Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1088168
48 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2019 safe and interoperable. That means that they will have access to the standard and testing services around the world to ensure that all of their products work together with other prod- ucts on the market and that they're safe for consumers to use. Johnson: In the whole design-to-manufacture flow, where does that certification take place? Who handles the basic blocking and tackling for you? Francis: There are a variety of different ways to approach this. If the end manufacturer is the one who's doing the product from start to fin- ish, then they would be the one who would need to certify. We also have subsystems which are pre-made, pre-certified solutions created by our members at a variety of different stages of the design process. Those subsystems can be added in as they are, more or less, with enough flexibility for people to still add competitive dif- ferentiation on top of that. Now, because those systems are pre-certified, it speeds up the cer- tification process immensely. So, the end prod- uct that gets sold into the market is where it needs to be to get certified, but by using those pre-certified systems, the certification process is accelerated. There are a few specific require- ments that must be met, which you can see listed on our website. Johnson: So, that means that design teams are in charge of the concept and putting together the design and components. It's their upfront decisions that are going to determine whether it's certified or not. The certification is not go- ing to happen until you have a finished good. Francis: Correct. Johnson: And that finished good may be man- ufactured overseas by somebody else. Does the certification need to take place at the manufac- turing facility? Francis: Once the product is completely fin- ished and ready for market, it is sent to one of our certification labs. We have labs all over the world. Once it's done, they do all of the testing on it. So, if you've used one of those pre-certified subsystems, that greatly speeds up the process. Johnson: I could see why that would be the case. What sort of company in the electronics manufacturing supply chain should be looking at membership with the WPC? Francis: Companies that are involved in adding wireless power are of interest to us, which I know is very broad. We have member compa- nies that are at the chip level all the way over to the end-consumer level and everyone in between. If wireless power is going to be one of the differentiators of your product, I would highly recommend that you seriously consider membership and certification of your products. Johnson: Do you see major end-product com- panies such as the cellphone and home-appli- ance manufacturers starting to drive their sup- ply chain to become members of the WPC? Are the major in- fluencers pushing involvement up through manufacturing? Francis: Our members are not required to disclose their prod- uct roadmaps, supply chain, or anything of that nature; they can keep that as confidential as they would like. But our mem- bers do prioritize the certifica- tion process, and they know WPC's booth at CES 2019.