Will US take SMART move?
09 November 2009
I’ll be honest with you – I am in Munich for Productronica, my computer is in England and I have no intention of writing ‘hot’ reports from Productronica this week.
Most interest will surround the latest products and technologies, many of which we have brought to you in our recent show previews, and those that were kept under wraps I will bring to you in coming weeks. As for an overall impression of the show? – I will bring you that next week.
So instead I will turn my attention to other events. Firstly a quick word about two ‘major’ events in the US that have put together some excellent conference programmes, as you would expect from the IPC and SMTA, but are not quite building up the momentum they would like as exhibitions. Our American correspondent, Susan Mucha, while a big supporter of both of these organisations, gives a frank assessment of these two events in her column this week, and given that her title is Too Many Trade Shows, you can probably guess at her conclusions.
For the rest of my column this week I turn to an event at the very small end of the scale - The SMART Group 25th Anniversary Seminar and Exhibition. This was held in the UK at a golf club in Oxfordshire a couple of weeks ago and threw up an interesting contrast.
On one hand there were many past presidents, honary fellows and even one of the founders, John Burke, was over from California to see many of the colleagues he normally only communicates with through the SMART-e-Link email forum. The fact that this was a celebration of 25 years of the Group shows the age of the technology – SMART (Surface Mount And Related Technology) was set-up at a time when through-hole still ruled the roost and new processes brought new problems. So the combination of a technology that is perceived to be mature, combined with the bonhomie that comes from the familiarity of many of the participants, initially gave the event a slight feel of an old boys club reunion.
Now comes the contrast. Among the familiar faces there were many new faces as well, demonstrating that there is new blood coming into the industry (and the SMART Group!) More significantly, the keynote was about what can go wrong in electronics assembly. The perception is that surface mount is a mature technology, but if that is so, how can it be that an organisation the size of Rockwell Collins still finds major problems cropping up? It was a fascinating and entertaining presentation and proves that there is always going to be more to learn.
And throughout the day presentations covering technical and business topics demonstrated that this is an industry still moving forward and anyone who gets complacent, and thinks that they know it all, will soon get left behind. It also perhaps demonstrates how important events by such organisations as the IPC and SMTA are – as long as the format is right!
I was presented with a review of the SMART Group day by Mike Judd and Pete Starkey, and this can be viewed here.
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