Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1478618
SEPTEMBER 2022 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 35 time plotting, cleaning, and punching image films. What was once a two-hour process now takes 30 minutes, and we're not going through 150 films a day, which results in cost savings. LDI eliminates much of the error potential present using traditional methods. We're not handling film, moving it from place to place and potentially damaging it, so there is less scrap. Inspection and quality assurance take less time because there are fewer defects to find. Since less production time is spent on imag- ing, other production teams are less apt to be rushed and they have more time to focus on quality and process improvement. is has made LDI a critical component of our contin- uous improvement efforts and Lean manufac- turing adoption. Improving just one of the hundreds of pro- cesses in our PCB manufacturing facility pays dividends. Yes, my team can produce better results more efficiently, and this is great for our customers. e process improvements created by LDI also offer everyone on the team more opportunities for professional development. With less time spent on tedious traditional imaging efforts, we can focus on learning new skills that can lead to career advancement. Technology advancements like the ones created by LDI have opened doors and helped me grow professionally. I started as a part- time chip coordinator and now I'm the image department team leader. When measuring the value of tools like LDI, we tend to focus on improving the quality of the boards produced and increasing customer satisfaction. ese tools also improve the quality of our working lives and increase satisfaction with our professional development. DESIGN007 Trina Taylor is team lead, image department, at Sunstone. To read past Connect the Dots columns, click here. Tech sector companies added 25,500 net new workers in August, with growth in five major occu- pation categories, CompTIA's analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) "Employment Situation" report reveals. Companies throughout the economy added an estimated 21,000 tech workers for the month. The unemployment rate for tech occupations edged up to 2.3% parallel- ing the directional change of the national unem- ployment rate (3.7%). "Stability in tech hiring continues to be an over- arching theme this year," said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. "Despite all the eco- nomic noise and pockets of layoffs, aggregate tech hiring remains consistently positive." Employer job postings for tech positions eased back in August, coming in at just under 320,000. Among industries, the largest numbers of job postings occurred in professional, scien- tific and technical services, finance and insur- ance, manufacturing, information and retail trade. Employment opportunities in tech are available across the country, in markets large, medium and small. The New York City, Washington, Dallas, Chi- cago and Los Angeles metro areas had the most job postings for tech positions, while Allentown, PA, Raleigh, NC, and Columbus, OH recorded the largest month-over-month increases in tech job postings. (Source: PRNewswire) Tech Employment Increases as Companies Keep Up Pace of Hiring