Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/710139
26 SMT Magazine • August 2016 than wave, so if you have a board with all thru- hole components, wave soldering would pro- cess your boards easily 5–10 times faster than selective. Wave has been around for decades, certainly, but it's still the fastest, least expensive and most reliable assembly method. Tell a friend! You get what you pay for! The U.S. market is flooded with value-added resellers of SMT assem- bly equipment coming out of Asia, driven large- ly by low cost. Regardless of the quality of the machines (some of which may be quite good), there's often a trade-off for low cost, manifest- ing as problems getting spare parts, support and maintenance. And what if you wanted a custom modification or programming? That machine is not so fast or inexpensive anymore. Downtime is not just annoying, it's non- productive, so we encourage people to ask these questions before they buy: Who will support your new machine? Can you get spare parts from local inventory? Does the seller offer train- ing and maintenance service in the US? If you get a quote from a true USA manu- facturer, answers to all these questions will un- doubtedly be Yes. Anonymous Quality Manager (CHINA) If they would just do this... Cost reduction, budget control, cost control will not go far.... Innovation needs to be in place. If they would only listen to the customers and ignore the voice from the floor—disaster. This is really stupid...but we do it all the time... Lean for the sake of lean...Thousands of lean kaizen just for a number game. If I were in charge... We'll go back to the basics. Focus on our most valuable asset and competitiveness; less control, and even less management staff. What I really like about the industry and my company is... The people. People form the company. Whatever it is, we have to like all of them, guide them, coach them, and listen to them. If there is a bad apple, then remove them without hesi- tation, or else trust them. My favorite tip or trick to share is... …trust. Hire slow, fire fast. The right talents determine the future of the company. Anonymous Manufacturing Engineering Technician (NORTH AMERICA) If they would just do this... Pay attention to the manufacturer's recom- mended PCB layouts when designing in a part. Provide a neutral format CAD file (IPC- D-356, ODB++, IPC-2581 if they are feeling bold) with ALL Gerber ZIP files. Don't send them in a separate ZIP and DO include them. If they would only listen... QFNs aren't the most difficult parts any more. Flip-chip and castellated multi-chip mod- ules are a much bigger target for IoT devices, and they are driving our defects. This is really stupid...but we do it all the time... Designs have to target a process. The PC layout engineer needs to understand how the board will be assembled while generating the layout and then that needs to be communicat- ed to the production personnel to be executed properly. Designing in the "latest and greatest" part doesn't help if the targeted SMT process is not capable of handling it. If I were in charge... Quoting would be more automated and more accurate. We use a legacy Excel spread- sheet for quoting. It has been modified by a number of individuals over the years and it is mostly a "black box" at this point. Several sup- pliers provide more configurable and transpar- ent quoting software but the price points are out of our comfort zone. What I really like about the industry/ my company is... We rise to challenges. My favorite tip or trick to share is... Google.com SMT VOICES OF THE INDUSTRY X X