Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1228683
APRIL 2020 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 83 "Everything went perfectly! We'll ask our fabri- cation or assembly house, "How many boards fell out of the design process?" Again, they'll say, "We had 100%." Matties: I was born at night, but not last night! Watson: I fell off the truck, but not the turnip truck. Statistically, it is impossible that every- thing was perfect. That's not good information or feedback for us to operate on because we're looking to improve, and I know it's not perfect. Working with international suppliers is very difficult. Matties: How are you handling your prototypes? Watson: We handle our prototypes domestically, which comes with its own problems. Understand that a prototype is only the beginning process because you design, fabricate, and assemble it with more of a controlled situation. When we do things domestically, I talk to the fabrication and assembly house to find out the details because we want to make sure that we monitor every- thing in detail of this design; I was just on the phone this morning doing that with our fabrica- tion and assembly house in Germany. That works well to get a high-quality board. Next, the board will be put forward in the process, and a lot of times, we look at compliance and certification. Then, you switch everything over from domes- tic to international and lose control of our entire design, fabrication, and assembly. We may lose compliance. Compliance is not something you want to redo, so we have to take it down to a point before it gets into compliance and then transfer it over to the international level and get that certified. We want the certification based on what we're going to be building, not just a prototype. It's great if you have a product you can verify, but somehow, that has to be trans- lated into the international area. Holden: Why do you go to international compa- nies? Watson: Price. Holden: If you could get the prototype for the same price as the high-volume international, would you use the same source? Watson: I think we would. Matties: More and more offshore fabricators offer that. We see the lot size move down to 40 in some of these big places. Watson: These are some of the conversations that I'm going to have in a couple of weeks in China. I'll be in Shanghai to discuss it with our board house. Matties: This is bad news for U.S. fabricators. Watson: True, but there are so many restrictions on U.S. fabricators, espe- cially in California. The restrictions on chemi- cals and processes that can be used have killed PCB fabrication in the U.S. Shaughnessy: Of course, state regulators would say it was because they dumped everything in the river for many years. Holden: Even the Chinese are learning that PCB fabrication has a lot of nasty chemicals. Now, the Chinese are moving to Vietnam because they can't meet their own emissions standards. Watson: It's starting to impact China like what we have gone through here in the U.S. Matties: When you do prototypes, this is a race for time as well. If a prototype house is late, at impact does that have on you?