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64 SMT Magazine • June 2017 tested (and destroyed) the weaving machines that were replacing the manual labor workers of the cloth-producing industry? 1 Should we resist the use of the automated equipment that is replacing segments of the hu- man workforce in our society—whether it is fast food production or workers on a progressive cir- cuit board assembly slide line? In either case, it seems clear to me that this would be attacking the symptom and not the problem's root cause. An interesting, albeit at times a bit cringe-induc- ing, projection of this societal devolution is pre- sented in the 1976 sci-fi film "Logan's Run," based on a 1967 novel by W illiam Nolan and George Johnson. It's worth the two-hour viewing invest- ment in my opinion. Remember, sometimes it's the thought that counts most. Actually , it's Jeffer- son vs. Hamilton all over again! An individual's value and inalienable rights vs. the government needing to control the "beast." You choose. The first military engagement after the pub- lication of the independence declaration by the Second Continental Congress was the Battle of Long Island, also called the Battle of Brooklyn. General Washington and his decimated troops fled across the East River to stop the bleeding as the British pounded the rebels to the point where most believed it was over—even George Washington was in despair! The legendary es- cape through Manhattan, New Jersey and into Pennsylvania led to Washington's bold surprise attack on the British (actually, Hessian merce- naries being paid to fight for the British) across the Delaware River in Trenton the day after Christmas in 1776. This was followed the next week by the Continentals' successful battle in Princeton, New Jersey. Nine-months later, the huge American victory in the second Battle of Saratoga, New York, in early October 1777 was the war's turning point as it gave the French (as well as Spain and the Netherlands) confidence to side with the rebels and against their perpet- ual enemy, England. Jefferson believed that the ability of people to govern themselves was predicated on having an education and conducting their lives in a vir- tuous manner (i.e., doing the right thing when nobody is looking). Without the population making decisions based on what was right, their government would fail. Fast forward to the 20th century. Over the last several decades, we have had an analogous transformation from "government" rule to "in- dividual responsibility and sovereignty" in elec- tronic product assembly. Just substitute "compa- ny management" for "government." How? We have gone from the post-W orld War II produc- tion strategy of inspecting the quality into an assembled product by effectively putting an in- spector behind every operator and assembler, to building the quality into the product. W e do this by developing a statistically capable assembly process and having a production infrastructure in place that helps keep the process in control. What is that production infrastructure? It is a combination of process and quality control measures and an educated human workforce. Therein lies the rub. This combination has been for the most part reactive with "uneducated" operators and assemblers being the direct la- bor on the factory floor. When defects occur, a higher "level" resource, e.g., a technician or en- gineer is called. Usually, it's too late and the de- fective product is moved to the rework opera- tors. In-circuit test (ICT) and automated opti- cal inspection (AOI) have become good (but ex- pensive) tools to separate the good product we build from the defective product. High levels of production machine data ex- change that I call "Meta-Process Control," are being introduced 2 . In many circles, this has be- come known as "Industry 4.0." This is an ex- tension of "proactive process control." It uses big data, the Internet and machine-to-machine READING, WRITING, LISTENING, SPEAKING AND ANALYZING MATERIAL COST, PART 1 " Actually, it's Jefferson vs. Hamilton all over again! An individual's value and inalienable rights vs. the government needing to control the "beast." You choose. "