Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1111672
16 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 obvious, yet build packages arrive at the CMs in an incomplete format every day. Janet Tomor, senior business development manager at Suntronic, said, "It doesn't mat- ter if [the job] is consigned or total turnkey, if the building material doesn't have a reference designator on it, if it doesn't have (hopefully) two or three substitutions, or if it doesn't have the right description with the part number; all those issues take time to get sorted out." She continued, "Unfortunately, we find a lot of them once the parts get here and we ordered off the bill of materials (BOM) that it's not what the description says or the part number is a 0805, and we receive a 01206 from their manufacturer. Then, you have to stop for two or three days minimum." M u h a m m a d Irfan said Whizz Sys t e m s s e e s this too, "Some- times, we have c u s t o m e rs w h o want to run very fast, but they have not defined the prod- uct well enough so that counter-produc- t i v e speed hurts the project more than it helps. Going too fast leads to defining things as we go, and the cost of correction becomes huge." So, what does Whizz Systems do to help resolve this? "We educate the customer upfront and hold their hands as well where we see it is a necessity to prepare them better. We know how to engage them and be efficient with this whole process." Irfan continued, "That is a huge value-add, especially startups, because they can go to a friendly place that understands startup culture and knows how to help, and can keep them disciplined if they lack that." Lori Giglio, general manager at the NPI Engi- neering Center for DataED, added, "We have new designs walking through the door and things we've never even thought to do…a cus- tomer will ask, 'Can you do it?' And we will. As we collaborate with them and try it, we learn set of problems. We will do our best to solve those problems. We'll call you to try and fig- ure it out, but we need good communica- tion and information, and we need people to respond quickly, especially in a prototype or on-demand type environment." Benson further detailed, "Most people think of the design files as being the CAD files—the sche- matic and layout. And of course, you can't build it without an accurate layout. But the BOM is the single most important file in this entire setup that has all of the information about the compo - nents; it matches the components to the boards, which is where the brainpower is needed." He drove the point home, "The process of cre- ating the circuit board is about translating a file to board mate- rial with precise process control. Adding the parts to it is where there is a higher risk for ambigu- ity; thus, it requires a transfer of informa- tion from somebody's head to somebody else's head." When asked for specifics, Duane Benson shared, "We may get a bill of materials (BOM) that has three line items that aren't completely filled out. That means we now have three parts, and we don't know what they are. We're not in the engi- neer's head, so we can't guess." Benson con- tinued, "Or we'll get three components that aren't available in stock. We don't know what to do as a substitute because the customer hasn't given us one. Later, in the BOM, there are three components that don't have refer- ence designators, and in the design files, it's a different version, and they're missing some of the polarity markings." It's no wonder assemblers stop the process to work out the details. While the board design itself may be high in intellectual property, the components simply must be attached correctly, or nothing will work as intended. It seems so