Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1330321
JANUARY 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 23 simple solutions to iterate and im- prove? It grows up from there, all the way up to the top of the organiza- tion and then out into the industry. Brassard: With people, an attitude of "fix what bugs you" is a great place to start. When you have a few hundred employees each fix- ing something that bugs them once a month, that adds up to a lot of small improvements over time. The ideas are there, you just need a cul- ture that allows people to act on their ideas. Small reversible chang- es are best, but the bigger ideas must get due consideration. Every- one is happy when they are contrib- uting to the betterment of the com- pany by making improvements. If you're interested in the concepts of a "smart factory" or "smart processes," start by adding machine readable QR codes to your pan- els to eliminate the time and errors associated with an operator manually keying in filenames for equipment. Your process just got a little bit "smarter" and the principles of world class manufacturing are being followed by saving the operator time and aggravation and reducing the possibility of error, which reduces stress. Webster tells me that "smart" means "hav- ing or showing a high degree of mental abili- ty." I don't believe that the smart factories and smart process of today or the future are going to have any sort of "mental ability." But peo- ple on the other hand, they can be very smart. Let's put human smarts to work and develop the right tools and the right scale to solve prob- lems for our customer and our country. Let's keep learning and evolving. Johnson: Meredith, over the next 12 months, do you have a sense for how this sort of cul- ture, this sort of process, is going to change what's happening at Calumet? What do you expect to see at the end of 2021? LaBeau: The foundation is set and now we are using this foundational knowledge to sup- port the domestic supply chain. At Calumet, our technology is evolving and transitioning us into new markets thanks to the progressive leadership and innovation of our engineering teams. Calumet strives to be the solution that the United States needs, not just for prototyp- ing, but for volume as well. We're on the prec- ipice of something exciting and novel. Calumet is continuing to work with DoD primes to de- velop that reliable and robust next generation solution, harnessing the minds of our employ- ees, creating smarter processes. Johnson: Do these changes then percolate into a different attitude for your sales department? LaBeau: Absolutely, it gives them the confi- dence to continue to push boundaries and transition from the traditional transaction- al sales relationship into a strategic relation- ship. We're getting engineering involved right away; the CAM team phrase is "design with manufacturing" instead of the aged old concept "design for manufacturing." By providing strategic, smart solutions, we develop robust supply chains for PCBs, the backbone—the DNA—of the electronics industry. Johnson: Thank you everybody! PCB007 Manufacturing operators Travis Carney (left) and Ron Winnie hold ventilator circuit boards.