SMT007 Magazine

SMT-Dec2016

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32 SMT Magazine • December 2016 other electronic devices and systems that will improve the human condition. The dangers are just as provocative—the in- credible processing speeds we have available to operate on the big data that is being accumu- lated with every credit card purchase we make, putting personal privacy at risk: technology meet the Constitution! Also, using genetic en- gineering to create creatures that would fright- en Dr. Frankenstein's monster, and the ability to use robotics as a destructive force. These are just a few. Kevin McCarthy don't fret go to sleep, then awaken with a nod your Luddite fears will have disappeared as you emerge from your pod— like those of high wire aerialists: Mario & Luigi, who discover below them a net. For you youngsters, I want you to under- stand that SMT technology doesn't go back to biblical times, and it wasn't brought to earth by ancient alien astronauts. However, I do remember back in the begin- ning, after the wheels of change (excuse the mixed metaphor) were put in motion with a gust of wind. A large computer company got the attention of component suppliers by ask- ing, out of the blue, for quotes on millions of these new surface mountable electrical compo- nent packages. Four Things that Haven't Changed Since the Advent of SMT Nearly everything in the electronic product design and production business has changed since that fateful time. I can only think of four things that haven't: 1. The laws of physics 2. The laws of economics 3. The basic way we educate for our industry 4. The way we structure our design and production companies The first one we don't have much control over. Personally, I've tried to levitate, but can't seem to advance past the flutter stage. The second one pertains to all businesses (e.g., the value of a product or a service is based on what a customer is willing to pay for it—sup- ply and demand—the ability to make a profit [cost management], etc.). The third one I've studied, analyzed, talked and written about. A new educational strategy to better serve the high-tech electronic design and assembly industry has been initiated. It will co-lo- cate a college with a for-profit EMS provider. The EMS will provide the student with a real-world classroom for a four-year undergraduate program that will lead to a B.S. in Applied Electronic Prod- uct Design and Manufacturing Sciences. That leaves number four. Ironically, it is firmly linked to number three. How? An alternate production organiza- tional model has not been available to us be- cause graduates interested in design, manufac- turing and assembly have been educated in our traditional educational framework—the Ivory Tower of academia, not the real world. In other words, the skills needed for any al- ternative "lean" or "flattened" organizational model can only be taught in the real world— soft skills such as working in self-managed teams, conflict resolution, aligning constituen- cies, and the art of rhetoric and persuasion as they apply to team dynamics. In past columns, we focused on the technical skill gap between academic preparation and industry need. How- ever, the ability to reduce labor cost by organi- zational reform requires a real-world classroom, as well. Before volume manufacturing and assembly opened on the global stage, it didn't much mat- ter. The severe international competitive pres- sure wasn't there. Production labor rate compe- tition was locally based. Protectionist tariff pol- icies as well as concerns about low labor rate production skills and quality were used to resist these sources of low labor rate cost. Having addressed reducing raw direct labor cost in past columns and papers through re- ducing labor content through automation and increasing yields by a drastic reduction in re- work [1] , we turn to the controllable cost contrib- utor presented by indirect, overhead and gener- al and administrative costs as a function of or- ganizational structure. A NEW ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL USING LOGIC, COST EFFECTIVENESS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

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