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JANUARY 2021
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JANUARY 2021 • FEATURED CONTENT
X = Xc – 1
Continuous improvement not only can improve the targeted process, but often results in additional hidden
benefits. Moreover, continuous improvement need not be a large project; numerous small improvements
can snowball into large gains. In this issue, we launch our year exploring continuous improvement.
10 10 Continuous Improvement:
As Simple as X = Xc – 1
Interview with Ron Lasky
16 5 Keys to Smart Process Success
by Steve Williams
22
22 2021: The Year of X = Xc – 1
by Nolan Johnson
36 36 The Skilled Worker
by Leo Lambert
FEATURE COLUMN:
8 X = Xc – 1: A Year of Continuous
Improvement
by Nolan Johnson
4 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021
JANUARY 2021 • ADDITIONAL CONTENT
ARTICLE:
44 44 Building A Better, Brighter
LED Headlamp with
Top-Side Alignment (TAP)
by Glenn Farris
COLUMNS:
32 Is U.S. Production Ready for Advanced
Medical Devices?
32 by Zulki Khan
58 How to Audit OEM-EMS
Assembly Capability, Part 3
by Ray Prasad
66 Fixing Vertical Hole Fill in Plated Holes
by Bob Wettermann
SHORTS: 72 2020 M&A Wrap-Up
by Tom Kastner
14 Squeezing Light Inside Memory Devices
Could Help Improve Performance
HIGHLIGHTS:
15 Your Greatest Competition is Yourself 30 Electronics News
42 MilAero007
35 Easy-to-Make, Ultra-Low-Power
Electronics Could Change Out of Thin Air 64 Supplier
76 Top 10 from SMT007.com
40 Engineering Technology Team’s
Printed Circuit Board Design Improves
DEPARTMENTS:
Electric Guitars
79 Career Opportunities
70 Scientists Find Upper Limit 88 I-007e Educational Resource Center
for the Speed of Sound 89 Advertiser Index & Masthead
6 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021
X = Xc — 1
A Year of Continuous Improvement
Nolan’s Notes
by Nolan Johnson, I-CONNECT007
The conversation took place over a video agencies, clubs, friends and families are all
teleconference, as do most conversations dur- turning to online videoconferencing. My mom,
ing 2020. I may not live in a Seattle Space bless her heart, has become a video call expert.
Needle-shaped high rise, nor do I have my She’s in her 80s (living under strict social dis-
flying car of the future (yet), but there is plenty tancing guidelines, as you might expect), and
of “The Jetsons” in our lives these days, isn’t when she calls me, I know to double-check my
there? My housecleaning robot may not look background before I accept her video call. One
like Rosie (the Jetson’s domestic automaton), time, I accidentally had the sun over my shoul-
but my Roomba has a name and responds to der as I answered, surprising her with a screen
my voice commands; that’s a close approxi- full of camera glare. Now, when the call con-
mation. I talk to a popular home automation nects, she squints a little to protect her eyes,
system to get the news, select the con- just in case I come onto the screen in
tent on my television monitor, a similarly jarring manner.
track my calendar, control My point is that, when
the lighting in my home, the “future of digitaliza-
do my shopping, pay tion” becomes part of
my bills, and fill my our daily lives; when
home with music. our grandparents
So, what about are using science
the video call fiction technology
that I’m thinking to maintain (or
about right now? cultivate) closer
I would guess relationships
that video tele- with their grand-
conferencing has children who
changed your might be across
life during 2020. the continent or
While pandemic simply in lock-
restrictions may down across town;
have restricted our and when digital
ability to enjoy face-to- stops being a novelty
face interaction down to and becomes automatic,
our respective “COVID bub- that is the tipping point.
bles,” video conferencing has I-Connect007 has been work-
leapt into the mainstream as a substi- ing virtually for a number of years, mak-
tute. To deliver their programs, tradeshows are ing use of video teleconference technology at
moving to what amounts to massive video tele- the center of our corporate culture. Even still,
conferences. Professional groups, government our team tended to leave cameras turned off—
8 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021
that is, until a few weeks into the first U.S. And that got us on our way. Here at I-Con-
lockdown in March. At some point, organi- nect007, we wholeheartedly agree that factory
cally, cameras started lighting up, and faces and process control automation have a crucial
became a part of our meeting, adding body place in our industry. But we also posit that
language to the conversation as well. simply automating is insufficient. If you auto-
And that was the environment in which mate inefficient and wasteful processes, you
this video call I first mentioned took place. only solidify and perpetuate those inefficien-
Our I-Connect007 editorial team was discuss- cies in your business, thereby throttling down
ing process improvement. As a theme in our your company’s ability to grow in the digital
current market, process improvement seems age. Smart factories are only partially about
to automatically trigger visions of automation digitalization; at the core, smart factories are
and smart factories. about smart processes—efficient and flexi-
If you’re a Star Wars fan, how many times has ble processes. We even tagged this idea with
a movie included a scene in which one of our “X=Xc – 1” wherein Xc is your current pro-
heroes finds themselves on a moving conveyor cess, and X is your new, incrementally opti-
belt, sweeping along through a life-threatening mized process to replace Xc.
