Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1520492
REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2024 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 111 companies. As customers, they buy existing machinery, materials, and processes so they can keep up with their competitors. It seems to be a constant game of capability catch- up. Once everyone catches up, everyone can do the same thing, so the competition goes away, and service pricing sinks to cutthroat levels. To really evolve and be able to achieve the impossible, EMS companies need an introduction to the inventor/ entrepreneurial attendees who have those nonstandard needs—ones for which there are no machines, materials, or processes— in order to spawn new business and tech- nology. As the week progressed, I heard voices echo from the EMS Leadership Summit I had attended on Monday: "Contract manufactur- ers take the risks," "Contract manufacturers must be aligned with customers," and "Con- tract manufacturers must be introduced to inventors to develop business in emerging technologies—cloud, medical, old industrial, test and measurement, and automotive EVs." For these there are few standards but an abundance of creativity and entrepreneurial/ inventor expertise helping to achieve the art of the impossible. S&T Kelly Dack, CIT, CID+, provides DFx centered PCB design and manufacturing liaison exper- tise for a dynamic EMS provider in the Pacific Northwest while also serving as an IPC design certification instructor (CID) for EPTAC. He is an I-Connect007 columnist. To read his column, click here.