Estimating tools to support multi-path agility in electronics manufacturing

Electronics manufacturing will increasingly require shorter cycle times for product development and manufacturing, lower volumes of identical items, increased customization, higher quality, and closer coupling among suppliers, customers and manufacturers. This trend is being driven by the demands of the global marketplace as customers demand newer, more compact, lower cost, and higher quality products in shorter concept-to-market intervals. This increased emphasis on achieving highly adaptive manufacturing to reduce manufacturing costs and to better utilize US manufacturing capacity over the future horizon has led to a critical focus on agile manufacturing as a strategy to achieve these goals. Methods for estimating production cost in different environments (along with a conceptual extension to cycle time) that exist in present day systems are discussed.