Sequencing of Insertions in Printed Circuit Board Assembly

Manufacturability of printed circuit boards is a fertile area for operations researchers to aid in productivity improvements for the electronics industry. A class of such problems is described, and a particular problem that arises from an application to a middle sized electronics firm is modeled and solved. The specific problem to determine the best sequence of insertion operations is formulated as a type of directed postman problem. An algorithm is developed for the problem that yields an optimal solution under certain conditions and approximate solutions, with a constant performance bound, when these conditions are relaxed.