Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/819981
May 2017 • The PCB Magazine 19 We're also looking at going to a web-based train- ing company like Resource Engineering who do SPC and process-related training via the web. Goldman: Do they have good programs that will help your people? Bigelow: They have a manufacturing focus. Some of their courses are not perfect for our in- dustry, but things like failure analysis, SPC, and getting people to be thinking about how to an- alyze problems are. We're looking at using that kind of training. The nice part is that it's on- line, it's not a classroom environment, so it's self-paced. We also see by self-paced training if somebody is really getting engaged or if they are not. If you have to keep pointing the pitch- fork to say, "We need you to log on and keep go- ing," that tells you something. Goldman: IPC has recently come out with their EDGE program. As I'm sure you know, everything on there is for assembly. So I have been com- plaining about that. John Mitchell told me, "What do you guys want? Find out what should be on there for printed circuit boards." Do you have any thoughts on that? Bigelow: I do and I don't. The EDGE program is great. It's the kind of thing that I've been an advocate of IPC doing. IPC is standards. A lot of the time it's a matter of, how do you then teach people how to follow the standards or apply those standards to their day-to-day job? And some of that requires some skillset. I don't have a concise answer for what's necessary, because I really need to sit back and see what they're do- ing with the assembly side. Then I could say, "OK, that's assembly; how do you relate that kind of training over to fabrication?" A lot of things that we deal with you can teach. You can show someone and then get them IPC-600 certified, but then you have to show them in your plant where are the key areas that you can go and where you can get messed up. In any decision tree, there are cer- tain key places where you better understand that area, because that's going to make you successful or not successful. Part of that is, again, can be basic stuff like reading the print. It can also be more advanced like, what data is important? How does the data relate to other data? I would have to take a little different slice at it and say that based on IPC standards—be- cause I do think it should tie into the standards, so someone is getting trained—there should be touch points saying, "This is covered in this standard, and this is covered in that standard." So you understand how the pieces come togeth- er, and you understand how important those standards are. It may not be one that you touch every day; it may not be the number one that you use, but they all do interlock. The surface finish is really important. So is lamination and so forth. Goldman: It's all critical. Bigelow: All critical, and they all tie together. If you screw up in one place, you may not see the symptom until you get further down the line. I do think that there is a need for fabrication- centric training. My guess is it would have to be broken into a couple of categories. One would be for high-volume automated processing, ver- sus batch processing. Every plant has some of both. It's key that you do cover those two. Goldman: At one time, there was a series of circuit board training videos done by IPC. Bigelow: Yes, we still have some—in a VCR for- mat! "HELP WANTED" WITH IMI'S PETER BIGELOW " If you screw up in one place, you may not see the symptom until you get further down the line. I do think that there is a need for fabrication- centric training. "