Original Date: 01/23/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

In mid-1990, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)/California formed an Electrical Seamless Manufacturing Team in response to several issues requiring improvement. Its Printed Wiring Board (PWB) process was suffering from quality problems and was inefficient; standard CAD tools were not in use; there were very few automated programs; and there was a general lack of understanding of the PWB design-to-manufacturing process. Sandia believed the team could help personnel address these issues as well as learn how to better serve their customers by focusing on issues associated with optimizing the PWB process.

SNL/California formed a cross-functional team with a customer-supplier relationship. Team members were from engineering, design definition, computer-aided engineering, computer-aided manufacturing, and electronic fabrication. The team's focus was to 1) develop efficient, high quality processes based on the customers' needs; 2) define processes for each discipline; 3) develop seamless interfaces between each discipline; and 4) develop metrics to support continuous improvement.

The team has had an impact. As a result of its efforts, there has been improved communication between customer and supplier. Processes are better defined, and a set of guidelines for design for manufacturability has been developed, as well as a standard component library. An automated program is in place to create a consistent set of manufacturing files for fabrication services such as photoplot data, drill, and test. A process has been created for feedback leading to continuous improvement.

The team is currently revisiting the process to incorporate changes required for the new standard PWB design software also used by SNL/New Mexico and the Allied Signal/Kansas City Division. The team determined that characteristics developed using the previous software are still required and need to be implemented.

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