FEATURES

• Procurement
  'Re-Sourcing' Outsourced Electronics
  It's called a "priceberg": 80% of the risk may be hidden below the waterline in startup and ramp-down, where management costs per units sold tend to be the highest. Building a harmonious, minimally disruptive dual-sourcing strategy requires an understanding of priceberg composition.
  Ed Grimes

• Customer Service
  What Your Field Service Representative Wants You to Know
  They are like firefighters. When you need them, you need them now. The results can be tense, technical – and funny.
  Frank Murch

• PCB Design Trends
  Understanding Outsourced PCB Layout
  Here are an EMS provider's insights into the stages of PCB layout, for which key components include corporate standards and OEM-EMS collaboration.
  Paul Barsley

• Cover Story
  Maintaining Customer Satisfaction during EMS Acquisition Integration
  Customers of EMS firms aren't buying an end product; they are buying the capabilities, systems, processes and internal culture used to manufacture their product. This in turn puts pressure on the EMS company to manage expectations – and move quickly.
  Todd Baggett

• Case Study: Preforms
  In the Hot Zone
  In the competitive oil and gas drilling industry, a project's success – and a company's reputation – can hinge on seemingly insignificant variables such as a few degrees of temperature on a circuit board. That was quite literally the issue facing a major oil-exploration company as it performed data-collection tests at a client's wells sunk deep in the Indian Ocean.
  Cheryl Ross

FIRST PERSON

• Caveat Lector
  Where will you be next fall?
  Mike Buetow

• Talking Heads
  Juki Automation Systems' Bob Black.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• Focus on Business
  Formal programs for sharing customer information.
  Susan Mucha

TECH TALK

• On the Forefront
  Anorexic packaging.
  E. Jan Vardaman

• Screen Printing
  Automated stencil inspection.
  Clive Ashmore

• Better Manufacturing
  Getting what you want.
  Peter Grundy

• Tech Tips
  Lowering wire bonding defect rates below 100 ppm.
  American Competitiveness Institute

• Wave Soldering
  The role of eutectics.
  Gerjan Diepstraten

• Test and Inspection
  Using x-ray laminography on PTH joints.
  Jeremy Jessen

• Process Doctor
  Dendritic growth.
  Terry Munson

• Equipment Advances
  Inovaxe's inventory control tools.

• Technical Abstracts

DEPARTMENTS

Industry News
Market Watch
Assembly Insider
Product Spotlight
Classifieds
Ad Index

On the cover: EPIC's wave solder equipment changes profiles based on each assembly's bar codes. (Photo courtesy EPIC Technologies)