Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1525368
12 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2024 With respect to process control, he tells his clients, "you have to stop thinking like a fab- ricator and think more like a semiconductor company." Don't be solely reliant on your sup- pliers' technical support to do the job either, he adds, because by then, it could be too late. "We all need to be laser-focused on precision. We need to be better at what we do. Perfection may not be attainable, but we should strive to get as close as we can. You achieve that through pro- cess control, which encompasses the critically essential skills of troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, problem-solving, and strategizing. Marcy LaRont: Mike, PCB fabricators care about quality and yield because it ultimately translates to cost and profitability. Today, we also have sustainability goals and requirements. What should be the priorities in tightening up control? Mike Carano: It has been frustrating over the years to witness the general lack of ability to troubleshoot and solve problems in some of the places I visit, which is why I write articles and present courses on advanced troubleshoot- ing. I oen see a "teeter-totter" mindset, this conundrum that you must sacrifice either qual- ity or productivity and that somehow you can't have both. Of course, the manufacturing folks err toward greater productivity, so you always have control over all your processes in real- time. ings will always go wrong. But when you simply rely on mass inspection, and don't focus on process control, costs and rework go up, and productivity ultimately declines, all because of an imperfect system. LaRont: Fabricators can chip away at the imperfect systems by implementing more real-time process control. Exactly. I don't see enough investment in most of the facilities here in the U.S. I could prob- ably walk into any SME printed circuit board fabricator today and tell them that I could put controls on every one of their wet processes for under $50,000, and they would still not be interested. Barry Matties: You need that knowledge to create a strategic process control package, but first you must want to control your processes and be committed to doing so. Exactly. About a year ago, I went to a small com- pany with about $15 million in sales that makes boards for customers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. ey were proud of that. ey were running electroless copper on 20- to 24-layer boards, but I saw all kinds of stuff that was wrong. I asked, "Where's your elec- troless copper controller?" When they showed me, I saw that the controller that was supposed to monitor the plating solution and make