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Chemigraphic Achieves ISO 27001 Certification for Information Security Management

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Chemigraphic ISO 27001 certification

We are proud to announce that Chemigraphic has been certified to ISO 27001 for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). This achievement underscores Chemigraphic’s unwavering commitment to ensuring the highest standards of information security for its customers and stakeholders.

ISO 27001 Certification: ISO 27001 is an internationally recognised standard that specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an ISMS within the context of the organization’s overall business risks. With this certification, Chemigraphic demonstrates its adherence to best practices in information security management, including risk assessment, mitigation, and monitoring.

Commitment to Information Security: The ISO 27001 certification reflects our dedication to safeguarding sensitive information and data assets. During an era of cybersecurity threats, this certification gives customers peace of mind that Chemigraphic has taken robust precautions to ensure their confidential information is protected.

Benefits for Customers: Choosing to partner with Chemigraphic can now give you added confidence in the security and integrity of intellectual property, proprietary designs, and other confidential data. By aligning with ISO 27001 standards, our position is confirmed as a trusted and reliable partner for electronic manufacturing services, prioritising the security needs of our diverse customer base.

Continuous Improvement: Achieving ISO 27001 certification is not a one-time accomplishment but a testament to Chemigraphic’s ongoing commitment to customer service excellence. Our company is dedicated to continually enhancing all our business practices, staying vigilant against emerging threats, and adapting to evolving industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Chemigraphic ISO 27001 Certification: The attainment of ISO 27001 certification underscores Chemigraphic’s dedication to upholding the highest standards of information security in the electronic manufacturing industry. This achievement not only enhances trust and confidence among customers but also reinforces our position as a market leader committed to excellence in all aspects of its operations.

Chemigraphic ISO 27001 Certification
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Going global: How international sourcing can improve the manufacturing process for electronic medical devices

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Medical electronic manufacturing

How is the globalisation of the supply chain for components affecting the market for electronic medical devices?

  • What opportunities does it offer?
  • What effects will it have on the manufacturing process?
  • What challenges can it solve?
  • And what complications could it introduce?

One thing is for sure, the global market is here – and will only become more important with time. It’s those who understand how to control and facilitate it that will gain the competitive edge.

Let’s first take an overview of the global component market, before looking at the advantages it offers and risks that need managing for medical OEMs.

The global component market

In a recent report into the Electronic Components Market 2019, the on-going trends and future prospects were laid bare.

The global electronic components market size was estimated at USD 190.28 billion in 2022 and it is expected to hit around USD 368.4 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.83% during the forecast period 2023 to 2032.

Driving this growth are:

  • The rising demand for products with increased functionality
  • An escalating need for smaller and thinner components
  • The adoption of combined modules, such as system-on-chip and multichip

It also focussed on factors such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and other new tech opportunities stimulating innovation and NPIs in sectors like satellite and space technology, military applications, and the medical market.

Ominously, however, it noted that ‘the lack of suppliers of electronic components is hampering the growth of the market in recent years’.

In terms of where this global market is concentrated it pinpointed Asia Pacific as dominating the market in 2018 – and suggested this is a trend that will strengthen over the next few years.

Leading the way is China, home to the world’s largest chip designers, chipmakers and suppliers of critical components that are used in IoT applications.

Components for medical OEMs

It’s only fair that the company, entrepreneur, maverick or genius who invents a life-saving or life-enhancing medical product gets all the credit and attention. But the ultimate commercial success of any electronic medical device hinges just as much on having a developed and sustainable supply chain as it does that original flash of inspiration.

As the report above indicates, the challenges of a highly stressed supply chain are beginning to force many medical device OEMs to rethink the way they work.

With parts in chronic shortage, extended lead times for delivery, a highly competitive marketplace and the ever-present risk of obsolescence or counterfeiting, medical OEMs are increasingly using a supply chain partner they can trust.

Traceability

For the electronic medical device sector trust, traceability and accountability are absolutely essential.

