July, 2021 Continued from previous page


people-driven processes.” Tectonic Shifts in Industry Domestic circuit board manufacturers


suffered crippling downfalls from 2001 to 2018: the telecoms crash, housing market crash and the true hobbler of the electronics industry — rampant offshoring of circuit board manufacturing by domestic suppliers to low-cost regions, such as Asia. First, suppliers pushed manufacturing,


then supply chains, then R&D offshore, until the U.S. industry was characterized as “dying on the vine” in an early 2018 report by the De- partment of Commerce. Through this period, U.S. circuit board manufacturers struggled just to survive, let alone invest in the future.


It became too difficult to maintain state-of-the-art capabilities. Wage stagnation turned off career inter- est in electronics manufacturing across the nation. However, Calumet demon-


strated resilience through these difficult times. It remained com- mitted to domestic manufactur- ing and local jobs by resisting the lure of low-cost circuit boards from offshore suppliers. Calumet also continues to learn important lessons about world class manu- facturing principles, empowering people and reducing waste. The principles of world-class


manufacturing are not obsolete in the face of smart factories. The concepts of the smart factory are a subset of the principles of world-class manufacturing, not the other way around. “We’re on the precipice of something excit- ing and novel,” says Brassard. “Calumet is continuing to work with DoD primes to develop reli- able and robust next-generation solutions by harnessing the minds of our employees, creating smarter processes.” Dr. Meredith LaBeau, Calu -


met’s director of process engineer- ing, believes the company’s most significant contributor to innova- tion is talent. “The future of elec- tronics is not going to be reliant on robotics as a holistic system. Great PCB manufacturers should utilize an employee’s mind over their body — intelligence over labor,” says Dr. LaBeau. “Where does in- novation come from? A robot isn’t innovation. To innovate, we need intelligence — the humans.” Dr. LaBeau cites an example


of how the company’s engineers and technicians are allowed the freedom to make process choices. “We ask engineers to challenge themselves. Failure is the best teacher. Of course, we try to limit their failures, but they will never understand the full process if they don’t fail. We have a culture where failure is acceptable if you ulti- mately learn and advance from it.” Calumet’s process engineer,


Audra Thurston, says the empha- sis on brainpower extends to man- agers on the floor. “I am still a young engineer,” says Thurston. “There’s another generation com- ing up behind me. The most help-


www.us-tech.com


ful tool we have is asking questions. If a senior engineer can’t give a great answer, it also opens their eyes. We both question why we are doing it this way. Then, the teams work to- gether to answer the question or develop new


Page 19 People and PCB Production at Calumet Electronics


systemic ideas for traditional processes. When the young engineers are asked the questions, sometimes they can’t answer them either. That’s when we take the time and dig in to find out if this is the right way to do it. Can we do it a different way? Is this the smartest way? Let’s find those answers together.” The benefits of this philosophy are bound-


less. It gives Calumet an edge over other PCB suppliers in developing robust technology solu- tions that surpass other countries for DoD and commercial market segments, protecting do- mestic security interests and the future of American electronics manufacturing. Contact: Calumet Electronics Corp.,


Projects for defense and aerospace often require flexibility in production and ingenuity from engineering staff.


25830 Depot Street, Calumet, MI 49913 % 408-470-9287 Web: www.calumetelectronics.com


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