The mounting head needs to move frequently between the feeder and the printed circuit board when the mounting machine works. Shortening the moving distance of the mounting head is an important way to improve the mounting efficiency. Optimization of the mounting path for arch style mounting machine is studied. Variation of the mounting path that the mounting head moves along the feeder is analyzed, and the formula of moving distance is proposed. An optimization model is established with the goal of minimizing moving distance of the mounting head. The sequence of pick-and-place is coded by component mounting positions, and a genetic algorithm is used to optimize the sequence of pick-and-place as well as the moving direction of the mounting head. The differences and characteristics of the mounting path corresponding to different picking up methods is analyzed. The results show that there are significant differences between two-way and near side picking up especially when the distribution of points is more on one side of PCB. A shorter mounting path can be obtained by two-way picking up than by near side picking up. Therefor the two-way picking up is more useful to improve mounting efficiency.