Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/713934
August 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 65 value. I want to service them all equally. I'm not just saying that; I want to aspire to that. Matties: When do they get you in- volved in the engineering process? I would think Tiers 2 and 3 would bring you in pretty early, where Tier 1 may not. Creeden: The answer is still, in actuality, it's all over the map. But the point you were driving at, "Is it better when CAD is brought in earlier in the design phase?" and the answer is abso- lutely yes. The smart answer is that concurrent engineering is always the best solution. A stitch in time saves nine. Matties: We all agree with that, yet the reason for the question is that so few seem to do it. I hear what you're saying, and you're not putting your- self in any box, but the reality is, so few actually do it. Creeden: I'm going to give a little tongue-in- cheek answer to that. I'm going to do my best Rodney Dangerfield impression and say, "I get no respect." Oftentimes, PCB CAD layout is not respected as a discipline. It is an engineering profession, but you typically don't earn a degree in it. Most people who earn a degree go into hardware engineering or software, so if you've earned an EE, a BSEE, that's what you're doing. More and more, EEs are doing layout, but what they're finding is they only pass the layout cycle three times a year. So they do layout three times a year, because they understand engineering, but does that make them proficient in PCB lay- out? Most of them can comprehend it, but they don't have the packaging skillset. If you'll look around you, there are some puzzles in this room, because a good PCB de- signer knows how to solve a puzzle and is in- trigued. It just sparks the serotonin level in a designer, and he's thinking, "I want to solve that." Whereas an engineer tends to be a little bit more on the logical side. "Let me find an al- gorithm or a macro to just repeat this. I see that as repetitive, and I don't want to do it." No dis- respect to my fellow PCB design- ers, but it is a tier down on the engineering food chain. A lot of engineers don't want to do it be- cause of that, and then because they don't do it that often, when they do it, if they're not success- ful, and now they've looked bad: "You're supposed to know this, because you're above it, yet you weren't successful." The engineer says, "Well, I'm too busy, so just farm it out to those guys." A lot of times, that's the way it plays out. Many engineers are very good at do- ing it, and those that have pursued their educa- tion, perhaps through an IPC CID certification, have learned some of the manufacturing issues that are involved in that. To rephrase that, to PCB designers, there are several different caveats, and people don't look at all of them. Do you understand the electron- ics of it, is one part of it? The engineers do. Do you understand the CAD tool, and how to be proficient using the CAD tool? That's another part. Do you have a good puzzle-solving, spa- tial, a symmetrical knack to your person? Are you an orderly person? Is your desk orderly, do you see things with symmetry? Designers are good at that. Lastly, do you understand the manufacturing capabilities that are out there? What does it take to fabricate a good board? What does it take to assemble a board? What does it take to respect IPC specifications and build a high-yield product? The answer to that question is, those things are often assumed and disregarded. Matties: The other point that we hear is that so many designers don't understand the manufactur- ing process; they've never manufactured a board. How can they design a great board with manufac- turing in mind without that experience? Creeden: Good question, and to the degree that a designer doesn't understand the manufac- turing process, I say "Step away from the CAD tool"! I put to you that a designer is probably closer to the manufacturing, oftentimes, than a lot of EEs. MIKE CREEDEN: CARE AND TRAINING OF YOUR DESIGNERS