Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1236528
APRIL 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 85 terest. We had intellectual property standards, and then that kind of grew into a trusted source where we were working with some of the DOD groups to try and develop a list of trusted sup- pliers and what they might need to do to make sure that they can be considered a trusted sup- plier. Then, cybersecurity is a further exten- sion of that. You mentioned early on Smart factories, and the IPC Standard 2591-CFX Standard will, I be- lieve, play a role in smart factories. And se- curity played a major role in the decision as to what made the backbone of that standard. Because you're expecting your factory is going to be running with more digital input, more digital sensors, more data coming in and out and so you need to be able to control that in- formation. We believe that CFX will play a role in the smart factory in the future for electron- ics manufacturing. Matties: Teresa, during all of this, what les- sons do you think the industry is learning right now? Rowe: From the standards development piece of it, I think that we're experiencing learning the power of words and communication. We can't show somebody; we have to explain it. That's really important when you talk about standards development. I'm seeing more along the lines of people communicating on telecon- ferences saying, "Let me explain what I mean." They don't jump up and try to draw a picture, or they don't just say, "You know what I mean. Let me show you in the book." It's not like that. They're explaining, and by getting more people involved who don't normally attend our teleconferences, we're also getting more diverse input at times. I think, all in all, we're learning that this method of communication is really benefiting and will benefit the industry in the long run. Also, in March of 2019, we introduced a new platform called IPC Works for our task groups to communicate. Our groups have embraced it, and they're using more and more and more of the tools inside of it: surveys, polls, com- ment forums. They're sharing files and sending messages, even messages of concern. They're becoming a more gelled group as much as a group like this can be. All in all, it is positive that the lesson they're learning, as I said, is the power of words and communication, and that's what standards are. We're just communicating with words. Matties: It's really interesting that you're men- tioning communication and that we can't just stand up and start drawing on a whiteboard the way we normally do. While there may be a need to slow down, there's probably some need for people to even rethink the way that they do communicate as well and kind of re- learn, if you will. You probably see that in your meetings. Rowe: We have, and we also have heard, "Now, I understand why the staff liaisons are email- ing me at 11:30 at night because you work vir- tually. Suddenly, I realize that I have followed this time, and I'm focused on something, stay- ing focused on, and getting my action items and tasks done." Yes, the communication piece is huge to this. Matties: Great. Dave, what advice would you have to share with the industry at this point? Bergman: As we were talking, my mind was going back to 30+ years ago when somebody was submitting a comment to a document, and they mailed an envelope from Shenzhen, China, to Northbrook, Illinois. You can imag- ine how long that took to get that set of in- put from that company from one portion of the world to the other with no additional re- view. By the time I got that and got it to the committee, it might have been six months. Now, I look at it from my standpoint, and we have systems and tools in place where you can have people from multiple continents participating and resolving comments in real- time. Going from really not doing that as a business as usual, yes, people were using it, but three weeks ago, people weren't working from home; now, everybody's working from home.