-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Growing Industry
In this issue of PCB007 Magazine, we talk with leading economic experts, advocacy specialists in Washington, D.C., and PCB company leadership to get a well-rounded picture of what’s happening in the industry today. Don’t miss it.
The Sustainability Issue
Sustainability is one of the most widely used terms in business today, especially for electronics and manufacturing but what does it mean to you? We explore the environmental, business, and economic impacts.
The Fabricator’s Guide to IPC APEX EXPO
This issue previews many of the important events taking place at this year's show and highlights some changes and opportunities. So, buckle up. We are counting down to IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Productronica 2023: Day 2 Review
November 16, 2023 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
After a rainy Tuesday for the start of productronica, we had a brief respite on Wednesday morning, so we were able to walk from the U-bahn to the west entrance of Messe München without getting wet. We were accompanied by a horde of eager exhibition attendees mobbing the turnstiles to get into what promised to be an even livelier second day of the show.
Yes, productronica has come back to life after COVID and re-established its identity as a premier event with more than 1,300 exhibitors from 45 countries, together with an exclusive supporting program.
In my early days in the industry, it was not particularly difficult or expensive to set up PCB manufacture or assembly. It was more about basic skills and one’s ability to innovate. Now, this has become a very expensive club to join, with equipment, software, and data processing capability largely replacing human skill—not that there seems to be much in the way of appropriate skill level or a viable workforce alternative. But there are certainly lots of people at productronica this week, and some of whom have serious money to spend. But what to spend it on?
There was plenty of choice of expensive equipment to choose from, but from what I saw on my initial walk around, there was nothing that I would consider truly revolutionary. That being said, there are lots of incremental improvements of instrumental equipment capability on display. Probably the most significant areas of innovation are in automation and application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in process optimization.
I lost count of the number of equipment suppliers who could measure the cost of their systems in terms of return-on-investment that was based on man-hours savings. For example, there was equipment that completes five process steps in a single machine, not only removing the cost for using as many human operators, but also removing process variability from human error, and usually while having built-in process stop gaps for observed variation where human intervention is needed. These “innovations” are good to see and sorely needed.
Yet, after all these years, we continue to fight the same battles, working to solve the same relative problems, though perhaps within smaller form factors. But maybe I am getting cynical in my declining years. And it was raining again by lunch.
Follow along with our video and photo coverage of this event at Real Time with... productronica 2023.
Suggested Items
TTM Technologies Appoints Wajid Ali to Board of Directors
05/10/2024 | TTM Technologies, Inc.TTM Technologies, Inc. announced that Mr Wajid Ali has been appointed by the unanimous vote of the remaining Directors to serve as a new Class I director on the Board, effective immediately.
Key Tronic Announces Results for Q3 of Fiscal Year 2024
05/08/2024 | Globe NewswireFor the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, Key Tronic reported total revenue of $140.5 million, compared to $164.6 million in the same period of fiscal year 2023.
Global Sourcing Spotlight: Golf, Friedman, and the Benefits of Global Sourcing
05/08/2024 | Bob Duke -- Column: Global Sourcing SpotlightWhen I started working on global sourcing for American Standard Circuits, a friend sent me a book by the NY Times economist Thomas Friedman called The Lexis and the Olive Tree. Well, not being a fan of the NYT or even economists as a whole, I put the book on a shelf and forgot about it until I got a call from my book-giving friend, and he asked me what I thought of the book. I mumbled something unintelligible and quickly changed the subject.
Fabrinet Announces Q3 Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results
05/07/2024 | FabrinetFabrinet, a leading provider of advanced optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers of complex products, today announced its financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended March 29, 2024.
Nolan’s Notes: Coming to Terms With AI
05/07/2024 | Nolan Johnson -- Column: Nolan's NotesHow fast do things move in the world of data analytics? Here’s an example. We’ve been planning this issue on artificial intelligence for the past few months, and, in fact, I had already written this column about a month ago. Then I went to IPC APEX EXPO and upended it all. I originally had compared AI to drag racing in that (CPU) horsepower and new (data) vehicles have steadily delivered higher performance competition. That seemed pretty accurate given how generative AI models dominated the popular media with amazing results—and sometimes spectacular crashes.