PCB Tech - How to ensure delivery of FPC flexible circuit boards

The processing materials, process flow, process parameters, inspection methods, quality requirements, etc. of FPC flexible circuit board products will all issue processing instructions to the production department and outsourcing units through the preparation of production instructions (MI).

Text label: FPC, flexible circuit board

The delivery cycle of FPC flexible circuit boards requires production management to control the entire production process from order placement to production completion. This requires the ERP system to provide production scheduling planning and work-in-progress management to ensure production delivery and customer response speed. It is generally distinguished by the number of layers, such as single-sided, double-sided, and four-layered boards. The processing materials, process flow, process parameters, inspection methods, quality requirements, etc. of FPC flexible circuit board products will all issue processing instructions to the production department and outsourcing units through the preparation of production instructions (MI).

For products with four-layer boards and below, the process flow is relatively simple, and the production process card can be completed from the beginning to the end, and there is no need to change the process or replace the process card in the middle. As for the blind and buried vias products with more than six-layer boards, because different inner and outer layers have different circuit diagrams, process flow or process parameters, and use different molds, film and other auxiliary equipment, different productions are required. Instructions and related documents will also produce different production process cards during the production process to control the manufacturing process and quantity of different inner and outer layers.

In the production process, the multilayer board will have different inner codes, which must be distinguished by different codes during the production process, and different production process cards are used to control the production progress. The FPC flexible circuit board is the transfer and handover of auxiliary products through the production of batch cards (LotCard), commonly known as the number of passes. Due to the large number of online products and the complicated models, it requires simple, fast, and fault-tolerant operations for counting operations, scrapping operations, and repairing operations. During the implementation process, I deeply felt that general-purpose ERP products were basically unable to deal with the business of separate encoding, separate over-numbering, separate scrapping, and separate replenishment of the inner and outer layers.

Generally speaking, the more detailed the production operation plan, the richer and more valuable the information it gives, and the more difficult it is to calculate it accordingly. The rougher the production plan, the less information and the lower the value. The process flow involved in FPC is often more complicated. The engineering data and MI production of a complex FPC multilayer board often takes a long time to complete, and the delivery time required by customers is often very tight.

Finally, the FPC flexible circuit board industry is a kind of foundry industry, and the design changes of FPC products are very frequent, and the version is often changed. Once the customer changes the version, the manufacturing instructions and process flow cards must also be changed, and there may even be some changes and some no changes.