series of automated robots manufacturing big The video call in which this conversation
iron? Our hero ducks, dodges and shimmies took place was a clear example of digitalizing
through the gauntlet of swinging robot arms, how our team functions, removing the over-
laser welders and massive die stampers, emerg- head of commuting and travel. Our work team
ing unscathed at the end. Thankfully, we were has made changes to how we hold our meet-
not discussing that sort of automated factory. ings online. Sure, we’ve done this type of group
Instead, we were hashing out the implications meeting for years, but the dramatic increase
of digital twin and process control. in use of videoconferencing has caused the
The question was asked from someone in whole team to look hard at how to be more
one of the multiple little squares of video feed efficient with our meetings. It’s a process of
on my screen, “If you could reduce a PCB continual improvement: Make your processes
design project by just one spin, how much smart, then make them smarter still.
would you save?” “Twelve million dollars,” In this issue of SMT007 Magazine, we
replied someone, almost immediately, from kick off our continuous improvement cover-
a different square, continuing “that’s the age throughout 2021. We’ll explore smarter
number I’ve heard from someone at a large processes, smarter equipment, automation,
international firm. For their big projects, the and operational efficiencies. We will consider
total cost, direct and indirect, for one design “X=Xc – 1” from all angles. This month, we
spin is $12 million. If they can reduce the begin by establishing why continuous improve-
design cycle by one, it’s worth that much to ment is so critical to our industry; why does
them.” this matter?
“Not everyone will save that kind of money,” As always, we value talking to our readers.
said someone in another square. True. Many If you have a story of your own related to
design teams are working on much smaller “X=Xc – 1” to share, we’d love to hear it. Reach
scales than this particular company, but it’s us at editorial@iconnect007.com. SMT007
reasonable to assume that, while the raw dol-
lar amounts aren’t the same, the percentage of Nolan Johnson is managing editor of
the design budget is likely to be consistent. SMT007 Magazine. Nolan brings 30
“You know, reducing a spin in a design pro- years of career experience focused
cess has nothing to do with smart factories. It almost entirely on electronics design
has everything to do with working smart, with and manufacturing. To contact
using smart processes,” piped up another per- Johnson, click here.
son from their video square.
JANUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 9
Continuous Improvement: As Simple as X = X c – 1
Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Happy Holden: It’s the concept of solid base hits
Editorial Team rather than going for the home run all the time.
X=Xc – 1 is a conceptual equation for con- Ron Lasky: It’s sort of a formulaic approach, but
tinuous improvement. You define X and work maybe that’s better. Continuous improvement
to reduce it by a factor of 1. This could be one is the essence of Lean Six Sigma. There is a
work hour, one process step, one day less in term in Lean Six Sigma called DMAIC (define,
a cycle, and so on. We recently met with Dr. measure, analyze, improve, and control),
Ron Lasky to discuss the concept of X=Xc – 1 assuming you want to improve something.
and get his advice on generating enthusiasm You define what it is that you want to improve
among readers and the next generation about (D). You measure where you are (M). You col-
continuous improvement. As this discussion lect some data and analyze it (A). Then, you
illustrates, many process improvements are improve it (I), usually with a designed experi-
small in scale, not yearlong, major efforts. ment. Once that’s all set up, you must develop
a plan to control it (C). That’s statistical pro-
Nolan Johnson: Continuous improvement is cess control.
not a new idea, but we would like to shine a For example, let’s say a small mom-and-pop
light on the idea of “X=Xc – 1.” To do this, shop collected the data for the year 2020, and
first, you define what X is, and then you make they found that at the end of the line before
an action plan to reduce it by one. It could repair, they had 2% fallout: 2% of the boards
be reducing your design spins, the number of had to be repaired. They collected the data in a
steps in your process, or the number of gates Pareto chart. If they made 100,000 boards, they
in manufacturing. It could be any approach had about 2,000 boards that were defective,
where you can incrementally improve, take and they found that the primary defect was
something out, and get it done with fewer shorts. That was 1,200, and then the second
steps and iterations. defect was a missing component and on down
10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021Reduce Time
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siemens.com/software websitewould be where you’d measure the volume of
the stencil printed brick of solder paste for sta-
tistical process control. That’s a simple exam-
ple of continuous improvement. There could
be others that weren’t so directly related to just
improving quality.
You could have issues where you look at
the amount of time it takes from the receipt
of the order until you start the job on the line
because you’ve been losing customers who
say, “Geez, we like the quality of your stuff,
but you’re two weeks longer than our other
suppliers.” Then, you would do a mapping of
the process of when the order comes in. What
happens to it? You go through all of those steps
and find there’s a lot of dead time. There is
one that’s not related to something like solder
paste stencil printing quality but is related to
the process itself. There’s a common expres-
sion in Lean called “mapping the process.”
The comical thing about all this is when you
Ron Lasky really think about it, it’s common sense, but
common sense is not so common.
the list. Usually, you would want to attack the
most significant defect mode. That was shorts. Barry Matties: Often, until the process is visible
They started to look at what typically causes or mapped, the process inefficiencies remain
shorts. Two-thirds of end-of-line defects can be invisible because it’s “just the way you’ve
attributed to stencil printing, so that is good always done it.”
place to start.
