IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1544398
14 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2026 M ost PCB designers already understand why design for manufacturing (DFM) matters. If a product can't be built reli- ably, repeatedly, and at a price anyone will actually pay, it's dead on arrival. You may have the most elegant schematic and layout ever drawn in a CAD tool, but if the PCB suppliers can't make it, or the EMS sources refuse to quote it, you may well be considered more of a Nutty Professor or well- meaning inventor than a PCB designer. While designing for manufacturing makes sense, what about designing for invention? Maybe we should be talking about manufacturing for design (MFD), the idea that manufacturing sometimes has to evolve to keep up with the crazy ideas design- ers dream up. That tension of DFM vs. MFD isn't academic. It's exactly where innovation either takes off or crashes and burns as a PCB design project that devours the budget. The Conversation That Sparked the Question At IPC APEX EXPO 2025, I spoke with Keytronic Executive VP Chad Orebaugh about the moment F E AT U R E C O LU M N BY K E L LY DAC K , C I T C I D + When DESIGN Outpaces MANUFACTURING TA RG E T C O N D I T I O N