IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1547121
44 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2026 picture, change will be an everyday occurrence, and standards will need to be valuable within this reality. That creates an interesting challenge for stan- dards. Manufacturers may need to change much more quickly than the standards development process traditionally allows. Absolutely. I believe it will become a roadblock at first. There will have to be exceptions, and then the question becomes whether the standards can keep up quickly enough to become more like liv- ing, breathing specifications rather than ironclad re- quirements developed by committees that can take months to work through a specification. If the standards can't become nimbler, they could become less relevant, or potentially create a road- block to getting products built. Manufacturers may end up relying more heavily on exceptions and sign- offs simply because the technology and processes have moved ahead of the existing requirements. That means manufacturers and others working directly with these technologies will need to be in- volved. Those exceptions and new manufacturing realities will have to be brought forward quickly so they can be discussed and, when appropriate, incorporated into the standards. Yes, that's exactly where I was going with this. The question is whether the standards process can keep pace with how quickly everything else is changing. That seems especially important in industries like aerospace and defense, where standards and consistency exist for very good reasons. You don't want to lose the reliability and discipline those systems provide. At the same time, manufactur- ers are being asked to develop and build new technology faster than ever. Right, we've always been very focused on consis- tency in aerospace, but nothing stays the same any- more. The only thing we can know will be consistent is change. I see that continuing over the next few years. It will no longer be, "This is what we do." It will be, "That's what we did last year. Now we do this." Maybe it becomes, "That's what we did last week. Now we do it this way." That's the difference I think we're going to have to learn to work with. To wrap up our conversation, given the limited capacity in U.S. manufacturing, do you see a situation where the government will require ev- eryone to work together to create the volume that's needed? I think it's very real, and if called upon, we would step up. We love what we do, and we would be very proud to do that for the right reasons. There will always be a need to keep making quick-turns for new technology. We're small compared to many other shops, but we're nimble, and we get things done more quickly than others can. We're used to being hands-on, so when someone gives us something that's never been done before, we understand and we work to do it. We do that type of work all the time. The minute we stop changing and growing and pushing that envelope and doing something that's not been done before is the minute we start to fall behind. I firmly believe that we need to continue to create new technology every day. I hope that prototype PCBs are finally getting their day in the sun, because that is where some of the coolest work is done, and it's critically im- portant in the overall ecosystem. James, thank you for catching up on these topics with me. Yes, it's been great, thank you. I-CONNECT007 " The minute we stop changing and growing and pushing that envelope and doing something that's not been done before is the minute we start to fall behind... we need to continue to create new technology every day."