This mom-and-pop shop may hire a local Lasky: Yes. We had a student at Dartmouth
college student as an intern, who has a Lean that was getting a Master of Engineering Man-
Six Sigma Green Belt, and they teach the intern agement (MEM) degree where we taught Lean
about electronic assembly. The company may processes. He had a summer internship with
also have pictures of all 2,000 defects. They a company, and they had about seven build-
analyze those images and decide that the main ings. This wasn’t making electronics; this was
reason they had too many shorts is that there’s making valves. At the time, in 2015, the com-
too much solder paste on the pads. When pany had existed since 1890. It started with
the component is placed, excess solder paste one building, and they continued adding until
spills over the pad that occasionally, when it they had seven. Because technology changed,
melts, creates a solder bridge to an adjacent it was now a 30-step process where they would
pad. They do some more work and decide that do different steps in different buildings. It was
maybe they should make all of their stencil just the way it grew.
apertures a little tighter, or maybe they should However, they never thought to streamline
get a different solder paste. They call their cur- it, and the student pointed out that they could
rent solder paste vendor and discuss some of reduce their costs by at least 10% because of
these issues. the transportation between buildings. When-
Often, you have to do some designed exper- ever you transport something, you’re going to
iments, which would be the improved part of break some of them. These are basic princi-
the DMAIC process, and then the control part ples that people should consider in continuous
12 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021improvement. But it’s important to start with Lasky: Absolutely. You have to understand the
a brainstorming session about what people human factors in anything you do. You just
think they need to improve. And that’s some- can’t assume that people are superhuman.
thing that they have to determine themselves. That can be a big mistake. That was one of
the issues I mentioned with the manager who
Matties: That’s really where the X=Xc – 1 is. wanted people to be working on five top pri-
They define X; plan, do, check, and act; and orities. People get burned out, and they’ll end
define, measure, analyze, improve, and control up even quitting if that’s the case. Especially
their operations. You have to help people look today, stress is a super important factor.
for X and understand where’s the best place
to start. A lot of times, people will start with Matties: Stress or frustration is usually an indi-
these grandiose plans that will take a year or cator that there’s a process that needs to be
more to accomplish. In continuous improve- improved.
ment, it’s better to start with small tasks in
short windows. Then, your team starts to feel Lasky: I was asked to work with some young
the victories. medical professors at a large metropolitan hos-
pital. They said, “Our main issue is that we
Lasky: I like to call that incremental success, have 20,000 patients in our database, and most
and people will be excited to do it. Here’s of them are poor. Every day when we go home,
another example of something that may sound we’re 200 prescription refills behind. Could
a little bit counterintuitive, but it has happened you help us?” We mapped the process out and
in my life a couple of times. I worked for IBM stayed with it. It took less than a day for about
in an era when it was probably the best com- five people to do it, but they argued with each
pany in the world to work for. But the manag- other about the best way to do it. People that
ers, especially if they were younger, were so were involved in the process were each doing
hyped up that they wanted everybody to work it differently.
on many things at once. At that time, my wife After we finally got it all mapped out, what
worked there, and one of her managers said, we found was the reason they were 200 pre-
“You have five top priorities.” She replied, scription refills behind was that about 30% of
“I can only have one top priority,” but they the time, the prescription was kicked back by
insisted on five. the pharmacy because the doctors who were
Then, they had a consultant come in. After- residents didn’t fill out the paperwork right.
ward, the new executives said, “What we The person who asked us for help was the boss
learned from the consultant is fantastic. We of the residents, and he told them, “If you have
will not do another project until we finish one more than three of these in a month, you’re
because if you have five people working on out of the program.” Overnight, they went
five number one projects, nothing ever gets from being 200 behind a day to zero. That’s
finished.” That’s because you must have your powerful, and it wasn’t difficult; it was just
engineers focused, and even if they come up about looking at your process and understand-
with clever ideas that may be great, that will ing where it was and why.
be the next thing we work on, but you have to
finish your top priority first. We all start things Matties: The important thing that you keyed in
but never finish them. on earlier is there’s a process for looking at
your process. And if you follow that process,
Matties: In an environment of continuous you’re going to find what needs to happen.
improvement, one of the things that we look to There’s a discipline to mapping processes. But
reduce is stress and frustration with people’s when you run into an area where people are
work. That’s often overlooked in the improve- each doing it a different way, then you have to
ment process. find agreement and have the discipline to fol-
JANUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 13low the agreed-upon process. It’s one thing to Lasky: The most important thing is deciding
have a map and to say, “Here’s our process.” what you want to improve. We all know people
But if you’re not disciplined with the process, who spend a lot of time doing something well,
then you have too much variation for real con- but it’s the wrong thing or not what should be
tinuous improvement. worked that hard on.
Lasky: We talked about DMAIC earlier. Control Matties: You have to staff a continuous improve-
is the last phase of it, and keeping it in con- ment effort, meaning you may have to have
trol is the hardest because people will slip back somebody whose job title is “continuous im-
into old habits. You have to have a “champion” provement facilitator” to facilitate the process.
who is responsible for control and ensure that
the old habits don’t return. Lasky: If there isn’t a champion of something,
it will die. There has to be a champion. I com-
Matties: It’s easy for people to circumvent a pletely agree.
process and think that it will be better to take
that shortcut because they’re behind schedule Matties: If you hire somebody to be your con-
or whatever the case may be. That’s when the tinuous improvement facilitator, that return on
discipline to stick to the process is the most investment will be astronomical if you bring in
important. the right person.
