Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1197000
46 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2020 our point of view and why we see it a certain way. During these customer reviews we rely on our experience and history to explain to the customer that, although they may think they are making a product more reliable or higher qual- ity by specifying tighter requirements, it could be increasing manufacturing costs by requir- ing extra testing/inspection or by causing more defects or more rejects due to the manufactur- ing or testing requirement while not increasing the reliability of the final application. Here's one example. A customer may have multiple field returns for a particular applica- tion from PCB shorts caused by liquid spills or something shorting out the circuit board, so the design engineer may have a focus on exploring opportunities to prevent that type of failure. In an effort to prevent this failure type, the design engineer may specify thicker conformal coating coverage or a specific conformal coating mate- rial that they believe is going to help to solve that challenge without understanding that the new material requirement could require special processes or equipment in the manufacturing line or additional fixturing or inspection and testing that increase manufacturing costs. It's a matter of providing an understanding and a comfort level to the customer on why we suggest testing a certain way; this is where Molex benefits from having experience as both a component supplier and an electronic solu- tions provider by being able to offer insight from multiple points of view. Johnson: How does a specifying engineer become aware ahead of time? Are they getting the feedback not when their design is essen- tially finished, but while they're actively making the design decisions? Hines: At Molex, we follow our product devel- opment process (PDP), and there are multiple stages within that process. In the early stages of the PDP, when evaluating a new project or opportunity, we highlight any manufac- turing or testing requirements and specifica- tions that appear to be outside of established industry practices and provide feedback early in the PDP process to the design engineer or customer before the application or the final design is done. We definitely make a point to engage with the customers as often and early as we can. Johnson: And that requires you to have an existing relationship with the customer. Hines: Exactly. And that feeds back to the advantage we have of being both tradition- ally a component supplier as well as moving into being a full electronic solutions provider. We already have a lot of those long-developed relationships with our customers that we can leverage. Johnson: As you work with customers, how do you engage them? Hines: Sometimes, there are multiple business units or teams within a company. One of our customers can have multiple groups with each having different project requirements, expecta- tions, and goals, and we may have an estab- lished relationship with specific business units or groups within a customer's company who may have already had the same challenge that the new project faces. Often, we will leverage our experience and relationship with other units or groups within the customer's company to support our suggestion or recommendation. Johnson: How does this connect back to the connector business? Hines: Most applications have connectors. A lot of times, connectors are thought of in a generic way, but there's a lot of technology involved with them now. Not only do we work a lot with our external customers, but we work It's a matter of providing an understanding and a comfort level to the customer on why we suggest testing a certain way.