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A survey of rework practices of the UK electronics assembly industry has been undertaken. Rework of electronics components in the UK was found to be dominated by the use of soldering irons. Many companies did not control tip temperatures, rework times, background heating or the number of rework operations which could be undertaken on any one component. Few companies followed the recommendations of the component manufacturers aimed at preventing damage to thermally sensitive components. It was found that those companies which did control rework temperatures, did reduce rework temperatures for surface mount components. In general, rework temperatures were much higher than those recommended by the component manufacturers. A great deal of cleaning was undertaken after rework, with most companies doing some form of local cleaning. Most companies reused components even if only on an occasional basis.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the developed systematic mechanical design methodologies, that are obtained in part I, to investigate their success in designing mechanics of a flexible printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) rework cell.

The decision of soldering and desoldering tool, which is the most critical function of a PCBA rework or remanufacturing cell, significantly influences overall design concept. Therefore, the paper starts by applying the design methodology to the soldering and desoldering function. The same study is repeated for the rest of the sub‐functions but only the results are provided.

An application of rework machine design methodology for the design of a PCBA rework cell has been made available. In addition to this, the embedded knowledge, such as the requirements list, the function structure, the function/means tree, the weighted objective tree and evaluation chart for the soldering and desoldering function are provided.

The paper is the first work providing both embedded knowledge and the application of the systematic design methodology for the design of a fully automated flexible PCBA rework cell. The methodology leads rework machine designers in a well‐controlled and structured design environment.

The design methodology can be applied to all functions or targeted on key weighted areas to ensure that the designed rework machine meets the key areas of concerns. Furthermore, the methodology is generic and may be used to develop other complex manufacturing sytems.

The generic design environment for a flexible printed‐circuit board assemblies (PCBA) remanufacturing cell contains four interrelated complex design domains. Mechanical design domains are really complex and the use of well‐proven mechanical product design methodologies does not help the designer. Hence, this paper aims to develop a generic systematic design methodology for a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell.

The study investigates the use of conventional mechanical product design techniques for the design of a flexible PCBA rework (remanufacturing) cell. It indicates problems and the weaknesses when conventional product design techniques are used for the development of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). It then provides a new systematic mechanical design methodology for designing a flexible PCBA rework (remanufacturing) cell. The design methodology is intended to be generic in order to apply successfully to any FMS design.

Conventional product design methodology cannot be used directly for the design of a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell. Hence, two design methodologies were developed: the generic FMS mechanical design methodology and a specific FMS design methodology for a PCBA rework cell. The first one was developed based on the tasks of the conventional product design process integrated with new design tools. The generic design methodology was then extended to obtain the second methodology for a PCBA rework cell design. Both of the methodologies were applied to a flexible PCBA rework cell design problem. Both design methodologies eliminated unusable design solutions at the early design stages of the conceptual design process and made the design process easier.

The generic and specific design methodologies provide a better design environment, even for less specialized FMS designers.

The design methodologies may help for the commercialization of a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell that may be used for SM rework and assembly.

Although rework is labour intensive and conflicts with most modern manufacturing/assembly philosophies, realistic defect levels in surface mount technology (SMT) printed circuit board (PCB) assembly render rework indispensable on the shop floor. Most commercially available rework tools are manual or require very skilled operators for their efficient operation. The challenges of automating SMD rework are significant because the tools, their specifications and rework processes required are not fully understood, and the impact of rework processes on assembly quality and reliability are hotly debated. This paper describes an automated robotic rework cell for SMD and TH boards, and the method used for process characterisation of the solder paste dispensing system. The paper also describes equipment selection, the integration and interfacing of the dispensing equipment to the cell controller and the process characterisation experiments.

The purpose of this study is to formulate two multi-product single-machine economic production quantity (EPQ) models by considering imperfect products. Two policies are assumed to deal with imperfect products: selling them at discount and applying a reworking process.

