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April 2016 • SMT Magazine 59 ThE imPorTancE of bEinG EarnEsT (EducaTEd) continue to hold our intentions to solve the problems as more important than achieving the results. I would submit that in the U.S. we have never really taken electronic manufacturing se- riously. Since low labor rate, global manufactur- ing, competitive forces emerged about 25 years ago, it has worsened. Now, at this point, you might be thinking, "How could you say that, Tom? Look at the at- tention that is being paid with programs like STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). However, do you see the words manu- facturing, production, assembly, or automation in there? Politicians, academics and consultants quickly got the religion and had the term STEM embroidered on their shirt pockets. Oh yeah, a few more government grants and you'll see. We are on the yellow brick road to our manufactur- ing Oz—our manufacturing Legoland. Since valuable real world skills such as criti- cal thinking, root cause analysis, proactive pro- cess control, and continuous flow assembly are difficult to teach and test in the Ivory Tower, academics always fall back on assigning and testing the students' ability to "solve the odd numbered problems at the end of the chapter." In fact, the educational experience of Nobel Prize-winning particle physicist, Dr. Murray Gell-Mann, is a great example of this mental- ity. Dr. Gell-Mann, the co-proposer of the exis- tence of the sub-atomic particle he named the quark, said upon receiving his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT, the reason for his success in school was largely due to his ability to memorize, re- gurgitate and forget [2] . Many of his classmates did not do as well—not because they were less intel- ligent, but because they weren't as proficient in taking tests. However, we do not work in the academics' world of the Ivory Tower—we work in the real world. Time and technology continue to pass by academia. Before microprocessor-controlled machines and automated product assembly and test, the required skills for a process engineer were very different. Back then, the ability to conduct a time and motion study, calculate a learning curve and methodize a product design into an efficient series of labor steps, was signifi- cant. Having a copy of Motion Study: A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman by Frank B. Gilbreth was helpful as well (read or see the Hollywood treatment of this man's life: Cheaper by the Dozen). The young people drawn into our industry are those who are successful in school; how- ever, is academic achievement the sole critical success factor in predicting who will be achiev- ers in the real world of high-tech product as- sembly? Does using this criterion actually cause potentially valuable members of our industry to avoid this as a career choice? Does the fault lie with an outdated and ill-structured curricu- lum, and a delivery and measurement system that is established by people who have little ex- perience in the electronic product production industry? Following are the issues that, unless ad- dressed, will continue to put product assembly at a disadvantage in high labor rate areas of the world. I'll list those issues I've observed plagu- ing the U.S., but would welcome feedback from those of you in other areas of the world: 1. The continued use of time-worn excuses as a pretext for failure to successfully compete in high-tech electronic product assembly (e.g., low labor rate competition, an uneven playing field, unfair monetary policy [exchange rates], and the regulatory climate). • Although all of these have had an effect on the exodus of production-related activity from " The young people drawn into our industry are those who are successful in school; however, is academic achievement the sole critical success factor in predicting who will be achievers in the real world of high-tech product assembly? "