including area allocation scheme, sheet allocation scheme, work hour allocation scheme and piecework wage scheme, etc.

Microsoft ERP Overall Advantage & Platform Advantage

The FPC vertical solution is built on Microsoft Dynamics AX, a modern ERP that represents the highest level of information technology and business management. The in-depth development of industry-specific features and the integration of standard Dynamics AX business logic make the implementation of ERP systems in the FPC industry easier and have a very high success rate.

Microsoft ERP system - Dynamics AX works in a similar way to other Microsoft products you are familiar with and can work with these products to seamlessly integrate with OFFICE, SHAREPOINT, BI, etc.

● Comprehensive business management solutions, including finance, distribution, production management, customer relationship management, project costing, HR, e-commerce.

● Strict permission setting and approval process to ensure the security and stability of information. Powerful reporting tools are provided to give strong support to management decision making.

● Advanced workflow and information communication platform to ensure smooth internal information communication and improve order following efficiency.

● Complete open source code