A screening process is used to identify imperfect items during and after production. Selling the imperfect items at a discount is examined in the first model and the reworking policy in the second model. In both models, demand during the production process is satisfied only by perfect items. Data collected from a case company are used to illustrate the performance of the two models. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is carried out by varying the most important parameters of the models.

The case study in this research is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed models, i.e. the EPQ model with salvaging and reworking imperfect items. The models are applied to a high-tech un-plasticized polyvinyl chloride (UPVC) doors and windows manufacturer that produces different types of doors and windows. ROGAWIN Co. is a privately owned company that started in 2001 with fully automatic production lines. Finally, the results of applying the different ways of handling the imperfect items are discussed, along with managerial insights.

In real-world production systems, manufacturing imperfect products is unavoidable. That is why, it is important to make a proper decision about imperfect products to reduce overall production costs. Recently, applying a reworking strategy has gained the most interest when it comes to handling this problem. The principal idea of this research is to maximize the total profit of manufacturing systems by optimizing the period length under some capacity constraints. The proposed models were applied to a company of manufacturing UPVC doors and windows.

To design a flexible integrated robotic assembly and rework (remanufacturing) cell for assembly, selective assembly and rework of advanced surface mount components (SMCs) using the generic methodology developed in this paper.

Manual rework procedures are investigated for all advanced SMCs. General and specific component‐related rework considerations are obtained and necessary tooling candidates for automation are determined. This is followed by determination of the specific automated rework procedure and selection of suitable tooling for automated robotic rework and generation and evaluation of design concepts.

The developed methodology, which considers the reflow tool at the centre of the development process, has worked well in designing a flexible integrated robotic assembly and rework cell.

This study identified the rework requirements for advanced SMCs, the essential features for rework reflow tools, criteria for comparing reflow tools, and a generic procedure for design and concept selection.

It provides valuable knowledge for designers of flexible integrated robotic assembly and rework cells for assembly, selective assembly and rework of advanced SMCs.

This paper is a chapter from David Boswell's latest book entitled ‘Setting Up In‐house Surface Mount Technology: Practical Management and Technical Guidelines’, published by Electrochemical Publications Ltd. It has been seen that failure to afford suitable training before starting a surface mount technology project can lead to mistakes in equipment selection, product design or process control, any of which can bring reliability problems and severe financial penalties. This text focuses on the needs of the workforce teams in all departments of a typical manufacturing company, beginning with the managing director (the person most in need of training before the event, but usually the least aware of it) and working down through each main management level to the production line and quality staff. Vital training subject headings are reviewed for senior and middle management in each of the design, procurement and stores, production engineering and factory services, manufacturing, quality, sales and accounts departments — all of which are affected. Both subject matter and timescales covering typical needs for production technicians and assembly operators are given in greater detail so that initial and ongoing training costs can be estimated.

In this paper, the authors aim to contend that the 4Ps of social marketing have been stretched beyond breaking point. Originally designed for social marketing mixes that contained products and prices, the social marketing 4Ps are no longer fit for purpose in an age where social marketing interventions are so wide ranging. There is an urgent need for a replacement – a model that helps social marketers with the process of choosing an appropriate intervention design to fit the particular behaviour change problem faced. Here, the authors propose a model, the COM-SM framework, that connects social marketing programme types with the “capability, opportunity, motivation” model of behaviour.

This article is based on critical review of the efficacy of the 4Ps model in helping managers design social marketing programmes, followed by the conceptual development of an alternative.

Using some typical scenarios, it is contended that the COM-SM model better enables the marketer to adapt their designs to fit the behavioural challenges that they face.

The COM-SM model reworks the association between behaviour change insights and the social marketing mix, proposing a new way of designing social marketing interventions.

This year's Internepcon Production Exhibition and Conference (22–24 March 1988, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham) promises to be the biggest ever in the event's twenty‐one year history and will host a number of special new features.

Design for manufacture and testability seems to be a very hot topic. This seminar organised by Bob Willis was over‐subscribed within the first two weeks of announcement, and the standby places were already sufficient to warrant a repeat seminar during September. This will be held in Chelmsford on 9 September.