If parts are turning up where they shouldn’t be, check the feeder and paste.

Chip components sometimes appear on the surface of a board completely out of position. On some occasions they may be under other components or, as in FIGURE 1, even shorting under parts. If it’s a random chip component, then there is little chance of finding the cause. If all the parts are the same resistor or capacitor, it may be a feeder problem where the parts are being dropped after pickup, or are jumping out of the tape due to static, which can occur on small parts (below 0201).

When it comes to selling, it’s all about the friendships.

After an almost four-year hiatus from selling PCBs, I was surprised upon my return to find that most of my previous customers have had very few visits from industry salespeople – and some, none at all. This is a mistake. Yes, electronic communication is important in today’s marketplace, but nothing beats the personal touch when it comes to winning and retaining customers.

And it’s the same for PCB buyers. Holding onto good vendors requires regular, in-person interaction.

I’m now an old dog in sales. I remember the advent of the fax machine being a big deal. All the technology that’s arisen in the past 20-plus years has hugely enhanced communication in our industry. But today’s all-digital environment tempts many salespeople and buyers to rely solely on the impersonal world of the “Internet of Things” to make successful connections. That approach is certainly easier in many respects. But I believe it has severe limitations.

Are you measuring customer service the right way?

April wasn’t a good month for United Airlines. Days after a video showing agents forcibly removing a screaming and bloodied doctor from an overbooked flight went viral, they bumped an engaged couple off an overbooked plane – on the way to their destination wedding.

Then came the flight where, allegedly, a scorpion was found roaming loose in the plane. Management, in PR triage, was certainly kept busy.

The airline business is a tough one. In many ways it is similar to the electronics industry. Much of the costs are “fixed”; significant and ongoing capital investment is required; capacity is constantly changing and rarely predictable, and competition is decreasing as relatively few large carriers vie for the majority of business globally. As tough as the airline business is, however, it appears United’s problems boil down to three simple root cause deficiencies. Those deficiencies cause problems not only for airlines, but for countless other businesses in a variety of industries, including, at times, ours.

Service sector businesses have plenty of functional parallels to SMT.

As CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Editor-in-Chief Mike Buetow pointed out in his April editorial, hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs are going unfilled. However, the notion that the smallest demographic of employees is in the 30 to 50 age range surprised me. My hypothesis for this is slightly different from Mike’s.

Back in the late ’90s/early 2000s, we were publicly touting the evolution of our economy into a service economy. I think folks entering the job market during that period simply focused on the concept of 21st century jobs. In the STEM events I’ve attended, many of the students I’ve talked with have no concept of factories (outside of thinking about putting a 3D printer in their garage). To them, a high-tech career involves a glass office in Silicon Valley.