Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1513827
8 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2024 Nolan's Notes by Nolan Johnson, I-CONNECT007 The Cost of Rework I've been repairing an electric guitar—a no- name copy of the iconic Fender Stratocaster. e instrument came to me by way of my guitar teacher—full-time musician and good friend Ken Brewer—in a condition described as "func- tional, but unplayable." It had potential, so we decided to see if we could bring it back to life. I'm not sure what the previous owner had in mind, but their small misadjustments in one place had to be compensated for by medium- sized misadjustments elsewhere, leading to big misadjusments that rendered the instrument mostly unusable. Nothing worked as it should. In this issue of SMT007 Magazine, we visit the rework processes, arguably one of the high- est-skilled, highest-pressure jobs on the man- ufacturing floor. What are the technical chal- lenges? How is the rework job function being changed by new packaging technologies and increasing board densities? When faced with a staffing shortage in rework, how can we rem- edy the situation? How will the skill sets for rework need to evolve? ere aren't many functional pieces to an electric guitar; the bill of materials is pretty short. It's not like, say, the PCB of a cellphone. But when it comes to rework, the process is quite similar. For example, when first handed to me, it was as if that Stratocaster copy had been rejected by test. e next steps were to diagnose the problems and determine a course of action. Was it repair- able? Was it—like so many of our PCBs in p r o d u c t i o n — e v e n worth repairing? Our triage suggested there was hope, and it was worth our while to try. S o , w e c a r e f u l l y removed the essen- tial par ts and tested t h e m . E l e c t r i c a l l y, ever ything worked. The problems were, i t s e e m e d , e n t i r e l y mechanical. Some of the fasteners used in Stratocaster internals open for test and inspection.