Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1000349
20 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2018 Willis: Yes, absolutely, and I think that Steve would agree as well. You've got to think across the board. When I'm working with compa- nies, I do come up against situations where they've got the nice equipment, but that's all they do. They look at the numbers, they look at the statistics, and some customers in contract manufacturing do exactly the same. They're interested in the numbers rather than looking at product. You've got to do those two things. Recently, I was working on a produc- tion line where they had a particular problem and said, well you know our machines don't tell us this, AOI or SPI doesn't indicate. I said to them, "Have you looked at the boards?" And then they look at me with a face that says, "What are you talking about? These machines do all of that." No, they don't. They help you to do your job better, they help you to look at more data and more information. The bottom line is, if you've got an issue, a problem, look at the product. The product is going to tell you whether it's this or that problem. I think, if engineers don't do it, then certainly process techs on the line have to do that. It's up to us as engineers and managers to give them that experience. That is very difficult to do. If you've got somebody that is working in a particular process like conformal coating for more years, probably then you'd remember. You can't pass on all of that information. The "Oh dear, that's how I solved the problem two years ago." It's very difficult to do that. That's why, obviously education is beneficial, but more and more good reference sources are. If you take an example of your organization, you have put together books for people to read, to be able to download. That's a useful resource. Those sort of things, as long as they're seen as valuable, they have good information. Then people will pick them up. They will use them and they will reference them. It's finding a way of disseminating as much good information as possible to all departments. Finally, on that point, if I may, it's the same thing for customers as well. It's always surpris- ing me that customers don't learn about their product, their process, but they come into a facility and criticize things, an audit, or criticize particular things that have happened without understanding the real world. They often say to me, "Well, we don't need to know that, we only want to know how many units are coming and when they're coming." They're there, they have their quality engineers to solve problems. They don't really want to get involved with the nitty gritty, which I think is their loss. And as a communication source, a disadvantage to them as well. Keeping: I'll just add one small complement to what Bob said, and it's a quote I've seen some- where. I'll have to remember what the quote was, but you look at the current generation of workers, which are the new, and you look at the previous generation of workers, which are the experienced, and then they look at, let's say Google—they think that the new genera- tion is more educated and they can just go and