With its SIPLACE Setup Center 4.0, ASM Assembly Systems GmbH  Co.KG (formerly Siemens Electronics Assembly Systems) is introducing a new and improved version of its software for setup verification and fill level management. The new version improves the reliability of setup processes online and offline and supports a series of innovative SIPLACE setup variants, such as Random Setup or Constant Feeder Tables. By reminding line operators to scan feeder and component IDs when setting up and refilling feeders, the software minimizes setup-related downtime while providing the foundation for the kind of traceability many industries require today for their products. SIPLACE Setup Center 4.0 also features significant improvement in its integration capabilities with materials management systems. It keeps track of LED brightness classes, triggers automated refills via the well-known SIPLACE OIB interface and even lists alternative components if not enough primary components are available. With their Version 4.0 of SIPLACE Setup Center, the Munich-based SIPLACE developers respond to the fact that improperly set-up and empty feeders are one of the main reasons for line stops while the operating staff is forced to deal with ever more frequent and faster setup changeovers as a result of declining lot sizes. SIPLACE Setup Center allows the user to verify setups by scanning the IDs of feeders and components or packages. The resulting information is used to check and display fill levels for the current placement process; it also provides the data for the traceability of modules and components. SIPLACE Setup Center improves the stability of the increasingly critical setup procedures in electronics production and minimizes the frequency and duration of setup-related downtime.  Random Setup and Constant Feeder Tables The new Version 4.0 of SIPLACE Setup Center also supports SIPLACE new Random Setup and Constant Feeder Tables options. Random Setup lets you position feeders in any open slot, because the placement program does not determine the feeder and component position, but it adjusts automatically to your setup. This makes it especially easy and efficient to set up small lots or prototypes and insert them into the production schedule. In Constant Feeder Table mode, certain feeder tables or sections thereof remain in place, because many jobs and products use the same components and can therefore be excluded from the setup procedures.  LED brightness classes and the link to materials management SIPLACE Setup Center 4.0 features additional improvements for placement processes involving LEDs. It keeps track of brightness classes as component parameters and verifies them during the setup verification process in addition to all the other parameters. For especially critical refill processes, the software can optionally enforce dual verification before and after splicing. Other software functions make kitting (linking feeders to components in the IT systems) easier in offline setup preparation areas. With the ability to have SIPLACE Setup Center display alternative components (as defined in the placement program) and an OIB interface for sending automated reorder requests to the materials management system, SIPLACE developers continue to advance consistent process support in electronics production. Seamless and error-free setup processes are essential prerequisites for efficiency and productivity in electronics production, and the increasing frequency of setup changeovers represents a great challenge for the manufacturing staff. With SIPLACE Setup Center, we offer our customers the leading software tool for setup verification. It enables them to operate with maximum flexibility and reliability, says Hubert Egger, Product Marketing Manager at SIPLACE, about the benefits of the new software version. For more information, visit www.siplace.com.