Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1284035
28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2020 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team The I-Connect007 editorial team spoke with Russ Steiner, ECAD team leader at CASCO Auto- motive, about the manufacturability guide- lines he has implemented for their products to enable better communication through the sup- ply chain. Nolan Johnson: Russ, let's start with an intro- duction to your background, where you work, and what your role is. Russ Steiner: I am with CASCO Products, an automotive division wholly owned by Amphe- nol, and we operate worldwide. My role is leading the design team globally using Altium NEXUS and maintaining our ECAD library and working with our sourcing group so that we use our Altium NEXUS system to control all the components that we use in our man- aged library. Those same library components are shared with our sourcing group so that we can collaborate through our ECAD tool and make sure that as we design things, our sourc- ing group has visibility into what we're doing. This way, they can start planning manufactur- ing success early on with our component selec- tions and help us verify the supply chain and get costing. I lead the group and manage the whole NEXUS operating system for our engi- neering teams around the world. I have been doing PCB design since 1979, so that's 40+ years of doing the same thing. One would think it would be boring, but it never is. I absolutely love my career choice. Generally, other than the pressures to get it out right and on time, this job has been great to me. I like furthering my knowledge so that as I'm designing, I'm always looking for things that we can bake into our components or design practices so that a lot of the DFM work that we do with our suppliers is cap- tured as lessons learned and embedded into our processes. Johnson: At the union where CAD tools and manufacturing meet, are we doing a better job with design for manufacturing and anticipat- ing manufacturing in the design process? Steiner: I believe we are. Companies have the insight and knowhow to set up things like spe- Ensuring Definitive Manufacturing Reliability