Run the SMT line, the ageing room and the carton count from one record per model.

A consumer electronic product is sold by the carton and judged by the return rate, often by a buyer who has never seen the plant and only sees the monthly defect figure. The margin sits in component cost, line yield and the number of units that come back dead on arrival. Each of those figures starts on the shop floor. None starts in the office.

Plants in this trade run a surface mount line, a manual insertion or wave soldering section, a test area and a packing hall. Software connects them with one record per production run. We begin by walking the line with you, from reel store to dispatch bay, noting where each run changes hands.

Planning begins with dealer and brand orders for specific models and colours. The planner checks stock of chips, passive parts, PCBs, plastic housings, cables and packing cartons, then releases a run to the line. Reels come out of the dry store. Solder paste is logged, and the stencil is changed for each board. Moisture-sensitive parts have a floor life that the operator must watch. The clock starts when the bag opens.

After placement and reflow, an automated optical inspection catches misplaced parts. Boards go to a test jig, then to assembly where housings, batteries and cables are fitted. Finished units are aged on racks, tested again and packed into inner and master cartons with a barcode on each. Retail returns arrive later. They carry the date code printed on the cartons that shipped.