A Total Template: The Holy Grail for Sustainable Manufacturing

PCBDesign007 (Stephen Marshall, Calumet Electronic Corp.) - The template is the foundation of the American manufacturing system. Highly-skilled labor was used to create a physical template to design specifications. Manufacturers used the template to design and produce machine tools, develop and control processes and implement standard operating procedures. Manufacturing embraced the concept of the template as the means to mass produce interchangeable parts. Companies began to contract the manufacturing of parts to approved vendors. Assembly lines and supply-chains were developed to sustain manufacturing of the end product. In the electronics industry, templates have taken different forms including prints, artwork, and electronic production data. Over the years, these templates have served the established concepts of sustainability.

Sustainability was mainly considered to be the ability to consistently deliver a conforming product on time. Quality and on-time performance metrics were differentiators between vendors. Performance and price were considered directly proportional. Vendor/Customer relationships depended on performance and a high level of personal interaction between functions. These interactions were mainly directed at defining ambiguity and qualifying requirements. These practices eventually became self-perpetuating legacies that have maintained the status quo until now.

The Status Quo Versus Quid Pro Quo

The template used in today's PCB manufacturing industry consists of documents and data including procurement documentation, electronic production data files, fabrication drawings, notes, specifications and standards. It is a combination of files and formats that require subjective decisions by the CAM Technician that translate into go/no-go decisions that determine final output. Today's template cannot utilize current CAD/CAM technology. The industry seems stalled with the status quo and is falling short of meeting today's definition of sustainability. The development of a template to standardize manufactured product is the cornerstone of the American manufacturing system. Today's template reflects the out-dated European system where a skilled tradesman was required to customize the manufacture of each product. The efficiencies of importing and exporting electronic data files are compromised by manual inputs required to capture fabrication notes, material call outs and unique conformance requirements. These input requirements reduce productivity and add cost without adding value which is clearly not sustainable.

As companies look for new ways to make more efficient use of resources, the lowest hanging fruit can be harvested from improvements to the provider/user partnerships throughout the supply-chain. The ability to create, capture and deliver value occurs during the exchanges between these partners. Value potential is defined at the very beginning of the process, the CAD/CAM relationship. CAD is the provider of the design input used by CAM to create manufacturing output. A new, total template is needed to harness technology and standardize sustainable manufacturing practices.

A Total Template

The Total Template will be the "Holy Grail" of sustainable manufacturing. Standardization of process and procedure will increase productivity and improve efficiency. Internal and external supply-chains will become more productive. Morale will improve as best practices between provider and user from design to delivery are implemented. It will serve as the model for predictive modeling and simulation software used to calculate the effects of CAM compensations and production processes on the design. It will be able to assign risk levels based on design and/or process capability.

Virtual testing and predictive modeling will provide an overview of the integrity of design, potential failure modes, and play a crucial role in the life assessment of PCBs in the aerospace, automotive, aircraft and defense industries. The path of sustainable manufacturing leads to the virtual world for responsible solutions. The question remains; Who will emerge as the "Indiana Jones" of the electronics industry and deliver the Holy Grail of Sustainable Manufacturing; The Total Template!