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PORTO, Portugal, March 17, 2015 – AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft (AT&S), Europe’s largest printed circuit board manufacturer and one of the market leaders in high-end printed circuit board (PCB) technology, selected Critical Manufacturing for implementation of Critical Manufacturing MES in its new IC Substrate facility in China. AT&S Chongqing Co. Ltd. will gain an integrated system for management of production operations and effective automated information flows to ensure highest possible quality, efficiency, sustainability and customer satisfaction.
“Collecting more data for a complete traceability record is increasingly important. With separate systems, this is very time consuming. To be efficient, we need a higher automation level and without the right partner it’s impossible to achieve our goals”, says Alois Schacherl, MES/AES Project Manager for AT&S Chongqing. “Planning for a new manufacturing facility involves many disciplines and considerations. Everything must come together at the same time, creating tremendous challenges. Together with Critical Manufacturing we have a phase and sprint approach to cover all needs in a very tough time frame.”
AT&S has been growing successfully in the high end PCB market. In order to develop their position as technology leader consistently and to meet the requirements of a state-of-the-art production facility at their new plant in Chongqing AT&S decided to set up a project to select and implement a modern integrated software to manage production operations with maximum efficiency.
Using a structured approach to evaluate an IT system and to model the new production plant, AT&S defined more than 600 high level requirements for MES, Equipment Integration and Automation, Material Handling, Data Analyses and Reporting. Critical Manufacturing was selected from a long list of 16 software providers, after having provided demonstrations, customer visits and a detailed analysis for each possible solution and vendor. The main aspects AT&S rated in selecting Critical Manufacturing were: functionality, state of the art architecture, risk analyses, flexibility and stability.
The project will last for two years and it includes all functions of Critical Manufacturing 4.0 MES, including its new Scheduling feature for optimizing production to meet customer demand.
AT&S is the European market leader and one of the globally leading manufacturers of high-value printed circuit boards. AT&S industrialises leading-edge technologies for its core business segments Mobile Devices, Automotive & Aviation, Industrial Electronics, Medical & Healthcare, and Advanced Packaging. In 2013, AT&S took the next logical step in the high-tech strategy by entering the IC substrate business through a collaboration agreement with a leading global semiconductor manufacturer. As an international growth enterprise, AT&S has a global presence, with production facilities in Austria (Leoben and Fehring) and plants in India (Nanjangud), China (Shanghai, Chongqing under construction) and Korea (Ansan, near Seoul). The company currently employs about 8,000 people. For more information www.ats.net
Critical Manufacturing provides innovative software technology and advanced services that empower operations for some of the most advanced manufacturers worldwide. Its new generation Manufacturing Execution System (MES), built end-to-end on proven Microsoft layers, provides unified flexibility for modeling complex industry requirements, increasing manufacturers’ performance, control and quality. The company is part of the Critical Group, a private group of companies founded in 1998 to provide solutions for mission and business critical information systems.
