PCB007 Magazine

PCB-May2017

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40 The PCB Magazine • May 2017 Goldman: You build something. Pauls: We build things. We're part of the na- tional infrastructure. When you drive through- out Iowa, and you see these massive wind farms with these 300-foot-tall wind turbines, and you talk about the materials science that goes into the composite blades that are there. How do you do the infrastructure to distribute that? How do you store that energy? How do you get it into the net, and how does that impact boys and girls locally? Goldman: Things they never thought about, for sure. Pauls: Yeah, they never thought about it. In an unrelated thing, we do one of our demonstra- tions where we have people think about ketch- up bottles, or just packaging of materials. Why do you think this bottle of Clorox is shaped this way? You can see the lights going on. "Well, I just thought it was a bottle. You mean it's de- signed this way for a reason?" Goldman: I've always found packaging to be so interesting. Pauls: Oh yes, my wife will occasionally lose me in a grocery store, and she'll usually find me in one of the aisles just kind of looking over the dif- ferences in all the packaging. I'm fascinated by it. Goldman: I agree. Pauls: I get asked occasionally by some compa- nies—the IPC staff refers a lot of people to me— why they should participate in the IPC. What am I going to get out of it? And I've found over the years that what I learn here allows me to solve many of the problems I come across in manufac- turing. If you're in manufacturing, when your manufacturing line stops and goes down, you start to hemorrhage cash immediately. Either my participation at IPC has allowed me to learn pretty quickly how to get to the root cause of the problem, or I've got a network of hundreds of technical contacts now that I can call. We'll brainstorm a few things. Some- body's got the answer, and the line gets back up. Goldman: And you aren't going to find it in a book. Pauls: Nope, and all you have to do is solve one manufacturing problem like that and you've just paid for your involvement in IPC. Goldman: For a long, long time. I'm always puz- zled by the people in the companies that don't apparently see any value in IPC participation or membership. Pauls: Because they can't put it in a spreadsheet. Goldman: Like you said, all those intangibles, which after the fact, you could put in a spread- sheet. How long were you down or not down? How long could it have been down, but you weren't? Pauls: But if you take a look at the population of engineers and scientists in the U.S., we're aging. So we're taking a look at how we are going to get the next generation involved, and almost ever y company, if they're smart, is taking a look at what type of programs they can use to develop our young engineers. How can we bring them up the learning curve quickly? There are so many educational things available through the IPC. That is how I think we do it. When you allow your young engineers to go to something like this, where they can see so much in a short period of time, that kind of professional devel - opment can't be put in a spreadsheet. You can't quantify the dollars and cents. Goldman: It's the same with your road show, which apparently is paying big dividends. And yet, obvi- ously, it took a few years, but again, you couldn't put that in a spreadsheet. I want to say, "Doug, make a kit so that other people can do road shows in their states." Pauls: Which we've done. Goldman: That's great, because it sounds like an effective way to get people interested. I remember when I was a kid, I wouldn't have known what a materials engineer was, or a chemical engineer, or any kind of engineer. Who did you see when you were kids? I saw my working parents, who were not in any professional capacity. I saw school teachers; ROCKWELL COLLINS' DOUG PAULS DISCUSSES VOLUNTEERING, MENTORING AND THEIR ROAD SHOW

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