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50 SMT Magazine • June 2017 We have very accurate data to be able to communicate with the other machines, and that gave us a good step in the right direction right from the beginning, instead of finding out that maybe there was something we needed to correct before we'd be able to provide some ac- curate feedback. It's a benefit at that point. Las Marias: What opportunities are you seeing in the market right now? Armstrong: Certainly, this is an ongoing pro- cess. It's in its infancy stages and just start- ing out. So there's a lot of work to do in this. Having said a few sentences about what it's all about doesn't at all reflect the amount of activ- ity that goes into it. One thing that you would hear most people express is figuring out now just exactly where we go with all this. How do we make it as useful as it can be? It's a lot of talk about collecting a lot of data, but not necessari- ly a lot of definition about what we can do with that data right now. So that's something that's ongoing and, of course, with so many suppliers with so many types of equipment, it's quite a lengthy process just to establish all of that type of interconnectivity and data feedback. Las Marias: With all this data that will be collect- ed out of inspection or production, it must re- quire a really strong software development team. Armstrong: Absolutely. One thing that's made that easier is we already had the quality data available to us and inherent in our systems to begin with. That has allowed us to now focus on this connectivity aspect and being able to ex- change that data with other types of equipment. We also have a software group at our headquar- ters in Japan and in Europe. So there's a lot of activity going on with this, as well as, of course, in other projects like the focus on the miniatur- ization of components and then the need to be able to fully read and measure aspects for 0201 metric components. A lot of work going out in that area and it's all really tied together. Las Marias: Manufacturers considered inspection as an added cost before, but nowadays they're finding it increasingly more relevant to have an inspection line in their manufacturing process. Armstrong: There was a time in the early days of AOI where basically a lot companies just want- ed to say that they had AOI, that they had an inspection process. But it wasn't necessarily uti- lized in a way that would be all that meaningful to actually improving the process and the end- product quality. This is again, another aspect for Saki that's really been an advantage, because since day one all the machines have been in- spection and measurement machines. So, Saki has always had that capability for that kind of meaningful measurement and data that could be used and designed exactly with the idea of improving the process to improve the end- product quality. As we move into the onset of 3D technolo- gy, maybe some of those that first had AOI just as a way of saying that they had inspection in the process, it now becomes something more meaningful and there's more that can be done with it. It can now be utilized in a more power- ful manner. We've seen a big realization of that over the last couple years. I think there was a lot of reluctance with 3D in the beginning, but now everybody's realizing the ben- efits that that can bring versus the way AOI was viewed some years ago. So it really is being seen now how this can be used to improve the process and the end-product quality in a more meaningful manner. Las Marias: How do you help those companies who have invested first in 2D AOI, and now need to transition to 3D as boards get more complex? SAKI DISCUSSES INDUSTRY 4.0 AND TRUE 3D TECHNOLOGY