Electronex

Electronex is the Australian Electronics Manufacturing industry annual expo. This year it is at the Melbourne Park Function Centre from Wednesday 6 to Thursday 7 September 2017. You can see all the details at Electronex.

Electronex 2017

SMCBA

In parallel the SMCBA (Surface Mount & Circuit Board Association) is running their annual conference. This year the primary sessions are:

• “Best Practices for Improving Manufacturing Productivity”
•  “Flexible and Rigid Flex Circuits – Design, Assembly and Quality Assessment“
•  “The “Deadly Sins” of SMT Assembly“
•  “Embedding Passive and Active Components: PCB Design and Assembly Process  Fundamentals“
•  “Implementing Advanced “Leading Edge” and “Bleeding Edge” SMT Component Technology“
•  “Design and Assembly Process Implementation for Flip-Chip, Wafer Level and 3D Semiconductor Package Technologies“
•  “ESD Control for Electronics Assembly”
• “Handling Moisture Sensitive Devices”
• “Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Prevention in Electronics Assembly”
• “Stockroom Materials – Storage and Distribution”

SMCBA

The program has two internationally renowned presenters for SMT Manufacturing Vern Solberg and Phil Zarrow presenting on the topics.

Vern Solberg

Phil Zarrow

And I’m presenting two of the open sessions which include a look at the role PCB Design takes in the overall Product Development and the five areas of cost you must manage if you want to minimise the total cost of a product.

PCB Design Tradeoff

This topic looks at the Product Development process and how PCB design fits into that. This is to do with the trade off between product features, what you do in HW, what you do in SW and how to select the technology you want to put on the PCB based on the combination of CEM or in house capability, component lead time, test requirements and product cost.

CEM of course means Contract Electronics Manufacturing. Also called EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) or ECM (Electronics Contract Manufacturing).

Total cost of product ownership

The total cost of ownership of a product is a concept that looks at all the investment required to bring a product to market and manage it throughout its life cycle. It isn’t just a case of minimising R&D spend or getting the Bill of Materials to a minimum. That will usually lead to a higher cost product.

What will be presented is a model looking at the five major costs areas involved in the development of a product throughout its life cycle and how taking all five into account can enable you to get the best return on the important investment made in bringing new products to market.

It will also examine a case study where a product development delivered a next generation product to market that allowed the manufacturer to lower their price, triple their profit margin and increase their market share, all at the same time.

Successful Endeavours Exhibiting

And we are also pleased to announce that we are exhibiting this year for the first time. So if you are coming then we are at stand C1 next to Duet Electronics.

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development, focusing on products that are intended to be Made In Australia. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for more than 30 years. This post is Copyright © 2017 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.