They may be a hassle, but audits can provide valuable insights and ideas for your company.

During the fourth quarter of this year, it seems that everyone and their brother have scheduled audits at my company. Some are for certifications such as ISO 9001 and AS9100. Others are customer-driven, as the cloud of Covid has at least partially lifted and after a three-year hiatus customers are able to travel to meet their suppliers. I have always hated audits; however, I also have learned that they can be a powerful tool when incorporated into the business planning process.

First, a disclaimer: I truly hate audits, for three basic reasons.

First, those conducting the audit – especially certification audits – have no clue what you make, the manufacturing challenges faced in producing the product, or industry-specific acceptability standards related to the product that you must meet. These auditors just follow a flat checklist and try to jam the proverbial square peg (your facility) into a round hole (their certification program).

"Non-standard" head shapes mean flex circuits are a given.

We've come a long way in the AR/VR space. It seems like we're going to have this stuff whether we want it at the moment or not. It's kind of like the Northwest Passage through the ice cap. It's new. We're not sure what the result looks like, but we're charging ahead with a virtual and/or augmented future.

Set the wayback machine to 1939, when both my father and the View-Master stereoscope entered the room. This wasn't long after Kodachrome was invented, so it was cutting-edge at the time. We put circular cards into the slot and could browse seven different views that somehow tricked the eye into seeing depth from isolating each eye on two similar slides (Figure 1).

Back in "real" reality, this technology still has a lot of room to grow. It was about a decade ago when virtual reality started to bubble up into the lexicon at Google. We knew that a new industry was coming into existence and wanted to at least provide a gateway to the content. A group adjacent to the Chrome team developed a product called "Cardboard" that reminded me of the View-Master.

While the 5G era continues to take hold, materials science must advance for us to move to the next stage.

It's part of the human condition to never be satisfied. We are always looking forward to what comes next, and this tendency is starkly evident in our attitudes toward technology. As our daily lives have become substantially enabled, empowered, and – many would probably agree – enhanced by the technology in our pockets, in our cars, and in our homes and offices, we have become increasingly demanding of more and better. More features and functions, more sophistication, faster responses, less waiting.

Our attitudes toward mobile services illustrate the point. No sooner had 5G networks started rolling out than the focus shifted to 6G and the exciting new opportunities it could bring. But is this a harsh truth about our nature, or simply the reality of a massive scientific and engineering challenge? The mobile industry has established a rhythm that introduces a new generation about once every 10 years: 3G arrived around 2000, 4G-LTE in 2010, and 5G rollouts based on Release 15 of the 3GPP specification began around 2020. 5G evolution has continued, with non-standalone deployments giving way to standalone 5G core and further enhancements in 3GPP Release 16 and 17 to support industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. Release 18 now paves the way for 5G Advanced, which will offer energy savings and greater spectral efficiency, leverage AI to improve network performance, and, of course, enable additional new services and enhanced capabilities.

Leveraging additive manufacturing technology to mistake-proof production.

One thing OEMs universally agree on is that none of them likes non-recurring engineering (NRE) charges. Implemented as part of new product introduction (NPI), however, custom tooling, fixtures and jigs can eliminate defect opportunities by minimizing process variation that could otherwise occur when those issues can’t be resolved through product design changes. They are also a good tool when a production team identifies the need for a poka-yoke, or mistake-proofing solution, later in a product’s lifecycle.

The concept of poka-yoke was developed by Shigeo Shingo as part of the Toyota Production System (TPS). When applied, the resulting process improvement eliminates a specific defect. Its focus on simplicity is its strength, in that simple fixes are often the best solution for small variances in the manufacturing process. Simple fixes are also easy to rapidly implement and encourage production operator involvement in the pursuit of product perfection. That said, when fixtures are procured through third parties, the cost may exceed the benefit.