Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1398328
AUGUST 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 47 specification targeting the product specifica- tion. What is the design supposed to do? How will we get it to perform? Once that's captured on the front end—way before the layout ever starts—now we move to design specification and we mold that concept into a product that can be laid out and manufactured anywhere based on its performance class. When the design is prototyped, that's the first phase of weeding out any potential design or engineer- ing type problems. And then, once the proto- type problems are resolved, it takes its natu- ral progression of ramping up into production. At that point, communication with regard to ordering the specified product continues to intensify between supplier management and the potential suppliers. Now, what you mentioned comes into play, Barry. We start over. Once something goes obsolete, we go back to the design stage to make the change. at's where communi- cation has to go back the other way. We've designed for specification but now, suddenly, the specification went away, and the bill of material changed, the potential replacement products changed. What do we do now? Now the communication must go back the other direction. Where is that board being created? Is that fixed? Do we want to keep it with that fabricator? Supplier management, at that point, can bring everybody together, includ- ing the designer, to solve the problem with the part. I think that would be the way to do it. e designer would know the supplier, would come in touch with the capabilities, and sort it out from there. Matties: How is digital twin, the automated or the AI factory 4.0, if you will, affecting this? Because with a digital twin, you must have all these things answered and a recipe built in computer before you even send it to a fabri- cator or an EMS. Is that going to be more the case soon? Vaughan: As the new technology's coming online, we're seeing it all connected through, whether it be CFX or some other platform, but we all see the IoT and digital twin conversation gaining traction. It's on its way. ———————————— Concluding Comments from the I-Connect007 Editorial Team: Revisions to a product throughout its life- cycle are normal. Traditionally, these rede- signs are thought of as driven by parts obsoles- cence and end-of-life announcements, which are oen announced well ahead of time. A moment's thought, though, and one realizes that part EOL is simply a special case, a per- manent unavailability condition. Extended temporary availability issues can require an identical response, but come with little to no warning. Kelly's example makes this similarity clear: lead times are now a key factor in causing printed circuit assemblies to be redesigned to use new and different parts just to keep in pro- duction. And this redesign can easily force a printed circuit respin to accommodate a new chip. It can also trigger a firmware or soware respin to accommodate any changes in compo- nent function as well. e amount of communication involved here can be daunting as the depth of the changes slowly reveal themselves, snowballing the scope and effort in what started as a simple update to a production product. It is easy to imagine the EMS team realizing the problem. As long as an alternate part can be sourced that can be certified as fit/form/func- tion compatible, the solution is easy. It isn't always easy, though. In a recent conversation with Screaming Circuits' Duane Benson (an I-Connect007 columnist), he pointed out that even amongst parts in the same product line (Arduino microcontrollers in the same fam- ily with different amounts of RAM on board, for instance) may have widely different pinouts on the package. In other words, even a simple