Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1372612
46 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2021 Vaughan: I would say it's possible, but you have got to put in the grunt work. Specifically, if you have both entities under the same roof, you've got to tell your guys, "Let's put some jackets and straps on, and go out there and get fa- miliar with the equipment. Let's go watch a board get built." It could be one of the senior guys who may have never had the oppor- tunity. It could be an en- vironment where they're siloed—where design is de- sign—and we throw it over the fence and manufacturing figures it out. It's relative to the situation in every company. But my advice would be that if the channels don't exist at all, carve them out. If they do ex- ist but they're not operating at an efficient lev- el or they exist just to say they do, then put in the work to actually make that connection and to make that an efficient process. ey sim- ply may not realize the 20 minutes you take off here saves days on the backend waiting for ap- provals, TQs, EQs, and such. It helps when you can understand the que- ries that you will get from the manufactur- ing house, no matter who they are—whether they're your 800-pound gorillas or your mid- level guys—generally, they all operate on the same basic set of processes. So, if you can de- sign on the front end, understanding what 70% of your TQs are on the backend, then you elim- inate that as well. I think that helps to incor- porate efficiency, and that comes with under- standing why they ask those questions, why they ask for those deviations, and then being able to incorporate those in the front end on your designs. Johnson: Seems it is worth the time investment to get a design engineer more than passingly familiar with how the boards are going to be manufactured. Vaughan: Absolutely. Johnson: at becomes an important part of what gets incorporated into the design deci- sions. Vaughan: Yes. I would agree with that state- ment. Johnson: You mentioned earlier in this conver- sation about working with fabs, having pro- cesses change and outdated DFM information because everything's changed at your fab. How do you manage that external communication? Vaughan: We have been somewhat successful, but also somewhat stonewalled. I haven't re- ally figured out what that is. I think it comes down to that they've dialed in this recipe and they don't want it just out there floating ev- erywhere because somebody could be smart enough to take that digital information and then derive from it what they need to improve their process, which then brings the competi- tion up to their level. Vaughan and the ACDi Design team.