Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1440051
44 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2022 for each design. It may be that this time I'm worried about price and next time it's going to be lead time. Atay: Plus, you've got design teams who are designing the boards, and then they're sending them off to the purchasing department which is shopping around for price. Matties: We hear so many times what a mistake that process is. Atay: It makes it tough, communication-wise. Matties: It makes it tough for optimal design, for DFM, because if they're talking to you and they know the capabilities of this shop as they're designing, it's a win for them. Atay: What's our percentage of orders that go on hold because it was placed incorrectly? Stevenson: Historically, about 18% of all orders go on hold for a variety of reasons. It's come down a bit in the last 18 months. We've start- ed tracking that as one of our key metrics and working to reduce the holds. Matties: When you say "on hold," is that when your engineering team has to pick up the phone and ask a question? Is that considered on hold? Stevenson: We have a couple options in the or- der process where the customer can hold for a review before going into production or they call us and request to update the file set. All of those get counted, whether it's customer driv- en, customer support driven, or our CAM team finding something that doesn't match, and so forth. Fab notes have always been one of those things. e fab notes don't meet the order form selections that they have made, whether that's a purchaser not understanding or just canned fab notes from years ago. Or they don't need to follow those notes in prototype but will in production. Incomplete file sets are one of the biggest banes of our CAM team. ey'll get file sets missing solder mask layers, drill files, cop- per layers, you name it; and missing files where they ordered a four-layer board but there are six layers contained in their ZIP file. Atay: And usually the ones like that are the ones that need the boards the quickest. at's basically why it happened because they were in such a hurry. Johnson: You mentioned that you're moving more toward ODB++ with your customers. Is that helping mitigate the problem? Stevenson: Not necessarily. If they make that order incorrectly, then it typically doesn't mat- ter if it's Gerbers or ODB++. We are working toward updating our online quoting process to actually review the files and make order form selections from the data. is should speed up the quoting process and improve the accuracy of the quotes. Johnson: Plus, the chance to flag that some- thing is missing. Stevenson: Exactly, right up front before it be- comes an order to put on hold. You put that back in the customer's court: "Oh, I need to get my solder mask layers in there if I want mask on this." I'm hopeful we'll be moving to a model like that sometime in the next year. Matties: Do you see an increase in web orders or are you seeing more people wanting direct contact with your team to place an order? Historically, about 18% of all orders go on hold for a variety of reasons.