It is indisputable that printed circuit boards (PCBs) play a vital role in our daily lives. With the ever-increasing applications of PCBs, one of the crucial ways to increase a PCB manufacturera (TM)s competitiveness in terms of operation efficiency is to minimize the production time so that the products can be introduced to the market sooner.

Optimal Production Planning for PCB Assembly is the first book to focus on the optimization of the PCB assembly linesa (TM) efficiency. This is done by:

a [ integrating the component sequencing and the feeder arrangement problems together for both the pick-and-place machine and the chip shooter machine;

a [ constructing mathematical models and developing an efficient and effective heuristic solution approach for the integrated problems for both types of placement machines, the line assignment problem, and the component allocation problem; and

a [ developing a prototype of the PCB assembly planning system.

The techniques proposed in Optimal Production Planning for PCB Assembly will enable process planners in the electronics manufacturing industry to improve the assembly linea (TM)s efficiency in their companies. Graduate students in operations research can familiarise themselves with the techniques and the applications of mathematical modeling after reading this advanced introduction to optimal production planning for PCB assembly.

This advanced introduction to optimal production planning for PCB assembly details ways a reader can improve the efficiency of the assembly line in their company. It presents mathematical modeling techniques and heuristic solution approaches to optimize some critical PCB assembly problems arising in the industry.