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OCTOBER 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 61 level of digitalization and process automation everyone is looking for. It has become very clear that we need to be digital to make our workplaces attractive to all generations. It's a big challenge for our customers in industrial manufacturing to get new generations inter- ested in an environment with no digital tools. Having this understanding helps our custom- ers decide to bring their manufacturing to a different level. Remember, digitalization is not about tak- ing people out, but rather making them more effective. ere are processes where digitaliza- tion can be more efficient than people. at's a big win for everybody. Johnson: Stefan, what about data security? When you're in a digital environment, you're more exposed to remote access. Stefanescu: Our customers have been very protective about the data and general access to information, and that's why we designed the Digital Factory Suite to be on-premises. We don't put it in the cloud because we know some customers have their own internal cloud to pro- tect their ecosystem. is sys- tem inserts into that ecosystem so we are not creating an open door to data security issues. We are looking to help our customers with digital solutions running in their factory, so what is the best way? As we talked with big suppliers of industrial digitalization, we under- stood that being in the full cloud is not an option for two big reasons: data security and faster response time. We see that customers must do a lot of internal IT transformations, and for a lot of applications, you need edge computing. You need that faster response time, and that's why on-premises is still a good solution. While there might be hybrid solutions, we want to allow our customers to apply the same security standards they have today to the Atotech solutions. Some of our customers are already running big programs to leverage digi- talization solutions in their factory. I'm happy to work with them and drive digitalization for- ward in our industry. It's a very productive col- laboration. It's a good starting concept that will allow us to evolve if other platforms or solu- tions can enable them to do more. Johnson: Great, thank you. We know that glob- ally it is difficult to fully staff our facilities. Is there an opportunity within the Digital Fac- tory Suite to increase automation? Stefanescu: Oh yes, absolutely. e soware does three things: maximize the use of data, embed hardware and digital solutions to help solve critical yield and scrap problems, and the whole remote service. I will explain these in more detail. I mentioned VCS. Today, every engineer uses the com- puter with our equipment. Maintenance, quality, and pro- cess engineers all need to work with the computer on each piece of equipment. e main- tenance engineer, for exam- ple, uses it to know what to do next, or when the maintenance is coming. If there is a problem, the quality engineer goes to the same com- puter. Basically, the first thing we do is get the data out of the visualization and control system so that all engineers can have access and work with it directly at their own desks. We also install sensors to generate more data. We can create a digital twin or a digital map, if you will, of the functionality of the equipment and the process. We then apply advanced ana- lytics, so the applications focus exactly on what the engineers do every day. One simple exam- ple is the maintenance engineer, who monitors the equipment from a dashboard at their desk so they can look at the data and plan mainte-