Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: We Are the Alchemists

I recently talked to a board shop owner who entertained a customer visit from a large military OEM. In the group were four young engineers who had never been in a PCB shop before. As they toured the facility, they were actually stunned at the amount of equipment, people, and process steps it takes to build a printed circuit.

The owner told me they were both fascinated and in awe of the complexity of building these boards—something their own co-workers simply called “cards.”

After hearing this story, I reflected again on how little knowledge and respect there is for our industry. It is almost a case of strategic ignorance where those who design, buy, and use our products simply don’t have respect for what we do as PCB fabricators.

Now, I could go on a rant and just blame everyone in the history of circuit boards who didn’t properly teach the importance and complicated nature of a board. In fact, I’ll bring out one of my favorite lines: “A 28-layer blind and buried via PCB is not a commodity.”

I also won’t rant about the fact that designers don’t seem to have much respect for or even curiosity about what and how we do it. I won’t complain about buyers who don’t even want to know or understand the complicated process of building PCBs. To me, this really demeans our technology. For the buyer, it’s only about getting the best price possible, just telling board shops that they’re all the same; they’ll only give their order to the shop with the best price.

I also won’t blame our suppliers and vendors who for years have skipped over getting our opinion of a new product or chemistry they wanted us to use, but instead went right over our heads to our customers, getting them to spec it in, and then leaving us to deal with whether the product even works.

No, that is not where I am going here (okay, maybe just a little).

For years, we have had a seat against the wall while all the other entities—the OEMs, designers, engineers, PCBA companies, and our vendors—had their own seat right up front. It feels like we sat back, either behind the table or the proverbial children’s table and let others decide our fate.

Even our vendors convinced our customers to make demands on us to use their laminates, coatings, and chemistry. We sat back with a voice, or even a seat at that table.

For years, we have waited patiently to be invited, to be let in and asked what we thought. All along, we as fabricators have wanted to voice our opinion about what is best: How to actually turn their ideas into reality.

Our customers told us what they wanted, and we didn’t say anything, even when we knew better. Our customers railed on us if we asked too many questions, suggested that their design might not be perfect, or their impedance calculations might not be correct. Instead, we were told to shut up and build it the way it was designed—only to take the blame when the boards did not work. All that time, we knew in our hearts the boards wouldn’t work.

For years, we watched helplessly as our customers kept boards on shelves for weeks in jungle-like conditions, then pulled them out without bothering to pre-bake them. Or they would return them to us and saying they did not solder. Well, of course, they didn’t, the boards were as filled with moisture as a wet sponge.

We were hit with regulations and rules that raised our costs while our customers gave us price cuts. Then our customers went off to other countries that had those great prices they were looking for but without the same regulations or human rights protections. By the way, they took our IP with them and joyously handed it over to their newfound, low-priced friends.

Frankly, I am tired of leaving it up to others to define us and our industry. We must stop allowing ourselves to be the victims, sitting by quietly and letting the designers, our customers, and our vendors decide who we are and how important or even unimportant we really are to our industry.

I urge all of us to take our place at the table. It is time we define ourselves and let our associates in our industry know just how important we are to them.

If you really think about it, we are the true “makers,” the only ones in the supply chain who build something. We have the equipment, people, technology, and the wherewithal to build what others have designed and then used in their assemblies. We are, in the end, the true alchemist of the supply chain. It’s time to help others understand that.

In my mind, that game is over. The chickens have come home to roost. We have waited long enough; no one will give us that seat at the table. We must take it, wrench it from their hands and position ourselves as the true makers, innovators, and alchemists of the electronics industry.

Are you ready? Let’s go.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.