Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1517130
34 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2024 Interview by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 IPC recently partnered with Siemens for the development of IPC DFM profiles in PCB- flow, a cloud-based platform that organizes manufacturers' capabilities into DFM profiles, which helps designers ensure that they comply with their manufacturer's capabilities and pick the right manufacturer for each job. I recently spoke with a few technologists who have first-hand experience with PCBflow: Susan Kayesar, technical product manager with Siemens; Evgeny Makhline, CTO of Nistec, a CEM based in Israel; and Peter Tranitz, senior director of technology solutions and leader of the IPC Design Initiative. ey explain how PCBflow functions, from the designer's and manufacturer's viewpoint, and how this data- base helps break down the wall between these stakeholders. PCBflow Helps Designers Choose Best Manufacturer for the Job Andy Shaughnessy: Susan, give us a quick background on PCBflow and the DFM profiles. Susan Kayesar: Sure. PCBflow is an online platform and collaboration space for designers and manufacturers in the electronics industry. We enable transparent transfer of informa- tion between designers and manufacturers, which is something that is sorely missing in the industry. At a very functional level, we allow designers to upload their designs into a secure environment online and grab sets of pre-made DFM profiles. Basically, these are rules that represent either the constraints that they're looking to comply with or the actual manufac- turing environment. To date, we have many suppliers of DFM profiles that are a represen- tation of the real-life manufacturing environ-