The Collaboration Culture

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As the founder of Trilogy Circuits, the provider of design and assembly services acquired by Zentech, Charlie Capers understands the value of collaboration. We spoke with Charlie about the need for designers to collaborate with all the downstream stakeholders, the hurdles to solid communication, and why real collaboration (or lack of it) can make or break your deadline.

We also discussed the path to true collaboration, and why many companies don’t begin to embrace a collaboration culture until they have a problem. Remember: Each of us can begin ushering in a collaboration culture just by reaching out for help or advice.

Andy Shaughnessy: Charlie, we wanted to get your thoughts on collaboration between PCB designers and the rest of the manufacturing loop. We still hear about senior designers making basic mistakes, like handing off data packages with incomplete fab notes.

Barry Matties: Right, and in a truly collaborative culture, we probably would not have holes in the fabrication notes because they would have talked about it with their CAM partners as they were designing the board.

Charlie Capers: That's true. But also, most fabricators don't know much about design either. They know how to build printed circuit boards, and sometimes, they have to take what they're given and try to produce a printed circuit board the best they can. But yes, there's much more to it than meets the eye. A collaborative process would be great, especially if you have a top-notch designer who can come in and look at your designs—prior to them even going out to a fabrication house—and critique them or make suggestions. We also have some really nice tools that have been around for decades, like Valor and Downstream CAM350. You can program these tools to say, “This is what the design needs to look like before it can go through our shop or our fabrication process.” On a high level, at a Tier 1 EMS company, they will do a full Valor check or something of that nature before it even makes it out to the floor. They will make sure that they know how to build it exactly beforehand. Not everybody has that luxury, of course.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the June 2024 issue of DESIGN007 Magazine, click here.