The components used must meet the exact specifications in the highly regulated medical world. The risk to reputation and revenue is too high for a product’s integrity to be compromised.

This is why provenance and traceability of components is so critical: manufacturers want components that can be traced back to the original manufacturer. They must be able to get these parts on time and at the lowest possible price, without assuming additional risk.

In the complicated global supply chain this can often be hard to do.

The increasing volume of counterfeit electronic components is of particular concern to medical OEMs.

The potential consequences of counterfeiting of electronic components are the flip-side to the benefits that a global supply chain brings.

Increasingly complex global supply chains have enabled the proliferation of counterfeit components – and they can be incredibly hard to detect.

This ever-lengthening of the supply chain provides an increasing number of process steps where counterfeit devices can be inserted.

What’s needed is a partner who can open up access to the opportunities of the global supply chain, but who also vets and reviews their suppliers thoroughly. At Chemigraphic, we have found the best way to do this is through long-term relationships, thorough vetting of any new suppliers and rigorous checking of all components received.

We have also recently made the first step in establishing a strong presence in China. And we are intending to strengthen this presence shortly.

Our sourcing office in Shenzhen gives our customers a direct window into this critical market. It also provides us with a platform to assess and monitor new suppliers and significantly de-risk the sourcing of complex or high value parts from Asia.

Globalising the bill of materials

Many medical devices require tight control over approved component vendors, and often have only single sources.

This makes it all the more important to work with a supplier who has global access to multiple alternatives – and to include these in the bill of material. Failing to do so effectively leaves the manufacturer hostage to a single supplier, which can add cost, time and may even derail manufacturing in the event of shortages.

Technology considerations can affect your best geographical supply source. Particularly where IoT functionality is required, availability and quality dictate that components should be sourced within China (or a handful of other offshore locations).

Obsolescence and global alternatives

The issue of obsolescence is a very real threat in a component market often characterised by shortages.

The investment required to redesign a product can be substantial and time-consuming. However, in several cases, the lack of components which may cost as little as a few pennies have led to multi-million-dollar revenue shortfalls and significant loss of market share.

Having planned in, at an early stage, alternatives – or worked with a supply chain expert, who can advise on the risk of obsolescence – such problems can be intelligently avoided.

This is especially true with NPIs, where scalability should be a key consideration very early in the manufacturing process. The lure of catalogue availability for the rapid-turn prototype stages can become a liability when production growth demands sustainable volume sourcing.

Going global

The opportunities to circumvent shortages, avoid delays, save costs and speed up the process of getting products off the ramp expand as the component market is globalised.

But the complicated supply chain needs expert management to avoid risks – and these are especially pronounced in the electronic medical device market.

Chemigraphic is working to provide the best opportunities for manufacturers from across the globe.

And our office in China is just the beginning.

‘Our presence in China will further cement our ability to provide our customers with a seamless and cost-effective supply chain. We are committed to procuring the best parts at the best price for our customers, and the Chinese office will enable us to facilitate parts in even higher volumes and at lower costs, via direct access to regional pricing structures.’

The power of foresight: Accurate forecasting for the complexities of electronic manufacturing

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Electronic circuit board

Some wisecrack once remarked that ‘accurate forecasting’ is an oxymoron.

Edgar R. Fielder echoed this sentiment in his classic The Three Rs of Economic Forecasting when he proclaimed that ‘he who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass.’

Yet the introduction of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that can crunch data for breakfast and unify supply chain, sales, promotional and seasonal information are set to add precision, agility, simplicity and intelligence to electronic manufacturing forecasting.

And that’s great news.

The World Economic Forum reports that companies which improve their forecasting can:

  • Cut as much as 30% out of inventory
  • Increase the average fill rate by up to 7%
  • And improve margins by 2%

Nowhere is this of more immediate interest than in electronic manufacturing. According to research by IBM, today’s electronic industry operates at an average gross value of inventory as a percentage of revenue that is as high as 9.58 %.

