Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1533085
48 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2025 In this Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2024 video, Kelly Dack interviews Chad Orebaugh, VP of engineering at Key Tronic Corporation, a leading electronics supplier, who outlines the company's operations, challenges, and their unique approach to design for manufacturability—DFM. He then offered a final, convincing point that truly expanded my previously dogmatic take on standards-based PCB product development. "We didn't get to the moon, nor will we get to Mars, by designing and manufacturing to pres- ent standards," he said. And with that, he gave me a fist-bump and headed to the airport. IPC APEX EXPO is indeed a great place for designers to get in touch with present manu- facturing capability, for machine manufactur- ers to show their present capability, and to learn to design with standards so that PCBs can be easily manufactured in volume. I understand Chad's point; he is an inven- tor and an entrepreneur. But if PCB design- ers are not designing with standards, they are either inventing a brilliant product that will require millions of dollars of invest- ment, or inventing a supplier headache that could have been easily remedied with stan- dard DFM principles. DESIGN007 Kelly Dack, CIT, CID+, provides DFx centered PCB design and manufacturing liaison expertise for a dynamic EMS provider in the Pacific Northwest while also serving as an IPC design certification instructor (CID) for EPTAC. To read past columns, click here. References Read more about my time with Chad Orebaugh here and check out the interview with him below. A Unique Approach to Design for Manufacturability (DFM)