Holden: One of the things about a process Lasky: Philip B. Crosby has a great quote: “Qual-
is that you have to define the metrics. With ity is free. It’s not a gift, but it’s free.” What he
respect to this equation, what if your X is noth- meant by that is exactly what you’re saying.
ing but opinion? It’s not always easy to get a You’re going to have to put some investment in
measurable metric that is the right measure of it, and it should save you much more than the
performance. With “figure of merit,” you use investment, but if you’re not willing to do that,
expert opinions and a methodology to come you’re not going to get anything.
up with data. That’s your X. Everybody under-
stands continuous improvement when they see Matties: It’s always a pleasure. Thank you so
X=Xc – 1. But what if you measure the wrong much.
thing, or you don’t know how to measure it, or
you can’t define it? Lasky: Thank you. SMT007
Squeezing Light Inside Memory Devices Could Help Improve Performance
The ability to understand how structural changes char- detailed study of these materials, which are used in
acterize the function of materials which are used for low- memory devices.
power, ultra-responsive devices called memristors, is To solve this issue, the researchers had to reliably con-
important to improve their performance. However, looking struct cavities only a few billionths of a metre across—
inside the 3D nanoscale small enough to trap light
devices is difficult using within the device. They
traditional techniques. used the tiny gap between a
The team used the gold nanoparticle and a
technique to investigate mirror and observed how the
the materials used in light was modified when the
random access memo- device was functioning cor-
ries, while in operation. rectly or breaking down.
The results will allow (University of Cambridge)
14 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021Your Greatest
ture your products, do your accounting, ship-
ping, filling out paperwork and every other
process step in your business. When doing
these tasks in your business, think differently.
Competition
Think in terms of crushing the competition.
Albert Einstein said: “We cannot solve our
problems with the same thinking we used
when we created them.” So, if you are busy
is Yourself
chasing your so-called external competition,
you will miss the greatest opportunity sitting
right in front of you—the opportunity to think
differently and compete with yourself.
by Barry Matties Use the formula: As we start the new
I-CONNECT007 year—what we are calling the year of contin-
uous improvement—it’s a good time to start
It really doesn’t matter who you think your with the simple process improvement formula:
external competitors are, because the only X = Xc – 1. When you look at any current pro-
competitor that really matters is yourself. Of cess (Xc), the question you want to ask (and
course, you will look externally to have your coworkers ask) is, “How
stay on top of latest trends, but can we reduce (Xc) by (1)?” It
when it comes to competi- could be one day, one hour,
tion, just competing with one minute, one less piece
yourself is a win. When of material, one less per-
you look at yourself as cent of scrap, one less
your greatest competi- form to fill out, or it
tor you will start with could even be low-
a huge advantage: you ering a risk factor or
already have great intel other even less tangi-
on how “your competi- ble things. By reduc-
tion” thinks. Ask your- ing (X c ) by (1) we
self, “What can I do to now have a new (X)
displace my ‘competi- and the process starts
tor’ and create something over.
much better?”
The tricky part can be
Process efficiency: The first deciding what to choose for
area in which to compete is process efficiency. your first (X). In the early phases of process
If you can perform your processes in a more improvement, the common advice is to start
efficient way, you will begin to add capacity, with small improvement projects and grow
increase employee happiness, enjoy higher from there. By doing so, you and your team
productivity, and find greater customer satis- will be able to feel and celebrate the success
faction. This will lead to more sales and ulti- and benefits gained.
mately higher profits. X = Xc – 1 is perhaps a new way of think-
And when we talk about process efficiency ing for some. In any case, X = Xc – 1 focuses
this includes all processes: how you answer you and your team to really compete with your
phones, make sales, process orders, manufac- greatest competitor—yourself. SMT007
JANUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 155 Keys to Smart Process Success
Feature by Steve Williams current linear/sequential processing into the
THE RIGHT APPROACH CONSULTING next generation of “smart processes.” For this
to occur, the five characteristics below are crit-
Introduction ical for a successful transition.
It can be challenging to stay current with
the vernacular of our industry; terms like IoT, 1. IIoT
M2M, Industry 4.0 and smart processes appear Smart factories require the core underlying
in just about every publication we see. Buzz- processes to be connected and “talking” to gen-
words aside, the substance behind these tech- erate the data necessary to make real-time pro-
nologies is here to stay and driving this fourth- cess decisions, that is, the IIoT (Industrial Inter-
generation industrial revolution. net of Things). In a truly connected factory, an
ongoing continuous dialog between machines,
Next Gen Manufacturing business processes, suppliers and customers is
If we accept that Industry 3.0 is defined as happening in the background. This dialog is
the computerization and automation of fac- not only interactive, but proactive, as a con-
tory floor processes to make them “smart,” stant stream of real-time data is tweaking and
then I suggest that Industry 4.0 is defined as adjusting processes to drive improvement. It
the expansion of this idea to include all the also provides time-critical information on how
support processes required to manufacture a processes are operating, supply chain pipeline,
quality product. By connecting factory-floor and delivery status updates—all based on data.
computers with all the logistic-based comput- When starting this journey, it is important to
ers throughout the supply chain, Industry 4.0 utilize the right technology, data, and analyt-
will revolutionize how companies make stuff. ics infrastructure for your business model. You
Adding in smart algorithms, machine learning will need to re-imagine your processes from
and customer connectivity will transform our end-to-end for software interoperability, data
16 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021MACHI
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IIoT initiative grows and matures. process standpoint.
