Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1088168
18 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2019 Barry: How willing are the customers to engage with you early in their projects? Mauro: Some don't have a choice because they cannot find any capable manufacturing for the new project, so they choose to engage with us. Others are more reluctant or don't care much at the design stage. This is a pity because if you want to make a product efficient with good yields, you have to invest at the beginning in the design stage. However, not all the custom- ers are ready to do that; they would d rather go around later and see supplier prices. We stress to our customer what we call co-engineering where we can offer this for free, just give us all the data. In 24 hours, we provide you advice on materials, and the design and size to make the product more manufacturable and have better yields. Barry: With the data properly sorted out, the work will move through the 4.0 factory floor smoothly with very little human contact. The goal of any smart factory is to eliminate product and human contact 100%. This is still a difficult task for existing factories. Often, you're constrained by the building that you're already in. Mauro: Yes, we are constrained too. Barry: Are you looking at using AGVs in the factory to move work? Mauro: Because we are going to optimize the layout to get the process closer to each other Barry: More automation means fewer opportu- nities for employment. What do they think is going to happen to all of the operators from an employment point of view, and doesn't that create a whole new set of problems for China? Mauro: You're talking about the first revolution of automation. Of course, it will have some im- pact on eliminating mainly operator jobs, but nobody knows what the final balance of job losses to 4.0 automation will be. However, it will have a big impact. Barry: I would think that your front-end engi- neering would be one area that's going to grow a lot. With 4.0, it's all about the right data coming in to get the work to go through your smart factory. We hear so often that when or- ders come in, most of the files need work and are not correct. Is that what you experienced here? Mauro: We have, which is why we have our DFM engineering team and system in place to avoid wasting time and costly mistakes when engaging with a new customer. We just provide them this DFM solution, which checks all of the parameters. Can we do this or that? Then, our strength is co-engineering because some- times the customer is developing new designs or projects with us. Our technical engineers work very closely with our R&D customers. We have a large R&D department for developing new technology and communicating with our customers.