Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/960594
34 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018 historical applications such as lighting or door controls. In addition, green technologies and the overall Smart City ecosystem is bringing additional opportunities to support the electric vehicle industry especially the charging infra- structure, for example. Las Marias: What are the key considerations for success in automotive electronics assembly/ manufacturing? Kury: While I believe that most CM or EMS companies can place components on a board, it is usually another story to make it successful for high-volume production without compro- mising on quality. To reach this goal of <20 PPM, which we have and is below indus- try standards for this specific segment, I really think you first need to have a system- driven quality approach. This will ensure your processes are system driven and prop- erly documented. The second contributor is people. I'm proud to be working at an EMS company where everybody is accountable for quality. As Ron Williams, our quality manager in Fremont, California, (one of our automotive certified facilities) repeatedly mentions, we have 350 quality managers in the plant; each and anyone of us can raise our hand and hold the line in case of an issue. That mindset is key to succeed in this very demanding industry. Las Marias: What can you say about the future of automotive electronics assembly industry? What factors will drive its growth? Kury: It all comes down to mass adoption on the market and the readiness of the infrastruc- ture for these companies to succeed, there- fore boosting demand for assembly services. I do believe the self-driving car will play a greater role to making this happen, in addi- tion to increasing electronic content on-board any vehicle. This will imply having capacity available and capabilities in line with automo- tive requirements. I also believe new sensing technologies and Lidars, with new comers in this very field, will boost demand for assembly services, such as box-build and finished prod- uct assembly. Las Marias: One of the biggest issues in the automotive industry is reliability. How do you ensure the reliability of your assemblies? Kury: This is also a challenge for any new comer in this industry. Reliability is key and we have integrated this into our processes and follow industry best practices such as ISO 16949 and becoming IATF compliant. Our traceability system is one of the most advanced for elec - tronic manufacturing services, allowing Level 3 traceability; in other words, it gives us the ability to go back to the component level. This very aspect is critical to us and to our customers. We've had our traceability system and manufacturing execution system (MES) linked to our ERP and other tools such as incom- ing inspection/receiving software, etc. These tools, being connected, allows us to always keep monitoring every step of our processes. Being system-driven allows us to go back to the component level with our suppliers, on behalf of our customers, but also to struc - ture our own engineering and manufacturing process through forced routing, for example. A good example would be the possibility for us to avoid human mistake at revision level or making sure a specific assembly has been going through each step it was supposed to. Such features are priceless to our customers and therefore to us. Las Marias: Thank you very much, Mathieu. Kury: Thank you, Stephen. SMT007 I'm proud to be working at an EMS company where everybody is accountable for quality.