Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/721932
September 2016 • SMT Magazine 115 having an end-to-end view—where it is at, how you are doing, etc. A lot of people think that's already what makes a smart factory. That's just an opera- tional view. What makes it smart—and again the definition of smarter is it should be inter- connected, you have IoT, and it is instrument- ed. But then, the current aspect of it is intelli- gence. For us, another name for smart factory is intelligent factory—it's not just having an op- erational view of what's going on, but it is be- ing able to predict what may happen in the fu- ture. For example, how much yield you may ac- tually get, when you can actually ship it all the way to your client, and by how much, based on this yield right now. And where you can actual- ly do simulation, or how you can do real, intel- ligent preventive maintenance, wherein before it even breaks down, you can see that there's something wrong because the yield is going down little by little. Or you can actually opti- mize the process and make it more efficient by doing this or that. So I think, having the ability to not only view, but to simulate, and really pre- dict, and really prescribe—I think these are the three aspects of analytics. Analytics can be descriptive—it can describe something; it can be predictive—it can predict something; but the most powerful one is to pre- scribe—to prescribe a possible task, prescribe a possible way of going about it, so that you can really optimize. In manufacturing, the use of operations research, the use of prescriptive type of analytics and statistics to be able to really op- timize all aspects in your factory—that, for us, is the vision of a smart factory. Las Marias: What tips can you offer OEMS in selecting their EMS provider? Dr. Sabido: Not just to go with the lowest cost. A lot of OEMs think outsourcing is just a cost play. And they look at it from a placement cost perspective. But of course, it's not just cost, but quality. I think the message to OEMs is that you have to look at it from an end-to-end perspec- tive—from cost, quality, and engaging with the company that can help you come up with bet- ter products. As I've mentioned, we can actual- ly help our clients, improve their products, im- prove their operations, and make suggestions where we can. And I think that's what differen- tiates a great EMS company. Las Marias: How would you describe the electron- ics manufacturing industry in the Philippines? Dr. Sabido: The Philippines' EMS industry is not as big as we would want it to be. It could actually be bigger, because, one, we have a lot of very good and creative engineers—which is why in spite of lower-cost production countries, the EMS companies in the Philippines are actu- ally thriving and continue to be here. It shows that for others who have explored other coun- tries and have gone to lower-cost production countries—or what they thought are lower-cost countries—a lot are actually coming back. We see a lot of Japanese clients going back to Ion- ics and other EMS firms here. It really leverages on a lot of our creative and talented engineers and skilled workers, and I think there's a lot more room to grow. I think there's a lot more IONICS TALKS INDUSTRY 4.0, MIL/AERO OPPORTUNITIES, AND SUPPLY CHAIN