In a fast-changing electronics manufacturing world, speed and flexibility are crucial. ESSEGI AUTOMATION provides intelligent storage and material handling systems that ensure a seamless production flow.
The long-standing experience in developing warehouses for automated storage management has offered us a privileged vantage point over the production process within assembly companies.
In electronics manufacturing, what is commonly identified as a warehouse is in fact a crucial junction in the flow of information traveling along the production chain and, when properly organized, allows the process to become more efficient.
From the specialization in developing intelligent logics for component storage management in the SMT and THT assembly industry comes the competitive advantage of ESSEGI AUTOMATION and a system capable of facilitating data exchange to respond in real time to all the critical issues that specifically characterize electronics production.
The Challenge of complexity in Electronics Production
The complexity of the production process in the electronics industry is determined on one side by the nature of the product and its components—semiconductors of infinitesimal size and delicate handling due to their sensitivity to environmental factors—and on the other by the fluctuations of a market facing a continuously evolving global geopolitical and economic scenario.
The challenges the sector faces can all be traced back to a concept well known in the manufacturing world since the dawn of the industrial era and now pervasive in our lives with the digital revolution. We are talking about speed:
- speed of reaction to continuous change and adaptation
- speed of response to market demand
- speed of innovation and technological development
The automation of the main segments of the production process has enabled the industry to cope with the almost exponential growth in demand over recent decades, with some areas excluded from this evolution. Apart from the THT segment, still largely manual, it was the warehouse that suffered the lack of adequate technological adjustment in stock and inventory management, preventing timely and flexible responses to continuous disruptions and schedule changes.
A curious paradox, since inefficiency in production is precisely rooted in storage, where causes of slow
downs in the production flow originate, even leading to line stoppages caused by stockouts. This is indeed what emerges clearly from ESSEGI AUTOMATION’s twenty years of activity in developing advanced systems for intelligent storage management.
From Storage logics to Production continuity
The warehouse is a strategic hub that receives the endless and ever-changing variety of requests from production. Properly analyzed over time, these requests have allowed our development team to evolve inventory control and management protocols into intelligent logics for component handling, capable of efficiently governing the production flow upstream and downstream of the warehouse.
To understand this evolution, it is important to know the advantages and features of an advanced storage management system offering that distinguishes ESSEGI AUTOMATION among the companies capable of sustaining the competitiveness of electronics assembly enterprises of all sizes worldwide.
It is precisely with this objective—to be more than just a supplier, but a partner in process efficiency—that ESSEGI AUTOMATION will once again present at Productronica its full range of products and configurations capable of providing effective solutions to the multiple challenges posed by the fast-paced rhythms of today’s electronics industry.
An ambitious goal that cannot be fully grasped without understanding the potential of an advanced ISM software, capable not only of governing with nanometric precision the organization and movement of components in ESSEGI AUTOMATION’s warehouses, but also of interfacing with any other existing automated management system on the production site, achieving the most complete integration.
From Slave to Master: the flexibility of ISM Software
The ISM software by ESSEGI AUTOMATION has been developed from the very beginning as a flexible system, open to communication with a wide variety of IT protocols, to ensure maximum fluidity and speed in data exchange between heterogeneous systems: from ERP to WMS, from MES to Pick & Place systems, all the way to X-Ray devices and vertical warehouses, without any brand limitation.
Today, ESSEGI AUTOMATION can integrate with over 250 brands on the market.
In particular, concerning management systems, it does not stop at integration with the major international brands such as SAP, Oracle ERP Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365, IFS, Sage X3, Epicor, Infor, but also supports national-scale management software, customized or internally developed by companies (self-made).
As for Pick & Place systems, it is already fully integrated with all the leading brands in the sector: JUKI, FUJI, YAMAHA, MYCRONIC, PANASONIC, EUROPLACER, ASMPT, ESSEMTEC, HANWHA, UNIVERSAL, HITACHI.
The extreme flexibility of ISM integration logics allows ESSEGI AUTOMATION’s software to act either as slave or master depending on the production context in which cabinets and other storage systems are inserted, and depending on the company’s needs—whether integrating machines into a predefined component control hierarchy along the production chain or developing a new command architecture tailored to the organization.
This adaptability of the ISM system, technically achieved through the modular nature of its implementation via APIs and dedicated software features, is made possible by the experience and skills of our application and software specialists, who can quickly identify the most effective solution to meet specific needs and achieve the common goal of every installation: facilitating operations and increasing productivity.
