At least five operation areas can benefit from switching from manual data entry.

"Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat." – Steve Jobs

Several years ago, I embarked on an advanced engineering initiative, seeking unknown, innovative ways of processing PCB design packages for manufacturing external to the status quo, with a primary objective to drive efficiency and productivity, eliminating redundant data entry and reducing human interactions with their associated software applications. I had thrown in the towel relying on our software vendors to provide real and robust solutions. In my opinion, it was not in their interest. As their focus was selling more licenses to increase revenue, developing and marketing advanced automated solutions did not support this cause. My mantra was to take internal ownership and venture into unfamiliar territories. This path led me to OCR (optical character recognition) and, although skeptical at first, the results of our analysis were phenomenal.

Product design specifications and requirements are provided in formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, HPGL, or even as handwritten notes on scrap paper. A close associate of mine calls it “e-paper.” The variety of methodologies used to convey the same information across the PCB industry that is often ambiguous is staggering, to say the least. We print, read, interpret (hopefully correctly) and manually enter these data into our respective software application, often multiple times by multiple organizations.

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A top-down approach for reducing error-prone and time-intensive manual operations.

Last month we talked about the often ambiguous, unstructured design data packages running rampant in the PCB industry, which drive non-value-add administrative tasks across all phases of our data exchange and processes, and we underscored the urgency to integrate “smart engineering” data-driven processes, as becoming more efficient as an industry in reducing cost and NPI cycles should be a critical objective to all organizations. What exactly do we mean when we talk about smart engineering or data-driven processes? Buzzwords and acronyms are all around us, such as digital transformation, RPA (repetitive or robotic process automation), BPM (business process management), SaaS (software as a service), etc. All encompass a similar objective: optimizing our processes throughout the enterprise.

In the PCB manufacturing facility, some classic examples of duplicated data entry when receiving a new design package are in the front-end engineering process steps (FIGURE 1). Several generic steps occur across the industry, and all of these must occur, with the sequence varying based on the company or manufacturing facility. In many cases, each of these process steps are completely segregated software applications, which in essence results in non-value-added administrative tasks.

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