Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1454922
REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2022 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 121 ronment for counterfeiters to slip inauthentic materials into the component supply. While the IPC and industry leaders work on the design standards and risk management proto- cols needed to improve the situation in the long term, innovative technology can provide imme- diate risk management solutions. One solution that I found particularly interesting utilizes artificial intelligence to inspect every individual component through the SMT machine's exist- ing component alignment images. e technol- ogy creates a digital footprint of each compo- nent and can detect and prevent the placement of any component that does not match the set manufacturer, lot, age, and more. e supply chain is oen perceived as some- thing external—components come in and products go out. Yet at APEX EXPO, there was also a strong focus on the internal supply chain used to manage all the logistics needed to store, transport, prepare, consume, return, and dispose of materials in the factory. Auto- mation is key to the internal supply chain, with many exhibitors offering robotic storage tow- ers, smart storage shelves, and autonomous vehicles to store, transport, and return mate- rials. e increased focus on the automation of internal logistics is opening a new, grow- ing domain for information processing within the factory, known as intra-plant logistics or IPL. As manufacturers implement automa- tion, there is a real need to coordinate between the schedule from ERP, the consumption of materials on the line, and the automation layer to enable a lean delivery flow of materials. I expect to see the IPL domain growing over the coming years. Sustainability I was happy to see sustainability becoming a focus at the show. For many years the electron- ics industry was considered the savior for less environmentally friendly industries. Automa- tion and digitalization provided a path to "go green" by streamlining manufacturing pro- cesses, managing power consumption, and reducing emissions. However, as the pace of churn in consumer products has increased and as technology is moved to large data centers in the cloud, the waste produced by electron- ics and the carbon footprint of the electronics industry is receiving more scrutiny.