Demystifying the IPC Technical Activities Executive Committee Global

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

You have an excellent idea for a new standard in the electronics manufacturing industry. How do you turn that idea into a reality? It’s simple: You submit a PIN to the TAEC. Now, what does that even mean?

To develop a new standard, you need the help of the IPC Technical Activities Executive Committee (TAEC) Global. Ideas for new IPC standards are submitted via Project Identification Notification (PIN) to TAEC Global, which conducts an initial review. The PIN is then sent to the general TAEC standards development oversight committee for review and approval. Now, how do they review it and who comprises the committee?

Karen McConnell, Northrop Grumman, IPC Hall of Famer, and long-time IPC volunteer, joins other TAEC members to provide clarity and insight into the critical role the TAEC plays in the standards developed by IPC members. She’s currently serving her second term as TAEC chair and describes it as “the committee that cares about all the standards, not particular ones. Each of the family of standards has a vote on the TAEC.”

Language in standards needs to be consistent, she says, so that someone trying to change jobs doesn’t have to learn a whole new language when they go from fabrication to assembly or design to manufacturing. “The TAEC is the overseer of consistency,” she says.

To read the rest of this article, which appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of IPC Community, click here.