2. Cyber Physical Systems Data Infrastructure
Cyber physical systems are the integration “The data-driven world will be always on,
of computers, networking and physical pro- always tracking, always monitoring, always
cesses. Computers and networks monitor listening and always watching—because it will
and control physical processes with feedback be always learning.” [1]
loops; the physical system reacts; the system
A data infrastructure refers to the hardware,
uses software to interpret actions and tracks
firmware and software required to collect,
results. This system is based on embedded
interpret, and analyze the immense amount of
computers and software in devices, not for tra-
data generated by an organization. Big data is
ditional data computation, but rather as a loop
defined as a collection of data from traditional
of action and machine learning. The smart
and digital sources inside and outside an orga-
factory is a flexible system enhanced by aug-
nization that provides a source for ongoing dis-
mented intelligence that can self-optimize per-
covery and analysis. In today’s business envi-
formance across a broader network. A cyber
ronment, data is collected everywhere, from
physical system can self-adapt to and learn
systems and sensors to mobile devices. The
from new conditions in real or near-real time,
challenge is that the industry is still developing
and autonomously run entire production pro-
methods to best collect, interpret, and analyze
cesses.
the data. With the vast amount of data being
The traditional manual methodology for pro-
acquired, having a robust data infrastructure
cess optimization consisted of four tasks:
to manage these tasks is mission-critical to
a) Gain process understanding. Industry 4.0 and smart processes.
b) Create process model.
c) Recognize constraints and optimization Fun Facts on Big Data [1]
parameters. • By 2025, the world’s data will grow to
d) Optimize the process model. 175 zettabytes
– One zettabyte is equivalent to a trillion
Enabled by the previous connectivity char-
gigabytes
acteristic and “machine learning,” the smart
– It would take 1.8 billion years to
process adapts and makes process tweaks
on-the-fly based on what is working and download 175ZB at the average
what isn’t. How does this work? The pro- current internet connection speed
cess “learns” from the data through connec- • On average, office workers each receive
tivity and data exchange between the equip- 110 to 120 emails per day, equaling
ment, software and process KPIs. Based on approximately 124 billion emails on any
this information, the process model can then given day
decide which system configuration delivers • Amazon records $283,000 in sales
the best performance, and which does not. per minute
The integration of cyber and physical com- • 49% of the world’s stored data will reside
ponents provides both new opportunities and in public cloud environments by 2025
challenges. The benefits include new func- • Manufacturing and financial services are
tionality in traditional physical systems, such the leading industries in terms of Data
as brakes and engines in vehicles, intelligent
Readiness Condition (DATCON) maturity
control systems for biochemical processes,
• More than 150 billion devices will be
and wearable devices. On the other hand, the
integration of cyber components adds new connected globally by 2025
18 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 20214. Digital Supply Network of real-time data from multiple sources. Exam-
Digital technology is disrupting traditional ples include predictive analytics, artificial intel-
operations, from quoting to shipping, and ligence, and machine learning.
every business is now a digital business. The • Digital-to-physical: Using automation and
impact on supply chain management is partic- other technologies to translate decisions and
ularly great. Businesses cannot unlock the full actions from the digital realm into physical out-
potential of digital without reinventing their comes in the supply chain. Examples include
supply chain strategy. A digital supply network autonomous robots and control systems, real-
is simply a supply chain managed via auto- time geospatial visualizations, autonomous
mated systems and web or cloud-based solu- vehicles, drones, remote maintenance, and 3D
tions. The supply chain is morphing rapidly printing.
from a linear material flow to one that includes To fully realize the digital supply network,
an increasing number of emerging technolo- however, manufacturers will need to embrace
gies and digital connectivity. It’s no secret that the new way of working and expand supply
robotics, physical systems and other innova- chain management in three areas:
tions are creating new, previously unthinkable • Horizontal integration through the
capabilities in modern supply chains such as myriad operational systems that power
24/7 connectivity, enhanced visibility, and effi- the organization
ciency. Supply chain professionals are drawing • Vertical integration through connected
on digital innovations from other areas of the manufacturing systems
business to create a three-phase closed loop • End-to-end, holistic integration through
supply chain digital transformation (Figure 1): the entire value chain
• Physical-to-digital: Capturing information
from the physical world to create a digital 5. Intelligent Automation
record of the supply chain and what’s hap- For years, organizations have been working
pening in it. Examples of these innovations toward an automated future that frees people
include sensors, controls, GPS, wearables, and from time-consuming, manual work. Today,
3D scanning. automation has moved from the factory floor
• Digital-to-digital: Harnessing the power of into every facet of the organization to sup-
advanced algorithms and machine-to-machine port better ways of working that fuel busi-
communication to enable advanced analytics ness growth. Intelligent automation thrives
Figure 1: All businesses are now digital businesses.
JANUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 19Figure 2: Be sure to take full advantage of the benefits of the digital world. when it is paired with people to drive bet- ples of smart algorithms. Most initial efforts ter outcomes. Let me repeat that: To succeed focused on the “low hanging fruit,” such as with intelligent automation, it is vital to put replacing awkward text interfaces with natu- people first and evolve their skills and roles ral language processing interaction, perform- to really take full advantage of its benefits. As ing pattern recognition in huge data sets, or with any push toward automation, the perpet- automating repetitive or highly regulated pro- ual fear is that people will no longer be needed. cesses requiring low human intelligence. Cur- The fact is nothing could be further from the rent developments in smart algorithms are truth (Figure 2). looking to automate higher value-added tasks. People and automated processes must col- laborate in the overall workflow to comple- Industry 5.0? ment each other and compensate for each oth- It’s incredibly exciting to be on the front lines er’s shortcomings. While the skill set and job as our companies transform from the inte- title may be vastly different than before, peo- gration of computerization and automation ple are an irreplaceable piece of Industry 4.0 that Industry 3.0 brought us to the connec- and smart processes. An effectively designed tivity, machine learning and smart processes process should not only utilize the power of of Industry 4.0. As we scramble to embrace technology to process large volumes of data or the incredible benefits of this technology, I perform repetitive tasks with high accuracy, know someone, somewhere, is already think- but also recognize the qualities people add for ing about the things that will become Indus- decision making, improvising, and innovating. try 5.0. SMT007 One of the most widely used intelligent auto- mation tools are “smart algorithms.” Smart References algorithms are on the verge of pervading all 1. IDC White Paper, #US44413318. aspects of business and our daily lives. Have you ever done an online “chat” while trying to Steve Williams is the president of get technical support and a chatbot would try The Right Approach Consulting. to answer your question or narrow down your Read Steve’s column, The Right issue before connecting you with a live per- Approach, on PCB007.com. A son? How about saying “Hey Siri” or “Alexa, no-nonsense view of manufacturing play country music?” Those are prime exam- and management strategies. 20 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021
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IPCAPEXEXPO.ORG | #IPCAPEXEXPO ®2021: The Year of X = X c – 1
Feature by Nolan Johnson to improve all elements of an organization—
I-CONNECT007 processes, tools, products, services, etc. Some-
times those improvements are big, often they
Throughout 2021, I-Connect007 will focus are small. But what’s most important is they’re
on our theme, “X=Xc – 1,” in which we will frequent.” [1]
explore continuous improvement in a practical Maggie Millard writes in her blog, “Improve-
way. Get talking about continuous improve- ments are based on small changes, not only
ment as a business method and the conversa- on major paradigm shifts or new inventions…
tion often hinges around large programs and By approaching change in small, incremen-
grand transformations. “Company culture” and tal steps, the continuous improvement model
“corporate transformation” are terms that reduces the fear factor and increases speed to
often appear in these conversations. Often, it improvement.” [2]
seems, continuous improvement is simply a Jon Terry writes, “Sacrificing quality can
huge undertaking. rarely be justified by the ability to do some-
The good news is that not everyone sees con- thing faster or cheaper. To maintain quality
tinuous improvement in this light. Continuous standards while cutting time and cost, compa-
improvement methods can be scaled down; nies turn to Lean ways of working, including
smaller, more manageable goals can be set. continuous improvement.” [3]
Continuous improvement can be implemented In fact, if your company is pursuing ISO9001
at a departmental level, team level, even an certification, continuous improvement is one
individual level. In their paper “How Contin- of the eight key principles for ISO9001.
uous Improvement Can Build a Competitive Continuous improvement “is all about
Edge,” McKinsey & Company authors Carolyn ‘doing’ but it isn’t something that you do.
Dewar, Reed Doucette and Blair Epstein write, It’s how a company operates. Continuously
“Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort improving means creating a culture that pro-
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VIEW OUR QUICK TURN VIDEO NOWmoted improvement. As odd as it may sound, the individual or team level? Does that count?
employees might be more aware of company Millard thinks it does. She wrote, “Continuous
processes than the management. Hence, it’s improvement can be viewed as a formal prac-
important to take everyone on board when it tice or an informal set of guidelines.”
comes to improvement. The concept is simple, One way to sniff out organic continu-
the process should include employees.” [4] ous improvement is to listen for complaints
In fact, Dewar, Doucette and Epstein point and watch to see how those complaints are
out, “Companies that excel at continuous resolved. Millard advises us to “embrace them
improvement start with the belief that success [complaints] as opportunities for improvement.
comes from: If a team member notices something amiss
and says something about it, that’s a good
• Innovating “how” they do what they do thing. That’s the beginning of the improve-
(big and small) ment cycle.” [7]
• Engaging all employees in sharing
knowledge and generating improvement Do You Suffer from Performance
ideas Transparency?
• Exploring better ways to deliver to Once a complaint about an inefficiency in
customers and respond to changes in the the process has been identified, and then mon-
external environment.” [5] itored to learn how the complaint was resolved
(or was it?), you also get a sense for the per-
Here at I-Connect007, we’ve tagged this con- formance transparency in your organization.
cept “X=Xc – 1.” We’re presenting the idea Was the inefficiency identified? Was a root
that incremental improvements can happen at cause determined? Was the root cause then
any level and can be of any size. We posit that addressed? And was the resolution communi-
a significant number of small, easy-to-imple- cated to others?
ment, no- or low-cost incremental improve- Millard says, “Constant feedback is an impor-
ments can add up to a significant increase in tant aspect of the continuous improvement
operational efficiencies, improved quality, and model. Open communication during every
profitability. The “X” could be anything: steps phase of executing an improvement is critical
between repetitive work tasks on the shop to both the final results of the improvement
floor; the number of design respins needed and to the maintenance of employee engage-
to get a working prototype of a new product; ment.” [8]
or maybe a routine process in the accounting With respect to feedback, Dewar, Doucette
department. Further, this kind of incremental and Epstein add, “Making goals public and
improvement need not necessarily require top- cascading those goals (typically a balanced
down company mandates to change company mix of financial and operational metrics) in a
culture. way that is tailored to individuals at all lev-
els of the organization. Progress toward goals
How Can We Recognize it? must be transparently tracked to give the front-
The “X=Xc – 1” dynamic may already be in line and management clear visibility into what
place in your company. In a blog post, Daeda- is working and what needs work.” [9] This is
lus Howell writes, “In its essence, continuous entirely reasonable when attacking continuous
improvement is the practice of honing every improvement on a larger scale. But does this
aspect of your company’s processes in a man- work on a smaller scale?
ner that enhances your offering’s value to your For example, how does one achieve transpar-
customer while diminishing any activity that ency when working alone, or when optimizing
proves wasteful along the way.” [6] one’s individual contributions to the overall
What if continuous improvement is being flow of a team? To whom do you hold yourself
employed within your company organically, at accountable?
24 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021These methods can, and do, scale down.
