Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1163814
28 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2019 ment and gets asked by our customers about standards, you realize that ideally, you just need one set of standards that is going to do the job. As I mentioned earlier, we are mem- bers of IPC, and IPC is the representative of the American National Standards Institute, so are the U.S. National Committee representative for IEC. With IEC, it's one country, one vote; with IPC, it's the manufacturing sites that get the vote. IEC and IPC have slightly different takes and ways of approaching standards, but each with their good points. IPC via ANSI will bring in some of their standards to IEC, and we'll try to adopt them, and vice versa as well. We also have standards that are developed through IEC that we will try to bring to IPC, if they are suit- able, to get them adopted here. In our indus- try, we need one set of standards. In essence, there's no allegiance to any standards or orga- nizations; we just want to have a single set of standards to buy. As a company, the cost of buying stan- dards is something that has quite an impact when you're being asked, "Do you meet this IEC, IPC, or JEDEC standard?" I've also been asked about VDA standards recently. There are so many standards, and you have to buy each one, read it, and see if you comply. Of- ten, there are many similarities, and it can be a burden on a company. Thus, standardization and harmonization of standards for the global market is a key thing that we, as an industry, need to focus on. Shaughnessy: It's too bad that there's not a way for an umbrella organization to get every- body to play nice. Hudson: Yes, IEC is quite good for that, be- cause it is one country, one vote. Organiza- tions like IPC, who have the ANSI accredita- tion, have become the U.S. National Commit- tee representative and regularly bring their work to IEC. There are Japanese, German, Korean, and British committees, just to name a small number of the members of Electron - ics Assembly Technology Technical Commit- tee. We can each bring things together, and we have that international forum to work through the material and try to come to a con- sensus. But it is difficult because many other organizations are outside of IEC but indus- try-specific. Trying to bring them all into one umbrella organization would be idyllic. But above IEC and ISO is essentially the World Trade Organization. IEC is one of those orga - nizations that is trying to umbrella the vari- ous national committees and standards com- ing up, but it is difficult. Shaughnessy: Are there any steps that you think would be fairly simple to put into action? Hudson: We do need to speed standards up. One of the things we talked about recently in working group meetings in Frankfurt for the IEC-TC91 group was the use of things like tech- nical reports and trying to get information out there quickly. But you have to be careful be- cause it is easy to write a bad standard with some wrong numbers. As soon as you do that and it is established, you have much bigger problems trying to fix it. One of the things we talked about today was getting younger engineers involved and bring- ing the right people together. It is difficult be- cause there are expenses to flying people to various meetings, including the time you are away from the day job, but there are some things we can do. We need to use technolo- gy more often, such as conference calls, where we can still talk rather than meet in person. We can also use A-teams or specialized groups; In our industry, we need one set of standards. In essence, there's no allegiance to any standards or organizations; we just want to have a single set of standards to buy.