Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1406534
SEPTEMBER 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 13 individual player. Right now, a component maker may have many different barcodes, and many different sets of ID tags and locations on their packaging across all their customers. It's a bit of a nightmare for them to mark packages in the right way according to each customer's need. e use of a digital solution, based on standards, reduces the work, as it is one for all. Similarly, for the material specification itself, which today is issued, effectively, on paper— bearing in mind that a simple PDF file repre- sents only a digital twin of a piece of paper, not the data that it contains. e design of the ma- terial itself, even the simplest chip that is just like a square little box with leads, will have been designed digitally. Digital transfer of data about materials has not been done until today, because there has never been a standard format in which to do so. Every customer would want the data in their own way. If there were to be a standard throughout the industry, the manufacturer would know that they could automatically for- mat the design data into the standard format, with a trivial additional piece of soware in their design application, which makes available a digital twin alongside the physical products. ere is no significant cost to do so, yet quite a savings in terms of costs, considering the creation of all the data sheets in different languages, etc., that were needed. ere is re- ally a value for the component manufactur- ers. Now, the challenge is how do we convince people that it is true and change the industry paradigm? The use of a digital solution, based on standards, reduces the work, as it is one for all. ignator with that part number, knowing that it may change later. What happens when man- ufacturing from end to end takes a week, and the BOM changes halfway through? Where do you start to apply that BOM change from? e timing of how you synchronize these changes is very important. Is it date, accumu- lation, work order, or lot based, or simply from the point when you run out of parts? You must control it somehow. Against that control mech- anism, you then have the alternative BOM en- tries, so that you have one master BOM "source of truth," which applies to every variation and revision of your products, and you have includ- ed then, historically, every individual change that was made from the time that product was created. at one source of data—part of the digital twin—has everything you need to cre- ate, or recreate, any product at any instance or revision, in any variant. Nolan Johnson: Or it can determine how a spe- cific serialized product was built. You get a field failure; you can look back through the da- tabase and see exactly which components were used and how it was put together. Ford: Exactly. It also helps ERP because some- times the ERP is otherwise not 100% aware of exactly which part was used from the bill of ma- terials in each individual product, and so how does it know how to accurately decrement ma- terials from stock? BOM and traceability data work closely together in terms of material con- sumption. Johnson: is is depending, though, upon criti- cal information coming from the distributor of the component. at is critical information for the EMS company, for the actual manufactur- er of the part. But that's not information that generates revenue for the company making the components. Why should they change? Ford: e industry as a whole must be con- vinced that digitalization is a benefit for each