Steve,
Sorry, I have to agree with your QA for the dull solder joints... If you
analyse the joint surface (XPS), it would be Pb rich oxide, which is
unstable compare to the Sn rich oxide surface under RH condition.... The
best cost saving you can do is to eliminate the idle time and get the
assembly running as smooth as possible...(you are going to tell me to "go to
hell", I know).  Based on my experience, the best products are produced with
full running of assembly line with minimum idle time (nobody take extra long
lunch or coffee break, therefore, not "happlily" forgot some steps...).  I
AGREE with you that process indicator is not necessary required rework, but
required investigation!(and documentation of why such an incidence
occur...warning: not going to make you very popular).  If you find out that
process is not optimized (can not minimize the idle time...for example),
such an inherited process is not easy to fix...Usually, it is caused by rush
(cost/time saving) of initial design of process (extreme case, no
consideration of process flow at all)...In that case, you have a "career
opportunity" on your hand...No easy fix in near future but work one station
at the time and use your "Roberts University" output and ask for the God
(who ever you think will listen) to help you too...by the way, if you have
trouble for class 2, boy oh boy...(I think I should stoppppp....)
                                  jk
At 02:26 PM 8/3/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Hey ya'll!
>
>Well, it's cooled down to a balmy 90-degrees here, and boy are my sweat
>glands happy!...hehehe
>
>But email ain't to talk about my how much I perspire, but about changing
>cultures. One of my "opportunities" as presented to me here is figuring out
>how to reduce costs (aren't we all trying to do that?).
>
>One of the things that I've noticed since I've been here, is that there is
>that everything is looked at through MIL-SPEC shaded glasses...and I've found
>that boards we were building under IPC 610 class-II standards were being
>touched-up un-neccessarily. Things that are maybe only a process indicator,
>but acceptable, are being reworked. For one example, dull solder joints that
>were caused because an active OA flux was left on longer than it should have
>been before cleaning has made the joints look dull. QA won't accept the board
>until all the solder joints are sparkling. I'll fix the problem about the
>operators leaving the flux on too long before washing the board, but you
>still don't need to touch every joint up! But I sure couldn't convince QA of
>that...and so on it goes.
>
>Part of the history here is that they've always done MIL-SPEC work here, and
>a lot of that work isn't as plentiful as it once was. One reason I fully
>believe is because of the costs associated with building product to that
>level of quality. At my last company we built product that was going on the
>space shuttle, but yet it only needed to meet 610 Class-II standards. It
>wasn't any guidance stuff or anything like that, but even NASA is relaxing
>things a bit.
>
>Class-II product is something new here, and I think I'm gonna have my hands
>full trying to get people out of that MIL-SPEC culture...it'll be hard to
>make any money doing things that way with the difference in the margins
>between MIL-SPEC and commercial class-II product..
>
>Any suggestions anybody?
>
>Thanks ya'll!
>
>-Steve Gregory-
>
>##############################################################
>TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
>##############################################################
>To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following
text in
>the body:
>To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name>
>To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TECHNET
>##############################################################
>Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
>information.
>If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or
>847-509-9700 ext.5365
>##############################################################
>

##############################################################
TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
##############################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the body:
To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name>
To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TECHNET
##############################################################
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information.
If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or
847-509-9700 ext.5365
##############################################################