Efficient operation of a component placement machine with a multi-head in a PCB assembly process is considered. The problem consists of two subproblems, which are the optimal allocation of the component tape reels in the rack and the optimal mounting sequence of the components on a printed circuit board. We analyze the problem and propose a heuristic algorithm to solve it. The heuristic can be used for the one head case too. Computational experiences on some real world problems show the effectiveness of the heuristic in terms of speed and solution quality.