Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1355791
58 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2021 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE tion data with artificial intelligence in a single welding cell in a single plant. e system ana- lysed tens of thousands of welds and identi- fied one welding robot as driing slightly off- optimum although still well-within limits and not detectable by normal human inspection. e offending machine was rectified long before it could cause problems downstream, and the company recognised the benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning without having taken any risks or made major investment. Intel's wafer fab told a similar story of simple beginnings: to meet growing demand, they had switched from eight-inch wafers to 12-inch, which were too heavy to move by hand so they had to employ robots. It was then no longer safe to have human workers to inspect and maintain the systems, so artificial intelligence was employed. And that's where their digital revolution began—by solving a real problem in the smartest and most efficient way possible. Hessman recalled a mid-sized EMS com- pany he had visited in 2018, that had experi- enced a "brutal" year when a world seemingly obsessed with IoT was looking to cram every- thing with electronics, resulting in a battle for component availabil- ity, and designers hav- ing to be innovative in their desperation to work around such com- ponents as could be sourced. ey reckoned that the situation couldn't get worse—but it did! At the beginning of 2021, the world short- age of semiconductors had effectively stopped production in the automotive industry! What- ever, Hessman had recently revisited the com- pany, and was delighted to learn that they had resolved many of their problems with digital solutions. eir COO modestly admitted that he was no expert on Industry 4.0, then detailed a massive data integration project that effec- tively connected the whole operation from design to final delivery and provided managers and engineers with the intelligent information they needed. But none of this had been done in the name of "transformation" or for the sake of technology. e company had been trying to solve real prob- lems, and it needed better data on its stock and its operations to make smarter decisions. Nib- bling at the edges had given positive results and led to a progression of more ambitious nibbles. Hessman made it clear that this had not been a digital transformation project but a manufactur- ing process of solving the right problems by ask- ing the right questions, and constantly working to improve the use of the data using available technology, making sensible investment deci- sions within a culture of continuous improve- ment. "Digital transformation is the result of good work to solve real problems. It's not the driver. No Industry 4.0 experience required!" e parting words in Hessman's concluding slide summarised the essence of his message: "Put the problems in front of the solutions and develop processes not disruptions!" His inspirational presen- tation put a rational and realistic perspec- tive on the potentially daunting challenge of digital transformation. S&T Pete Starkey and Travis Hessman