IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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47 come in with preconceived notions, expecting to get exactly what they want out of the process, and there is a learning curve. "We are always open to new interpretations and changes to standards if the entire committee agrees on the choices we are making," she says. "If we are having difficulty and a standard is stalled, we are open to swapping out roles of chairs and com- mittee members to find consensus." IPC A-Teams are relatively small, dedicated groups of volunteers within existing IPC working groups who take on a significant amount of work on behalf of their groups. Their creativity is reflected in the names of their teams. For example, roles on two A-Teams were swapped out recently: The IPC A-610 A-Team, "Looks Good from Here," changed roles with the leaders of the IPC-J-STD-001 A-Team, "Toe Hang- over Gang," to create the "Looks Like a Hangover A-Team," and this group is busy finding consensus on those standards. Following the Working Draft, the document goes into the Final Draft for Industry Review (FDIR) stage where the comments can come from both within and outside of the originating group, often becoming more "heated" as the document gets closer to approval, and the editing process be- comes intense. "This is where we find the commit- tee members who are detail-oriented and enjoy the process, hunting for the best way to develop the standard," Teresa says. After FDIR, the document goes to the Proposed Standard for Ballot (PSB) stage and the originat- ing group votes on its release. When a standard is finalized and passes the ballot process (perhaps involving a Negative Ballot resolution phase), cele- brations ensue, usually at either IPC SummerCom or IPC APEX-EXPO. T h e s t a n d a r d s d e v e l o p m e n t process, while difficult and t i m e - c o n s u m i n g , a l s o provides a unique oppor- tunity for industry members to come to- gether, build relationships, participate in networking activities, and enhance their professional careers. IPC is fortunate to have committee members from all as- pects of the industry, and from all cor- ners of the globe, ensuring that IPC standards benefit from a broad and diverse knowledge base. The younger generation h a s s h ow n e a g e r n e s s i n standards development a c t i v i t i e s , a n d t h at i s ve r y p o s i t i ve fo r t h e i n d u s t r y, a c c o r d i n g to Teresa. "We have found so much energy in our emerging engineers—we benefit from their youth, energy, and new way of looking at things. Hopeful- ly by working on standards, they are benefitting in ways that will help their careers." Udo Welzel, Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany) and co-chair of the IPC Technical Program Committee, highlights three critical aspects of the need for standards in electronics manufacturing. "First, standards development leads to accel- eration of innovation, by transferring novel con- cepts, technologies and materials to the state of the art. Second, quality improvements are fostered by meeting standards requirements. Last but not least, harmonization of requirements and proce- dures along the supply chain can also bring about cost-savings by reducing variations—stakeholders can more efficiently focus on commonly accepted requirements." Stanton F. Rak, SF Rak Company, chair of the IPC Technical Program Committee and active in standards development for two decades, says that "standards tie everything together—suppliers and OEMs are all involved in the development, and ev- eryone has an opportunity to provide input, making it much more efficient for the industry if they share common goals."