Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1426508
22 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 In one instance that I was involved in, a large OEM contacted my company and asked why we were building their boards, in volume. We checked our records and told them that we didn't have any order from them. So, they sent us a copy of their data package. We did a database query for datasets with similar char- acteristics; low and behold, we found a data- set that was an identical match but ordered by another company. In another case, we received an order for a consumer PCB that had a ship- to address for a jewelry dealer in a large Asian city. We informed the OEM, and they took on the investigation at that point. We obviously refused the order. ere are many methods to transmit data between companies using various security methods with complex encoding/decoding protocols. e specific method is generally specified by the ordering company. Good data management is also required within a manufacturing facility to restrict data access to only those who require it. It also denotes that individual logins/passwords, not generic logins for a team of people, are required to log who accessed the data, when it was accessed, and who modified any data. is includes going all the way down to the actual equip- ment. Access to internal CAD/CAM/ERP so- ware must also be controlled so only autho- rized people may approve and/or modify the specific manufacturing tooling. If I count my fingers and toes, plus the number of birthday candles on my last cake—I was born the same year as Disneyland—it still doesn't equal the number of times someone had to modify art- work on a Sunday night, without the proper folks available to authorize the edit per pro- cedure. e requestor will propose to edit the tool and let the ECO paperwork catch up the next day. is, of course, opens the company for unintentional scrap, rework, or customer returns because the proper ECO/document update does not properly occur or should not have been authorized. Quote and DFM Data Vs. Build Data Revisions Figure 1 shows typical paths for data flow from the original OEM/ODM to the final assembled board. ere are many contacts where humans touch the data package. It will not be unusual for the quoting department to receive partial data to generate a budget- ary quote. An updated version of the data may be sent for the final order. For example, the designer may have version 5 of the data, the CM may have an order for version 4 and the quoting may have occurred on partial revision 1 data. From a fabricator's perspective, the only version that should be used to manufac- ture the board will be the version that is placed by the company/person who places the pur- chase order (version 4 in this case). e current process has a minimum of six or more human touch points before the assem- bly is returned to the OEM. Each touch point creates potential security and revision control risks. Figure 1: Generic data hand-off.