Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1424540
28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 the years, we have increased the test coverage with the introduction of 3D, of course, but we have reached a point where the test coverage is complete, and our customers are now look- ing to spend less time creating and fine tuning their AOI programs. Johnson: at's probably where the user inter- face, user-friendly artificial intelligence appli- cations come into play, helping the staff spend less time for set up. Vey: Yes, and we also have to take into account the sometimes high level of operator turnover that our customers face. Consequently, EMS providers are requesting AOI systems that need less experience and skills from the oper- ators to be programmed, so we need to adapt to this. Of course, to be profitable, customers want to spend less time on the AOI program- ming or fine tuning and, last but not least, they need to get rid of all the false calls as well. Johnson: One goal in product development is to create machines that help implement the new best practices for a manufacturing environ- ment. AI is starting to play into that: the oper- ators are less technical, less skilled, and less ex- perienced. So, that experience—that skill set— needs to be captured somewhere. If it's not in the brain of the operator, then it needs to be in the system itself. Does that ring true to you? Vey: Yes, exactly. We tend to guide more and more the user, the programmer, in fact. e production operator interface is already clear and easy to use, so now we focus on the pro- gramming side. e trend, I would say, is to guide the user. Jesse Dowd: I think it's an economics decision: "We would like to be more efficient with our changeovers. We have multiple machines on the line." e more common the programming environment is, the better. at's great and that's certainly a good economics argument. But I think something we're hearing, at least from some of our customers, is the shortage of skilled labor. How do you get the people that can really keep your line running, keep your customers happy, deal with the next thing your customer is asking you to do? I think they need machines that can be easy to use and solve some of the problems on their own with mini- mal human interaction. I think that's valuable, and it's certainly on people's minds today. Johnson: How does Mycronic define AI? What's the implementation to you? Vey: ere are two different kinds of AI. You have the machine learning, and you have the deep learning. We have started to implement the machine learning. ese are very advanced algorithms, which work automatically. Today for example, we can present any SMT compo- nent to the soware and the soware will rec- ognize the body and the leads without any hu- man input. Our SPI can "read" a bare board and automatically locate and identify the fidu- cials, the copper pads, and even compensate for the warpage, all on its own. is is the first customer benefit brought in by AI that we ex- Alexia Vey