Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1111672
42 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 Benson: One of the things that's unique about Milwaukee Electronics is our Screaming Cir- cuits division. Some companies were designed around building prototypes and nothing else. Milwaukee Electronics and other companies were designed around high volume. Screaming Circuits was started by Milwaukee Electronics to bridge that gap. Johnson: One of the unique configurations for Milwaukee Electronics is that once the design has come through proto- type and assembly with Screaming Circuits, you've pretty much shaken out a lot of the issues with mov- ing into production. Benson: We have, and not all of our customers go from Screaming Circuits to Milwaukee Electronics, but a number of them do. And even if you aren't one of those that goes to our forecasted EMS service, you can still use that infor- mation; we give it out for free. We don't require that you be a customer to learn from what we know. Johnson: Bringing suppli- ers in early to consult is a common theme, whether we're talking about design rules, DFM, etc. By connecting a designer with someone in manufacturing who can say, "That's not going to work. The CAD tool may let you do that, but it won't work in the real world," you're saying you will help by consult- ing even if they don't become a customer? Benson: Yes, and for those that do, we have our engineering design team, San Diego PCB lay- out specialists, and Screaming Circuits. We can help people from the cradle to the grave. But again, part of our mission is to pass this infor- mation and knowledge base that we have into the entire industry. If every engineer designs better circuit boards, we're all better off for it even if we don't build them. Johnson: What does a perfect job look like for you and your shop? Benson: For a forecasted production build, like we would put together in our Milwaukee Elec- tronics EMS factory, there's a process that we go through called new product introduction (NPI). We have a lot less time to go back and forth, so to put together one of these on-demand manu- facturing jobs perfectly, we need that BOM to be accurate. We need to know that all of those parts are available. We need to have the latest set of the CAD files, and we need to make sure that those are all the same version. Johnson: At a practical level, they may be the right versions for those particular documents, but because the version num- bers don't match to you, you're going to ask. Benson: Yes, and we also have cases like that where they're all version 2.1 but different. And if you're sending in a parts kit, make sure that all of the parts have the com- plete part number on them and the reference designator. The reference designator goes between the BOM and board; we need that to program the machine. 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 board has a lot of spots for parts, and the BOM doesn't tell us what part goes in those spots. The reference designator is the key between the physical PCB and file set. Board with LED being verified.