ASM

ASM Pacific Technology, the world's largest supplier of semiconductor and LED manufacturing and assembly equipment, faced a significant bottleneck between product development and production. Design changes made in CAD had to be manually transferred to CAM at the machining stage, a process prone to human error and costly delays. For a company supplying chip manufacturers, IC factories, and consumer electronics producers at global scale, these integration gaps directly undermined production efficiency and machining quality — slowing time-to-market and introducing variability into precision manufacturing workflows.

To close the gap between design and production, ASM integrated Siemens NX CAM as its primary parts machining platform. The implementation centered on NX CAM's feature-based machining (FBM) capability, which automatically reads Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI) — including tolerances and surface precision requirements — directly from 3D product models. This enabled automatic selection of machining methods, tools, and NC programs without manual re-entry of design data. The NX CAM Integrated Simulation and Verification (ISV) module added a digital twin layer, validating machining operations in simulation before physical execution. Together, these capabilities created a continuous, automated data flow from CAD design through to CNC machining, reducing programming errors and standardizing NC output across production.

The impact of integrating FBM and PMI automation was quantified directly by ASM's manufacturing leadership. According to Hu Dewen, Senior CAD/CAM Manufacturing Manager at ASM Pacific Technology:

• 70% improvement in producing efficiency and quality attributed to feature-based machining and PMI automation
• Significant reduction in manual NC programming errors through ISV simulation and verification
• Eliminated time-consuming manual data transfer between CAD and CAM environments

Beyond the headline metric, the standardization of NC programs reduced variability across machining processes and freed engineering time previously spent on rework and error correction — positioning ASM's operations as a foundation for broader smart factory initiatives.

• CAD/CAM integration is a prerequisite for smart manufacturing — disconnected design and production systems create compounding inefficiencies that scale poorly with product complexity.
• PMI-driven automation reduces human error at the source — embedding tolerances and precision requirements directly in 3D models eliminates manual transcription mistakes in NC programming.
• Digital twin simulation should precede physical machining — ISV-style verification catches programming errors before they reach the shop floor, protecting equipment and reducing scrap.
• Standardized NC programs enable scalability — FBM's automatic program generation creates repeatable, auditable processes suited for high-mix electronics manufacturing environments.