Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1111672
MAY 2019 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 25 them in just over two weeks. So, we felt like we added value to them. They came to us in a pinch, and we were able to move quickly like that, solve a problem, and, ultimately, help the customer be successful. That's as close to a perfect type of job as we can get." Benson mirrored Tomor with some practical advice, "If you're sending in a parts kit, make sure that all of the parts have the complete part number on them and the reference designa- tor. The reference designator goes between the BOM and board; we need that to program the machine." Benson added, "The BOM includes all of the components. It's the primary file that we build from, but it doesn't tell us where that part goes on the board…The reference des- ignator is the key between the physical PCB and file set." "The other thing that's impor- tant about this is to make sure that polarities are very clear," said Benson. He continued, "We have so many people who mark diodes with a plus. Conventionally, the plus goes to the anode, but not necessarily. What if it's a bar- rier or Zener diode? What if it's a bridge when you have an anode and a cath- ode going to the same spot? You have to clearly mark with a diode symbol or anode—A for an anode or K for a cathode—and we use K so that it won't be confused with the capacitor. Any- thing that might be ambiguous needs to be removed; that's what creates a perfectly clear file set and kit." Muhammad Irfan had a different perspective based on his company's positioning in the mar- ket. To him, a perfect, well-prepared job is one where the designers, "Know what they want at the concept level architecturally, and they understand the major blocks of their design: which processor, the two or three major pillar components of their design, etc. They should know what they need and engage with us at that point to let us do what we are good at." He continued, "They should also define the end result properly. What constitutes the acceptance of our work to them? Where [in the process] do they want that hand-off back to them?" Irfan also said it works best, "If the start point and end point are well understood, and they let us do everything in between with properly defined milestones…" Jeff Hamlett, director of sales and marketing at DataED, commenting on the move to pro- duction, said, "It's critical to have all of the documentation in line… Once it comes from the NPI Center, everything is pretty much in line; they've run it through a couple of itera- tions already, so we can hit the ground run- ning." Joe Garcia expanded on one of Green Cir- cuits' production specialties as well, "A perfect job would be customers looking for a full turnkey solution for some sort of complex electronic prod- uct ideally going to go into box build with some test…We're getting more and more inqui- ries about that capability…And that quickly turns into a discus- sion about moving to functional test capability or gear to our facility…being a multiple turnkey solution provider, and putting finished system assembly products that are tested into boxes and shipping them directly to distribution centers or directly to their customers." John Vaughan concluded, "Having a tech- nical point of contact readily available for dia- logue is important because there will be ques- tions." No, it seems that you can't get away with short-circuiting the documentation process—at least not for very long. Your manufacturing part- ners will compel you to remove every ambigu- ous detail because otherwise, they'll deliver an inferior product that reflects badly on them and you. It's your choice to be thorough in your doc- umentation upfront or answer a list of clarify- ing questions inversely proportional to the com- pleteness of your documentation set. To borrow another movie trope, "You can do this the easy way, or the hard way." SMT007