A Continuous Flow from Incoming to Assembled Board
While speaking about integration logics requires some abstraction effort, ESSEGI AUTOMATION’s entire product range offers instead a tangible representation of its ability to keep the entire production process connected and to control the path of components along the production chain—from incoming material to the assembled product—ensuring the highest standards of component traceability. A requirement that is no longer optional for many assembly companies.
Our in-house demos and the lineup of key trade fair events, such as Productronica 2025, provide a concrete representation of how, through advanced storage and automated component management systems, ESSEGI AUTOMATION is able to oversee the entire production process—from incoming to the lines, and from inspection to delivery—creating an interconnected, controlled, and efficient ecosystem.
The uninterrupted flow of information begins with the Incoming Material Station 2.0, the innovative ergonomic receiving station equipped with the most advanced optical recording systems to capture all the necessary data for identifying components and their lot of origin throughout the production process via UID assignment, together with its handheld counterpart, the Mobile Autoincoming.
Once the registration phase is completed, materials find their place in the Ultraflex Series cabinets, ultra-compact warehouses of various capacities (from 1800 to 3900 reels), characterized by the use of stackable patented antistatic cases for storing reels and other material formats.
The Ultraflex warehouses are perhaps the most recognizable face of ESSEGI AUTOMATION, thanks to their significantly reduced dimensions, versatile modular configurations enabling scalability over time, and above all, their capability for automatic tray/reel handling in loading and unloading operations, up to full automation through AMRs.
Lifts, shuttles, and conveyors facilitate material retrieval and return operations, completing the architecture of the Ultraflex warehouses, which can also be placed in the production area, near the lines, acting as buffers thanks to a dedicated ISM software function.
This, as mentioned, is the result of advanced logics of connection and integration with company management systems (ERP, MES), and direct connection with automated SMT assembly and AMR component transport systems.
To stay close to the lines, the ESSEGI AUTOMATION solution range has recently been expanded with the Smart Rack Mobile, an agile, wheeled storage system capable of responding in real time to many replenishment and replacement needs along the assembly chain, drastically reducing intervention times. Just as connected and remotely controlled as the more traditional warehouses, the Smart Rack Mobile ensures uninterrupted information flow and thus complete traceability of components throughout their journey.
First-Hand Benefits
Seeing the entire ESSEGI AUTOMATION management ecosystem in action and being able to simulate how it can respond in real time to the needs of a specific production context is undoubtedly the most comprehensive experience to appreciate the tangible benefits of choosing ISM solutions:
- Maximization of available space: thanks to ISM trays and dynamic slot management, ESSEGI AUTOMATION’s software optimizes every centimeter of the warehouse.
- Immediate reactivity to schedule changes: ESSEGI software allows real-time recalculation of priorities without needing to prepare all material in advance.
- Resource liberation: operators are freed from low-value repetitive tasks and can focus on skilled activities.
- Total real-time traceability: every single reel is monitored throughout the process, with JEDEC/IPC compliance.
- Zero human errors: advanced automation and constant data control guarantee absolute precision.
- Modular and scalable solutions: ESSEGI AUTOMATION is an ecosystem of solutions that grows with your company.
- Seamless integration with existing systems: ERP, MES, Pick & Place, X-Ray Counter, and vertical warehouse systems.
- Protection of sensitive components: automatic management of humidity and expiration dates to preserve material quality.
Traceability and Integration: the Perfect Match with VC Count-X Ray
Meeting the high traceability standards of the electronics industry means equipping yourself with the best precision technology and choosing excellent partners who speak the same language.
This is how the collaboration with VC Count was born, for the integration of the advanced inline X-Ray system for automated component counting, which becomes an integral part of ESSEGI AUTOMATION’s offering and will be included in the Productronica demo.
A partnership that translates into added value for the entire ISM ecosystem, thanks to the extraordinary ability of the two systems to integrate and thus easily share data to provide the most functional solution for process efficiency.
The Inline VC Count X-Ray can operate in fully automatic, hybrid, or manual mode depending on needs. What is certain, however, is the accuracy of counting operations, speed, safety, and data exchange reliability—without ever stealing time from production.
Looking Beyond… and Continuing to Produce
Dragged into the frantic pace of production activity, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain an overall vision and look beyond contingencies to be prepared for unexpected events and upcoming production scenarios. From mid-course changes in production plans to raw material supply difficulties, all the way to the complexity of global geopolitical scenarios, the framework in which assembly companies operate demands tools and strategies that are always, despite everything, one step ahead.
ESSEGI AUTOMATION has always trained its vision to go beyond the ordinary, processing data to help companies be prepared for future scenarios and to ensure production continuity and efficiency.
We look forward to seeing you at Productronica to showcase the full potential of the ESSEGI AUTOMATION ISM intelligent storage and material management ecosystem.
