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DECEMBER 2020 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 11 how to avoid them, and whether an MBA or an engineer is the best person to lead a tech- nology company. Next, Chris Young of Young Engineering Services offers some techniques for avoiding respins and explains why, with multiple respins, lost revenue is just the tip of the iceberg. Then, we have a conversation with Michael Ford and Happy Holden, who discuss the new DPMX standard, and how the digital twin can help designers work more efficiently. And Tara Dunn focuses on the need to communi- cate "outside the box" for proper flexible cir- cuit DFM. The idea of reducing spins by one could be the start of a movement. If you've managed to cut one respin from your design cycle, I'd like to hear how you did it. It's been a hell of a year. If we can all cut pro- cess steps by one, we can make 2021 a fantastic year. Have a great holiday! DESIGN007 Andy Shaughnessy is managing editor of Design007 Magazine. He has been covering PCB design for 20 years. He can be reached by clicking here. number. I imagine we'd be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in savings worldwide—just from reducing respins by one. When you account for the savings in wasted hours and gains in time to market, you start to get an idea of the cost of multiple respins, even if your company can "afford" the lost revenue. The idea of reducing spins by one is applica- ble across the entire industry, including reduc- ing process steps, scrap, and failure rates in fabrication and assembly. We discovered that this concept has a mathematical name (if you can call it that): x = x c – 1. It's not the catchi- est catchphrase, but it describes what we're talking about perfectly, and we'll continue to explore this theme throughout 2021. If you design boards for an OEM that rou- tinely experiences two or three respins, con- sider starting your own x = x c – 1 plan. It's not complicated: Just work on cutting your respins by one, and then look at the data. What did you learn? What worked, and what didn't work? Why couldn't you cut one more respin? This month, we delve into the idea of reduc- ing respins through solid DFM techniques. We start with our interview with Lee Ritchey, who discusses the hidden costs of extra respins,