Valor DFM solution achieves shortened time-to-market for CMK Corporation in Japan

CMK Corporation, Japan's largest PCB manufacturer, specializes in the development, production and marketing of PCBs and electronics devices for consumer and industrial applications, and continues to meet the demanding manufacturing requirements for many PCB designs, from single/double-side PCBs to high density build-up boards.

CMK Circuit Technology Center Corporation is a member company of the CMK Group and is the PCB design services bureau responsible for the group's manufacturing technology. Last year, the company started upon a path to differentiate itself from other design bureaus. Mr. Sugita, managing director at the CMK Circuit Technology Center Corporation, was focused on implementing an improved DFM analysis process and achieving a shorter overall delivery time from design and test to manufacturing.

For DFM analysis, the company purchased Valor's Enterprise 3000 system, a proven solution among OEMs and PCB designers. In parallel, the company also conducted an evaluation of its existing data flow in order to address the second challenge - shorter delivery time.  As a result of the evaluation, it was decided that the use of a single unified data format throughout the entire process was the best way to achieve shorter delivery time, and Valor's ODB++ was the preferred solution.

To ensure that the vast amount of CMK's design and manufacturing knowledge and expertise was fully incorporated in the ODB++ database, technical and management support was provided by other members of CMK group as well as Valor, and detailed operational rules of the database were established.

According to Mr. Sugita, the return on the investment so far has been more than impressive. Data reworks from the manufacturing floor have been eliminated across hundreds of different PCB variants, and the resulting improvements in design quality have led to a significant improvement in production yields.

Mr. Sugita concluded by saying, "CMK Circuit Technology Center Corporation now has Enterprise 3000 deployed at its facilities in Saitama and Gunma, with further systems installed at Matsumoto and Toyota earlier this year. We anticipate reduced revision spins, shorter cycle-time, and further gains in design quality through DFM analysis. Moving forward, we plan to take full advantage of the uniqueness of ODB++ by expanding the reach of our business within the PCB assembly arena, to become a total manufacturing service supplier of PCBs."