Inspiration can be found in Millard’s comment
that “to achieve real improvement, the impact
of change must be measured. This makes
it possible to determine if the change can be
applied successfully to other problems.” [10]
Perhaps it is enough to be accountable to one-
self? Measure the improvement by posting
metrics at your workspace, or on the machin-
ery, where others might notice. Regardless of
the scale, Millard counsels, “Proving positive
ROI also helps keep the organization aligned
around improvement.”
Do You Share Knowledge?
At this point, problems are being identified
and measurement of baseline and attempted end” of the organizational chart who can be
improvements are in process. Sharing results expected to have the most practical insight.
more widely is the next step toward contin- In fact, Dewar and team disclose, “Frontline
uous improvement. When tackling continu- employees are closest to the work, and thus
ous improvement on a larger scale, Dewar, typically have the richest insights on how their
Doucette and Epstein share that it is “critical to work can be done better. Capturing their per-
scale best practices across (and up and down) spectives is critical.”
organizations.” They point out, “One of our Millard concurs, “The continuous improve-
clients became adept at deploying small cross- ment model relies greatly on employees, not
functional teams against any problem to break only top management, to identify opportuni-
down the organizational silos that had previ- ties for improvement. This bottom-up improve-
ously prevented knowledge sharing.” ment is effective because employees are clos-
Remember, the change need not be dra- est to the problems, and thus better equipped
matic. Small improvements in highly repetitive to solve them.”
work tasks accumulate into significant gains And then, Millard rings the “X=Xc – 1” bell
over time. by suggesting, “Ask people what improvement
This is a key point: to get knowledge shar- they could make that would save them 5 min-
ing to be effective, create teams with represen- utes a day. Then empower them to implement
tatives from all affected departments. It’s the that improvement, and spread it to everyone
involvement of the upstream, downstream, else in the organization doing the same pro-
and administrative teams as well that help cess. In this way, you can take a small idea
make a change effective and improve the per- that anyone could come up with and drive a
manence of the solution. big impact.”
Do You Have Employee Involvement? Benefits
Employee involvement is a key factor. The Techniques for implementing continuous
stories are that Deming required his continu- improvement strategies are well documented
ous improvement training to start at the top elsewhere; expect that we will visit some of
and be taught down the organizational chart these sources throughout the year. In the
by the managers themselves. This method meantime, “X=Xc – 1” opportunities come at
certainly assures that the methods being all levels of the organization and fall into some
taught come with an automatic approval common categories. Continuous improvement
from higher up. Yet it’s the staff at the “action benefits can be categorized as follows.
JANUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 25Streamline Workflows without a lot of expense. In fact, many ideas
“Working to constantly improve is the num- from employees involve eliminating processes,
ber one way in which many businesses reduce rather than adding them.”
operating overhead,” writes Jon Terry. “For But frontline involvement is not always
example, projects that involve shifting dead- limited to small changes. I-Connect007 has
lines, changing priorities and other complex- recently shared customer stories in which
ities are usually filled with opportunities to management was planning to buy a new
improve. It’s just that no one has acted on line to increase capacity, only to have front-
that opportunity. The gateway to stream- line workers present a study showing that the
lined workflows is frontline existing line still had more
worker involvement. than enough capacity to run
Millard points out that the extra work, provided
changing habits is a diffi- that the company make
cult thing to do, adding, some changes to their
“Know what makes it eas- material flow processes.
ier? Rolling out changes that Small changes (relative to
originated from the front purchasing and installing an
lines. When people come entire line) were made, and
up with the ideas to improve the needed capacity was
their own work, they intrin- achieved. This, of course,
sically see the value of leads to increased profits.
t h e c h a n g e s. K n ow i n g
that improvements come More Profits
from their peers inspires Most often, reduced
faith in the necessity of the costs (and increased capac-
changes much more so than ity for sale) translate directly
does a decree from senior to improved margins and
leadership.” more profit. Whether the
company keeps this profit or
Reduce Costs returns it to the customer in
Labor is a significant the form of reduced prices, is
expense, and easy to lose up to the company. Just keep
track of, especially at the in mind that, as the team at
microtask level. Rever Inc. says, “The pur-
“For this reason,” notes Terry, “most project pose of every small change is to make the busi-
management offices benefit from knowing the ness more profitable.”
amount of time it takes to get certain types of
work done.” Labor waste, therefore, is a natu- Employee Morale
ral area to practice continuous improvement. It is a general truth that we all just want to
It doesn’t take extensive studies and consul- make a difference in our world. On this topic,
tants to analyze whether a job function can Jane Goodall has often been quoted as saying,
reduce the number of repetitive walking steps “What you do makes a difference, and you
an operator must take, or whether solder paste have to decide what kind of a difference you
pot time can be optimized to increase mate- want to make.”
rial utilization as well as labor time loading When employees are encouraged to point out
in fresh solder paste. Frontline employees, in process problems, effect change, and then not
fact, are ideal sources for this type of optimi- only have the successes from those changes
zation. Millard says, “Employees tend to focus shared across the company, but perhaps also
on small changes that can be accomplished see the monetary value of that change to the
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exclusively through Technica U.S.A. www.technica.comorganization, there is little more management ing your goals. Remember that no business
can do to demonstrate an employee’s worth. can grow without realizing what’s causing it to
Henry Ford understood this. The anecdote goes stop growing.”
