Success Story

SCANNER TONIC FOR PANASONIC

The name of Panasonic conjures up images of high quality electrical goods- from hi-fi systems and video recorders through to refrigerators and washing machines. It is actually the brand name of the Matsushita Group, which employs over 250,000 people worldwide, and which features in the Top 20 of the Fortune 500 guide to the world's most successful businesses.

The Group's UK subsidiary, Matsushita Electric (UK) Ltd is based in Cardiff, and has a workforce of more than 2,400 employees. The company produces some one million color televisions, one million microwaves, and 400,000 digital decoders each year.

All of these items contain printed circuit boards fitted with miniature electronic components. Each component has to identified and placed correctly for the equipment to function properly. This work is undertaken by Panasonic's Insert Department, which controls the automatic assembly machines.

Team Leader Kevin Griffiths explains: "The components arrive on a reel which contains 10,000 identical items. They are identified by scanning a barcode on the reel before it is fed into one of our 90 auto-insert machines. This picks and places the components at very high speeds."

When combined with the curing ovens, the auto-insert machines can be over 50 feet long. Originally, Panasonic used tethered scanners to read the barcodes, but these wouldn't reach on the larger machines. The company tried another type of scanner, but this was unable to read the higher resolution barcodes.

Panasonic therefore started to explore alternative options and found the Welch Allyn's SCANTEAM 5770 cordless scanners as the best solution. Kevin Griffiths comments: "We needed scanners that would be very reliable, could read the different types of barcodes attached to the reels, and were in the right price range. Welch Allyn's scanners met all of our criteria."

He continues: "We use the scanners whenever we change the component reels. It is vital that the correct reel is loaded, but the components are so small that they can all look the same. Our previous scanners regularly failed to identify wrong components - which proved very costly. However, we purchased the Welch Allyn scanners in September 1998 and we haven't had a single wrong value yet.

"Scanners are also used to read the barcoded menu sheet which is used to control the auto insert machine. With the Welch Allyn units, the operators can use any scanner with any machine, just by reading in the appropriate barcode. In contrast, each of our previous scanners had to be used with a specific machine."

He adds: "The Welch Allyn scanners have definitely generated a considerable amount of interest. Other Matsushita subsidiaries in Japan, the Czech Republic, and Malaysia are already interested in them."

Back to Success Story Index