The FactoryLogix New Product Introduction (NPI) client application helps you structure every detail of a product or assembly to prepare it for efficient, error-free manufacturing. NPI has the capabilities to recognize the CAD design, the Bill of Materials (BOM), and the manufacturing process—this product awareness dramatically shortens the time from research and development to manufacturing.

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Manage manufacturing task flows

Manufacturing process development typically requires a team of engineers and support staff to create work instructions, machine programs, quality plans, and test outlines. Many tasks depend on the successful completion of prior tasks or steps and critical actions can't be overlooked.

NPI process and task flow management capabilities help you configure the necessary sequence of operations to ensure error-free process definitions for manufacturing. Supervisors can assign tasks across the entire development process; they can even assign segments of a process to specific people who can then immediately see their specific task responsibilities in the overall process. The result is automated orchestration of the factory office and collaboration that spans all departments, buildings, and people in the organization.

Define manufacturing processes

Creating a manufacturing process definition is a fundamental component in any assembly environment.

With NPI, engineers define the assembly process definition—not the physical manufacturing route. This process definition can be applied across disparate assembly lines where station counts vary and operations are performed by both machines and people.

During a product's lifespan, product assembly processes are revised to include rework and repair operations, Return Materials Authorization (RMA), and refurbishing. With NPI, you can easily add these processes to an existing process definition, including on-the-fly steps to define operations for serialized units.

Manage parts and assemblies

Parts are parts and assemblies can be parts—FactoryLogix treats them identically. NPI has a configurable, multi-level assembly structure that relates a factory’s internal build part number to customer part numbers and to its Approved Manufacturer List/Approved Vendor List (AML/AVL), all under revision control. Dynamic Bill of Materials (BOM) handling supports revision changes and alternate parts as needed, as well as Configure to Order (CTO) build environments. With NPI you can easily compare BOMs and use component engineering to match previously-unseen part numbers to existing stocked items.

Import BOMs

The Bills of Material (BOMs) supplied to manufacturers are often poorly formatted and contain errors and extraneous text. NPI can import plain text and Microsoft Excel file BOMs without any special code or scripts. BOM headers are recognized automatically and you can quickly create filtering steps to reorder BOM elements.

NPI understands all types of reference designator consolidations and extracts them automatically to make a BOM usable and intelligent. Once NPI processes a particular type of BOM, it "remembers" how to clean it and can import it even more quickly the next time a BOM arrives from the same source.

Import design data

Design data is essential for all manufacturing processes, including quality and test operations, assembly instructions, and machine programming.

NPI supports all leading Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD) drawing formats. You can easily link MCAD content to work instruction steps to guide an operator to a specific region on an assembly.

When you import an Electrical Computer Aided Design software (ECAD) file, NPI auto-detects the file type and transforms the native file from the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design software platform into a product visual that serves as the foundation for the process design. NPI supports hundreds of legacy file formats and versions, including machine file formats and competitive file types. If an ECAD file isn't available, NPI can read Gerber files to capture PCB design information and present the board and shape information in a user-friendly interface.

Author work instructions

NPI uses a true process-driven approach to develop intelligent work instructions for all kinds of products and assemblies at the most granular activity level. The NPI documentation engine leverages both part data and design data to develop rich, interactive support documentation to guide operators through sequential assembly steps.

With NPI, you can quickly create documentation templates for every step in the manufacturing process. The templates fully automate most design visuals as soon as they are imported. The documentation engine supports clipboard, video, multimedia, hyperlinks to secondary documents or sites, and has powerful annotation and graphical tools. 

Store documents in a repository

NPI allows you to link or embed any type of secondary document such as user manuals and ISO manuals. Documents can be set up for access on paperless terminals by context or by physical location.

Approve electronic revisions

The factory office is responsible for developing usable information for manufacturing operations. NPI has an extensive set of controls and approvals to confirm information readiness. The entire process definition and individual operations may undergo their own approval process, as well as for the BOM, CAD, and process flow used in a project.

Production orders and change notices can be put through a formal review and approval process in NPI. The review process presents approvers with an intelligent, side-by-side view of the changes found between a new version and its predecessor. If the approval cycle takes longer than expected, managers are immediately notified via an escalation email to take appropriate action.

Do offline machine programming

NPI includes hundreds of machine programming interfaces for virtually all machines on the market. You can perform simple and fast offline programming and library management for placement machines, printers, jet printers, ovens, Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) devices, Automated X-Ray Inspection (AXI) devices, dispensers, ovens, inserters, semi-auto inserters, and odd form machines. Many modern interfaces interact directly with the software from machine vendors, providing a seamless and fast way to prepare production programs before sending them to the factory floor.