Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1408619
18 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 way it should be. I don't need dumb data. I need something that allows us to actually com- municate back and forth efficiently. Plus, we still don't really know how to communicate. It's like two different languages, and I'm not talking about English and Chinese. You have the CAM operator sitting at the fab, and then you've got the DFM guy and the front-end engineer from an assembly shop, the designer and the engineer who designed the board, plus the purchasing person who's working on the BOM. You have a chasm, because you've got these silos around every- body. How do you collapse those silos down to just one way of communicating? And I'm going to bring this back around to the IPC- 2581 standard. Inside of the 2581 standard is a DFM piece, which allows for this kind of communication to go back and forth. is is something that we are very actively trying to develop and have industry support for; this would solve the problem. e fact is, this is how you should communicate issues within a design. Let it be the BOM, the notes, the silk screen color, anything that is now done via email or a spreadsheet, would be done inside the 2581 format. at way you have full trace- ability of all changes and a single common means of looking at the issues. Shaughnessy: In a recent interview, a CAM expert said he'd be happy getting fewer docu- ments. He said they don't need drawings of everything, especially if it's not a critical part. What do you think? Davis: I've heard this from manufacturing people for decades, right up until they needed more data. So we decided that we're going to give you everything in a format where you don't have to go look for it. Here's what you want, and here's everything else. Here's all your fab data, and we're also giving you the assembly data. I don't need dumb data. I need something that allows us to actually communicate back and forth efficiently.