that when a consultant, upon seeing one of
Ford’s employees sitting with his feet up on his Conclusion
desk, asked Ford why he paid that man $50,000 As quaint as it may sound, continuous
a year, Ford replied, “Because a few years ago, improvement is never-ending; it’s contin-
that man came up with something that saved uous. Change is continuous, too. A recent
me $2 million. And when he had that idea, his example from the U.S. entertainment indus-
feet were exactly where they are now.” try helps make this point. Blockbuster was a
video rental company (it technically still is,
Greater Agility with one remaining Blockbuster retail outlet in
Continuous improvement future-proofs your Bend, Oregon). Sources say that, at its peak,
business. Incremental changes to adapt and Blockbuster had 9,000+ stores and employed
optimize are at the core of creating an agile 58,000+ people worldwide. Blockbuster had a
company. There is a close relationship between good business model and dominated the video
continuous improvement and company evolu- rental industry. No surprise, then, that Block-
tion that requires the presence of human obser- buster management was reluctant to change
vation. even as the market changed around them.
In a recent conversation on the topic of Enter companies like Netflix and, a bit later,
smart versus automated processes, Calumet Redbox. Netflix began in 1997 as a DVD movie
Electronics’ Dr. Meredith Labeau said: “You’re rental service, operating through mail-order and
not going to get there if you completely a website instead of a storefront. The Netflix
remove the humans who are watching and subscription model—a flat monthly fee with
learning the process, understanding how to unlimited rentals and no late charges—changed
iterate through that process, and then under- how its customers consumed the content they
standing that process control enough to say, ‘I rented. The convenience of having a DVD
can move it this way and get this result.’ And, show up in the mail, ready to watch, without
‘Hey, that result, while it was out of process, rental restrictions, created deep customer loy-
is next-generation technology.’ We fundamen- alty to which Blockbuster did not adequately
tally believe that humans are the future, cou- respond. When Netflix further evolved in 2007,
pled with some really great machinery.” introducing the streaming option, Blockbust-
er’s unchanged business model was simply
Grow the Business unable to compete. In contrast, Netflix inten-
All these benefits contribute to growing the tionally innovated new distribution meth-
business. By doing more with fewer resources, ods that were not only less expensive, but
and doing it more effi-
ciently, small changes
add up incrementally to
big results. The knowl-
edge that comes from
consistently analyzing,
improving and measur-
ing processes contrib-
utes directly, allowing
the business to grow.
The Rever team states,
“A lack of visibility will
prevent you from reach- The last Blockbuster store on the planet is located in Bend, Oregon.
28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2021also more convenient for customers. Netflix
improved continuously into a market leader- The Eight Principles
ship position, toppling an industry giant in the
process. Ironically, in the early days of Netf-
lix, Blockbuster had a chance to buy the com-
of ISO9001:
pany for $50 million, and passed. Today, Netf- 1. Customer focus: Organizations can establish
lix’s reported annual income is more than $20 this focus by trying to understand and meet
billion. their customers’ current and future require-
But there is another lesson in the Block- ments and expectations.
buster/Netflix story. Netflix not only adapted 2. Leadership: Organizations succeed when
business operations to be more competitive leaders establish and maintain the internal
and nimbler, but they also adopted innova- environment in which employees can become
tions in electronic distribution. Netflix went fully involved in achieving the organization’s
digital; that changed everything. Netflix was unified objectives.
able to grow as it did because the company
had already improved upon its business prac- 3. Involvement of people: Organizations suc-
tices continuously, so that when they went dig- ceed by retaining competent employees,
ital, the efficiencies scaled. encouraging continuous enhancement of
The electronics manufacturing industry is their knowledge and skills, and empowering
embarking on a transition to Industry 4.0, a them, encouraging engagement, and recog-
transition for us that is not unlike the Netflix nizing achievements.
transition. To fully utilize their investment in 4. Process approach: Organizations enhance
smart factory equipment, real-time data for their performance when leaders manage and
process control, and the benefits of the digital control their processes, as well as the inputs
twin, manufacturers must first ensure they are and outputs that tie these processes together.
automating optimized processes, then continu-
ously improve them. 5. Systematic approach to management: Orga-
With the tagline “X=Xc – 1,” we’re represent- nizations sustain success when processes
ing the idea that incremental improvements are managed as one coherent quality manage-
can happen at any level and need not be large. ment system.
I-Connect007 will devote regular attention in 6. Continuous improvement: Organizations
2021 to the ideas of continuous improvement— will maintain current levels of performance,
both incremental and large-scale. SMT007 respond to changing conditions, and iden-
tify, create and exploit new opportunities
References when they establish and sustain an ongoing
1, 5, 9. “How continuous improvement can build a focus on improvement.
competitive edge” by Carolyn Dewar, Reed Doucette and
Blair Epstein, McKinsey & Company. 7. Factual approach to decision making: Organi-
2, 7, 8, 10. “6 Principles of the Continuous Improvement zations succeed when they have established
Model,” Maggie Millard, KaiNexus. an evidence-based decision-making process
3. “What is Continuous Improvement?,” by Jon Terry, that entails gathering input from multiple
Planview Inc. sources, identifying facts, objectively analyz-
4. “Continuous Improvement—Your Complete Guide to ing data, examining cause/effect, and con-
Continual Improvement Process” by Rever Team, Rever sidering potential consequences.
Inc. 8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships:
6. “What Is Continuous Improvement? A Must-Read Organizations that carefully manage their
Guide to Understanding Kaizen”, Daedalus Howell, Bee- relationships with suppliers and partners can
Keeper. nurture positive and productive involvement,
support, and feedback from those entities.
JANUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 29You can also read
