Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1454922
128 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2022 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE demands of the market the day aer tomor- row." Mitchell's sporting analogy was a base- ball fielder diving to catch the ball: not moving to where it was, but to where it was going to be. His list of drivers to be understood and addressed included technological require- ments, operational efficiencies, customer expectations, supply chain resiliency, and skilled workforce, as well as ESG (which I later learned stood for environmental, social, and corporate governance). Somewhat surprisingly, he took time to admonish his largely North American audi- ence: "You've got to stop thinking of the Fac- tory of the Future as something way down the road. It's now. If you're not working actively toward it, you're going to be le behind." He reminded them that because Europe and Asia had longer-term vision, North America is already five to 10 years behind. Europe has rec- ognised that a digital transformation is funda- mental to its future economic security. Returning to his list of drivers, Mitchell dis- cussed each one in detail, beginning with tech- nological requirements and referring to the recently published report analysing the North American semiconductor and advanced pack- aging ecosystem, authored by IPC's Matt Kelly and TechSearch's Jan Vardaman. e fact that advanced packaging was a strategic consider- ation for PCB and EMS companies reflected how far the industry had progressed in pack- aging density, demanding finer and finer con- ductor traces while maintaining quality and reliability amidst rapid innovation. Keeping pace will not be cheap. Yesterday's manufac- turing equipment will not meet tomorrow's demands. Cleaner environments, greater auto- mation, new materials, and new processes for additive and semi-additive manufacturing will all be required. Operational efficiency was the next topic explored by Mitchell, with a neat example of a hospital's intensive care unit learning lessons from the Ferrari Formula 1 pit crew, gaining an outside perspective in order to recognise obvious improvements they could make. He touched upon "big data," new process theo- ries, and communication between machines in introducing IPC's CFX open industry standard, which is being adopted by the major equipment manufacturers and is leading the way in com- munication for the Factory of the Future. CFX was already bringing down costs and increasing productivity in electronics manufacturing. e prospect of combining its benefits with artifi- cial intelligence was exciting. Digital transparency enhanced customer expectations, enabling them to effectively see the factory floor from afar, to receive real-time