The Present and the Future of Electronics Assembly.

As in any industry, executives in the electronics assembly industry rely on timely, accurate information to make sound business decisions. One source of such information is the NEMI Roadmap, which is published every two years by the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, Herndon, VA. Another source of information is the annual Salary Survey conducted by Circuits Assembly.

The NEMI 2000 Roadmap was first presented at this year's APEX show in San Diego. This comprehensive document includes chapters on a variety of topics, including substrates, components, packaging and product sectors. Of special interest to the readers of Circuits Assembly is the chapter on board assembly.

An exclusive article, located on the Circuits Assembly website (www.circuitsassembly.com), discusses the findings in the board assembly chapter. The article was written by Linda Klober and Bill Barthel, the chair and co-chair, respectively, of the NEMI Board Assembly Technology Working Group for the 2000 Roadmap.

The article identifies several trends that will impact board assembly processes. One trend is that electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers will "continue to take over more of the operations in electronics assembly from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)." Other trends are that wave soldering is being eliminated in the high performance sector, and larger board dimensions are becoming mainstream.

The article also describes the advancements that will be necessary to meet the future needs of the industry. One example is that placement speeds for various types of packages will need to increase to meet market demands, as shown in the table below. Another example is that certain components, such as 10 3 20 mil discrete chips, must be improved so that they can meet the demand to increase the I/O density of assemblies.

The 2001 Salary Survey is also located on the Circuits Assembly website. As in past years, the analysis of the survey data was conducted by Nick Lester, who was the editor of Printed Circuit Assembly magazine, the predecessor of Circuits Assembly.

The article provides some compelling information. For example, the survey confirms that the trend by OEMs to shift the actual manufacture of their products to EMS providers shows no signs of abating in 2001. As a result of this trend, EMS providers are merging and/or buying smaller competitors "to establish a broad, international customer base."

The survey also found that more younger workers are entering the assembly industry, but, with that influx, the percentage of workers with post-graduate college degrees has declined from 32 percent in 1999 to only 22 percent in 2000. The percentage of workers with four-year degrees also declined, from 39 percent to 24 percent. However, workers with two-year degrees increased from 13 percent to 24 percent.

The percentage of women in the industry increased for the second consecutive year, but men are still in the majority at 87 percent versus 13 percent. However, as shown in the table below, the average salary for female assembly professionals is still significantly less than the average salary for male assembly professionals.

Taken together, the NEMI article on the 2000 Roadmap board assembly chapter and the Circuits Assembly 2001 Salary Survey provide some interesting findings for electronics assembly personnel. Both articles can be found at www.circuitsassembly.com.

http://www.circuitsassembly.com

Copyright [copyright] 2001 CMP Media LLC