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the Inside line
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
NWA Works to Connect the Dots of Information
PORTLAND, Ore. — Northwest Analytical Inc. (NWA) is striving to help the electronics industry catch up with other industries in its data collection practices.
NWA, in business since the early '80s is a provider of statistical process control (SPC) software, with more than 50,000 licenses shipped to more than 5,000 companies from its strategic location on the West Coast. The company serves diverse industries. According to Louis Halvorsen, vice president of development for the company, electronics is one of NWA's five largest market segments. "We allocate a fair amount of resources to working with circuit board manufacturing and memory systems, such as disk drives," he adds.
Most industries are using integrated data collection processes, especially in large-scale, automated operations such as those found in the process industries, but Halvorsen says that electronics assembly is behind other industries in its data collection and management. "The question is how to get information to people who need to use it," he adds. "Our push is to help detect problems before they result in bad product rather than reporting on what has already happened. As far as SMT goes, we are trying to help them do something a little further back in the process."
To do this, Halvorsen says, a large number of systems must work together in-process rather than after the fact. In SMT testing methods, discrete "clouds" of information are generated at testing points and are not tied together, Halvorsen explains, to help identify problems early and provide cost savings. According to NWA, the company's software can be interfaced with most manufacturing databases and testing systems, including those for quality management, laboratory and manufacturing information systems.
NWA's coming product offerings in 2004, adding to the company's SPC charting and reporting, data collection and monitoring, and embedded SPC capabilities, will help manufacturers create systems that solve some of these problems.
— Christine F. Della Monaca
TFI Forum Tackles Texas-size Topics
RICHARDSON, Texas — The site of the first quarter Technology Forecasters Inc. (TFI) Quarterly Forum, the heart of Texas' Telecom Corridor, was an apt location for the array of timely industry topics covered.
Ron Robinson of the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) provided an introduction to the area. In the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, population 5.1 million, exist 4,000 high-tech companies, with 600 companies in Richardson alone. Major industry clusters are software, telecom and the Internet, and notable employers include Texas Instruments, Nortel and Fujitsu.
TFI then gave an overview of electronic manufacturing services (EMS) outside China, discussing the pros and cons of five major Asian countries for EMS investment.
Ray Hein, vice president of product management for San Jose, Calif.-based Agile Software, talked about various looming environmental legislation. Hein's company has built a reporting database to keep track of what substances are in specific components and products they build and assemble.
Representatives from Design Chain Associates, Elcoteq Americas, Texas Prototypes and Paragon Innovations discussed design services in a panel discussion, including the role of design services vs. contract manufacturing. Michael Wilkinson of Paragon defined design services as a company that works with the contract manufacturer and ODM to turn an idea into a prototype that can be designed.
The Forum also discussed EMS in North America: both its present state through TFI research and looking at the future. A panel discussion made up of company representatives from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as a voice from DHL Danzas Air and Ocean addressing logistics debated the area's strengths and weaknesses. A strength is proximity to end markets, while challenges include manufacturing labor costs, said TFI.
The day of discussion came full circle with a look at how to find value in telecom outsourcing, also based on TFI research. Major segments include fixed wireless, cellular infrastructure and handsets.
— Christine F. Della Monaca