Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1424540
30 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 As we've evolved this AI piece, I see it as ap- plying to the business and helping the custom- ers in two ways. One is, of course, within the inspection process, building this more robust set of data for analysis to say, "Hey, that's good; that's bad." Continually building the intelli- gence of that database is critical. It's really ex- citing to think about how we can make the in- spection process better, and then using the AI algorithms and this sort of thing. With the idea of having this capable vision engine and this AI to build up data over time, we can better use our increasing data knowl- edge to make more throughput, higher yield, and a better quality electronic assembly that is more reliable. ese are things that customers care about. Having the vision and the engine to start with inspection and then continuing to migrate that out into the rest of our portfolio of products is really very exciting. I think the cus- tomers are going to get some real benefits from that in the coming years. Johnson: ere are some new emerging mar- ketplaces globally; automotive is a great exam- ple. e amount of electronics going into cars is changing the pie chart of who the big players and the minor players are in electronics design and purchasing components. How is Mycronic responding to that shi? How does that change what you're doing for your equipment design? Vey: Surprisingly, not that much. A few years ago, we saw the trends of component size re- duction. But now, it seems that we have reached a limit where we can't reduce anymore. Some boards are getting denser, this is true. e final product at the end does not really change the game for the SMT process and inspection pro- cess, I believe. Dowd: I think some combination of throughput, yield, and reliability is really driving everybody. at certainly varies depending upon applica- tion and market. Sure, autonomous vehicles and mobile robotics are pushing the electron- ics out in the world. Interacting with people and all of that certainly creates interest in reliability and high quality. e flexibility of manufactur- ing and the throughput and yield results remain important. But on balance, I agree with Alexia. It's not a sea change in what we see for the elec- tronics assembly and what's valued by the cus- tomers. Some of the things that we are talking with our customers about, i.e., the component short- ages, has them asking, "How can I recover from that quickly? In the past, I could find a substi- tute part. Maybe it's an equivalent pad on the board, and I don't have to change the design and go. But now, oh boy, I can't find that part. So, what do I do? How can I quickly change my board or change all of my programming and continue to keep my production going?" Johnson: And provide the ability to take results data and aggregate that into meaningful analy- sis for management? Dowd: at's right. You can probably argue the accumulation of that data builds more of the ability to detect defects or anticipate any prob- lems. I think it really creates the possibility to Jesse Dowd