Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1532533
96 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2025 about automating workflows. Now, we have artificial intelligence. Of course, the Factory of the Future will be AI-based, not only in ana- lyzing the data and looking for correlations but also in learning from what has happened to a project and what will happen in the future. is will be the "Intelligent Factory," and it will be automated as much as possible. More than ever, we need transparency to know what's going on. ere are deadlines for production, quality requirements, and yield costs. My pri- ority is to know what is happening in my pro- duction to make the right decisions and know that what I promised is happening seamlessly and in an integrated way. But there is no single machine or soware vendor that can do it all. A Factory of the Future is always a combi- nation and cooperation between different ven- dors. As a manufacturer, I don't want to be concerned about where and how they come together; it simply must work. at's seamless integration. It must be easy to deploy with new equipment because, as a manufacturer, I don't have days or weeks for integrating this new equipment into my intelligent factory. How does cybersecurity fold into this picture? Cybersecurity is always on the agenda. We have heard about companies that have been hacked and their data either destroyed or encrypted. ey had to pay ransom, and the factory was down for days or even weeks. Factory down- time always translates into business and finan- cial losses, as well as a loss of customer trust. The U.S. has the CMMC, a phased cybersecu- rity compliance. What does Europe have? We have the Cybersecurity Resilience Act, which will be mandatory in 2025. It puts a lot of responsibility on factories and their suppli- ers because a factory can pass on the responsi- bility to the supplier. e supplier must ensure that the products are secure. It is the same with the CMMC. You can't say, "Once I have sold something as a machine vendor or soware vendor, I bear no responsibility, and the fac- tory will get back to me if something happens." at is no longer the case. Everyone along the supply chain has liability and responsibility. It feels like intelligent data for decision-making, process optimization, communication, data transfer, and utilization between machines is one of the most significant developments in the past year for both PCB fabricators and assembly providers. What do you see? Definitely. I was the head of a soware R&D department, and for more than 20 years, I did a lot of integration work transforming data from one format into another and building interfaces to transfer it from one machine to another. e gains we are making in intelligent data deploy- ment and communication are important for automation, but even more for AI. Assembling PCBs on an SMT line is always a cooperation between all machines. If one machine is not integrated into the overall work- flow, it does not work. If data cannot flow, then you have built-in hurdles that hinder you from applying automation or, even worse, from using AI because if there is a systemic hurdle block- ing you from training your AI with your data, it will not work. You cannot participate in the training, and you will not achieve that techni- cal progress. Now, AI is everywhere. You don't Thomas Marktscheffel