PCB007 Magazine

PCB007-Jan2024

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42 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2024 tures together and implementing operational improvement programs where there are vary- ing mindsets. Culture is a long-term plan. I really like the culture at Amazon, where I used to work; they have one of the best "at scale" cultures in the world because it has meaning to them. It's not just lip service. For Summit, it starts with sites talking to other sites, suppress- ing geographical barriers as much as possible, and having our general managers and engi- neering teams go from site to site to observe and implement best practices. We are getting to know each other. But we have to move away from ad hoc requests on individual processes at a specific site to systematic process improve- ments across all sites through a culture of help- ing each other. at is the culture we are work- ing on. Culture is built through the operating process. Yes, and it's really important, especially on the quality management system side, to have regi- mented processes that everyone follows across You're operating in California, perhaps one of the most expensive states to do business. What's your strategy for offsetting costs? We focus on efficiency and verifying our pro- cesses up front before we start production. is maximizes our workforce to keep labor costs down. We also focus on employee reten- tion by providing long-term career planning with opportunities to move into higher-level engineering positions. How do you help your employees take advantage of paid training? At IPC this year, of the 20 people who went through the Emerging Engineering program, eight were from Summit, so we had the larg- est team there. It's healthy that we all cooper- ate to bring more people into the industry and not just move them from site to site. at's not helping our industry. We want to continue that IPC training, developing a career path through- out our company and within the industry. How do you manage operational effective- ness across multiple locations? You focus on alignment, but you can't do everything all at once. For example, what is the best process for yielding a circuit board? In my facilities, I have seven design of exper- iments (DOEs) happening at once and we are finding the best process that is also the least expensive. en we implement that cooper- atively throughout all facilities. Each site is making continuous improvement unto itself, so while we can implement certain "best in class" processes across the board, each site also deals with its own issues. We have a roadmap for achieving it but getting there is challenging. is is "change management." When you acquire a company, you acquire their culture, which is another aspect of change management. Summit acquired eight new facilities within seven years, so we're working to bring the cul- Sean Patterson

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