Part of the review of the a customers documents for an RFQ is any specific process requirements or assembly conditions. Unfortunately, Supply-chain picks suppliers and demands quotes, often without responding to requested documents and CM Business Mgr's are often reluctant to push too hard on new potential customers.Typically have to be bit by unspecified requirement for voiding before it shows up on NPI checklist. There are QFN's that have no solder under the slug and work fine. The particular application does not push the device to the current and thermal edge. As I have made the transition from many propitiatory/gov't spec sources to IPC based, I may not have questioned the undefined sufficiently. I appreciate IPC's stance, I may not have incorporated the undefined as successfully in my NPI evaluation and discussions with customers both internal and external. Joyce is correct, new packages are denser, more complex to process. Once upon a time the package manufacturer or the OEM would expend heavy resources on developing the requirements for new designs. The result of specialization. core competencies, outsourcing, Lean and Mean has resulted in tremendous price/performance increases. A CM site with heavily engineered products could not maintain the level of support that was available when it was a captive shop, it conformed to the Tier 1 CM model. The model works well for defined products and processes. Big question of who foots the bill for process development above routine NPI requirements. If you are the elephant at the company, resources may be available. If you are the pimple on the behind, none may be available. > ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________