-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Coming Out Ahead With Smart Processes
March 2, 2021 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
During a recent interview with Dr. Tim Rodgers that focused on supply chain management, the conversation also touched on smart factories. We’ve included Tim’s insights on smart processes here.
Dr. Tim Rodgers is a faculty instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, Leeds School of Business. Before joining the faculty at Leeds, Dr. Rodgers worked in a variety of senior positions in operations and supply chain management at both multinational corporations and mid-sized companies.
Barry Matties: Do you see automation as the big equalizer here in America? There’s got to be a push for this as we’re seeing smart factories, and such.
Tim Rodgers: Certainly, the companies that are investing in smart factories, smart technology, and more automation are going to come out ahead. I’m seeing a lot more of this in China than in the U.S. Part of that is because it’s become a national imperative; the national government is supporting that push toward smart factories, whereas in the U.S., it tends to be more of an individual company initiative. I’m a little bit worried. I used to believe that we didn’t have a lot to fear because American ingenuity and engineering would figure out the next best way to manufacture and those new technologies would derive from the U.S.
I’m a little less optimistic now, just because we’re only seeing some smart factory islands and some innovations around the Internet of Things. All of that is wonderful, but it’s not very well coordinated. It’s meant to benefit individual businesses. I’m sure there are some academic partnerships that are helping to drive automation, but it’s piecemeal as opposed to what we see in China.
Matties: I wonder what the motivation will ultimately be, because if you can still go to China and buy it cheap, why invest in a smart factory here?
Rodgers: That’s a good point. It’s a significant investment, and it’s also a significant change in the way these factories are being run. In some cases, the technology itself already exists. We don’t have to invent anything new, but actually implementing it is still more expensive than just buying it off the shelf. We’re always going to take the path of lowest resistance.
Matties: Maybe, as we see, there’s an acknowledged shortage of engineering labor for implementing a smart factory.
Rodgers: Yes, there’s a lot of emphasis on employment, which I think is important. I understand why people are worried, but these smart factories will require fewer people to run them. If our emphasis is on employment—keeping more people and just growing the size of the labor force or trying to save old 20th century jobs—we’re going to miss the bus completely.
This portion of the conversation originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of SMT007 Magazine. Look for the full interview with Tim Rodgers in an upcoming supply chain issue of this magazine.
Suggested Items
KIC’s Miles Moreau to Present Profiling Basics and Best Practices at SMTA Wisconsin Chapter PCBA Profile Workshop
01/25/2024 | KICKIC, a renowned pioneer in thermal process and temperature measurement solutions for electronics manufacturing, announces that Miles Moreau, General Manager, will be a featured speaker at the SMTA Wisconsin Chapter In-Person PCBA Profile Workshop.
The Drive Toward UHDI and Substrates
09/20/2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamPanasonic’s Darren Hitchcock spoke with the I-Connect007 Editorial Team on the complexities of moving toward ultra HDI manufacturing. As we learn in this conversation, the number of shifting constraints relative to traditional PCB fabrication is quite large and can sometimes conflict with each other.
Standard Of Excellence: The Products of the Future
09/19/2023 | Anaya Vardya -- Column: Standard of ExcellenceIn my last column, I discussed cutting-edge innovations in printed circuit board technology, focusing on innovative trends in ultra HDI, embedded passives and components, green PCBs, and advanced substrate materials. This month, I’m following up with the products these new PCB technologies are destined for. Why do we need all these new technologies?
Experience ViTrox's State-of-the-Art Offerings at SMTA Guadalajara 2023 Presented by Sales Channel Partner—SMTo Engineering
09/18/2023 | ViTroxViTrox, which aims to be the world’s most trusted technology company, is excited to announce that our trusted Sales Channel Partner (SCP) in Mexico, SMTo Engineering, S.A. de C.V., will be participating in SMTA Guadalajara Expo & Tech Forum. They will be exhibiting in Booth #911 from the 25th to the 26th of October 2023, at the Expo Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico.
Intel Unveils Industry-Leading Glass Substrates to Meet Demand for More Powerful Compute
09/18/2023 | IntelIntel announced one of the industry’s first glass substrates for next-generation advanced packaging, planned for the latter part of this decade.