Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1345210
MARCH 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 17 month, but there's still a little thing I can tweak and make it better." And then when you've fixed that and you think you've got 100% of the bugs out, then you might say, "We're doing great, but I think I just found something else to make it better." So, that's continuous improve- ment. Sometimes it has nothing to do with the product we're building, but it's the process we're building. We're finding easier ways to do things. If we do something by hand we fig- ure out, "Oh, I put this on a machine, and I can actually change this on the machine and go even faster." Or aer that, I might think, why don't we get another tooling involved so we can even go faster aer that? It's always a con- tinuous improvement. A process engineering job is not just, "Hey, I figured out how to build it." It is, "How do I improve it all the time?" And then sometimes it's not just improving the product, but it's also reducing costs. We built it very efficiently but how do I reduce cost? A lot of time cost comes into play in the sense of the cost of material and manufacturing. Can I get a better product cheaper and still get the same result? Or can I produce this faster, get the same results, and both of those will reduce costs? Johnson: Are you able to do both? at becomes an interesting dynamic for you as you're con- tinuously improving. You're basically finding ways to increase the margin for your company and/or the customer. Tran: When you increase efficiency, sometimes it's just for yourself. A good example is the COVID vaccines coming out. e new thing I heard this week is that they were producing some percentage more. ey're not reducing the amount of vaccine in the bottle; the effi- ciency of pumping it out has gone up. ey just made it quicker. And how do they make it quicker? at's always process improvement. Johnson: at's a great point. Tran: at's where the process engineer plays a key role. Johnson: How do you quantify your optimiza- tions? Tran: In our industry, a few things play into pro- cess improvement. First is quality—my yield. If I'm building 100,000 units and I'm getting 5% failure all the time, if I can continue man- ufacturing 100,000 units, but instead of hav- ing 5% defects I only have 2%, I basically just improved my process. e quantity of yield has gone up effectively, but the quantity pro- duced is still 100,000. And second is time improvement. Instead of 100,000 units in a week, can I do 110,000 units? So, I can improve it in two ways, quantity and quality. ose are the two things process engi- neering is always trying to get. How can I get better yield? Or how can I produce more with- out sacrificing yield? We can always produce 200,000 units, half garbage, and it comes up the same. I'd rather build 100,000 and have 95% yield than build 200,000 and 50% yield. It comes out to the same math. Johnson: How did you come to this job, Tuan? What's your background? Tran: I fell into this industry by mistake. I wanted to study law. It was a part-time summer job during my senior year of college right in the middle of the dotcom boom. ey asked me to stay because I was doing pretty well, and then I started learning from the ground up. I was on the manufacturing floor and learning every sta- tion in customer service and program manage- ment. I worked myself from the bottom all the way up. I think that's very good for anybody who wants to get in any industry, because you understand what it takes from ground zero all the way to a finished product. Johnson: What makes for a successful process engineer? What traits or skills should someone