There are, of course, a number of ways to tackle the high levels of inventory within the industry, but one stands head and shoulders above the rest. Strong forecasting capability is the cornerstone to healthy inventory levels and improved margins.

The Holy Grail of accurate forecasting

‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’

Arthur C. Clarke

Having a 100% accurate forecast is the Holy Grail for electronic manufacturing.

To know that your supply chain and manufacturing partners can make exactly what your customers want – and when they want them – is the equivalent of operational nirvana.

The effect on OEMs’ operational costs and ultimate profit would be dramatic:

  • No waste
  • Reduced cost
  • Improved margins
  • Increased efficiency
  • Increased sales
  • Better customer satisfaction

But finding any Holy Grail always proves elusive – just ask Indiana Jones!

The influences that affect forecasting accuracy are numerous and complex – and the globalised supply chain of electronic manufacturing makes collating, unifying and crunching all the data sources a seemingly onerous task.

While workarounds to plug gaps arising from forecast inaccuracy include holding stock or introducing techniques like DDMRP (Demand Driven Material Resource Planning) to hold strategic buffers, these fail to confront the issues of accurate forecasting head on.

How Chemigraphic can partner with you to forecast more accurately

OEMs today need an agile and efficient supply chain and manufacturing partner. It’s the only way to compete in a challenging environment where costs can rise faster than revenues, SKUs have a habit of suddenly proliferating and customers often switch brands in response to promotions or changing trends.

The global manufacturing base makes it increasingly hard to respond swiftly and efficiently to surge demand. Meanwhile, the growth of online retail simply adds to demand volatility. With so many outlets, so much dynamic pricing, multiplying fulfilment locations, and real-time discounting, the complications for accurate forecasting stack up.

Chemigraphic’s recent introduction of a fully cloud-based ERP system has strengthened our ability to partner with you for accurate, efficient forecasting.

IFS Applications 10 is a best-in-class ERP – and we are one of the one of the first UK businesses to have had this version of IFS implemented from scratch.

IFS/Demand PlanningTM reduces the complexity of forecasting through one of the most sophisticated and easy-to-use graphical demand planning tools on the market today. Its highly interactive forecasting environment allows us to work with you to quickly create and adjust demand forecasts for input into other key enterprise activities such as sales planning, inventory control and production.

Commenting on the benefits of the new ERP Stewart Gadd, Technical Director at Chemigraphic, said that ‘our new and enhanced system has improved our operational efficiency by bringing everything together into one core platform. The benefits are clear for our customers: it enables superior planning, better forecasting and enhanced capacity management, allowing us to do what we do better, faster and more flexibly.’

To ensure that we can forecast requirements from the start, and agilely respond to changes as they happen, we have also introduced my own new role as programme manager,  giving me the responsibility of liaising with customers so we can better understand their requirements, potential barriers to progress and expectations early on in our relationship and at fundamental milestones along the way.

This allows us to create an improved, clear forecast for each customer and each project, in order to manage capacity and activity peaks as far ahead as possible.

Chemigraphic: your EMS forecasting partner

‘An unsophisticated forecaster uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts – for support rather than for illumination.’

Andrew Lang

It’s essential to establish forecasting that allows for proactive capacity planning: meaning that inventory holding is reduced, manufacturing is delivered on time, supply chain efficiency is increased and lower costs deliver greater margins.

Today’s sophisticated technology and processes now mean that forecasting can be intelligent, reactive and proactive. Using this added insight, trends and known triggers that cause peaks or drops in activity can be layered on top of delivery schedules and seasonal data to give a clearer overall picture of what is ahead.

And, just as importantly, we can quickly respond should the unexpected occur.

The benefits for customers are clear:

  • Complete transparency and real-time visibility of the schedule
  • Enhanced ability to quantify demand and manage supply
  • A collaborative planning partner who works with you on forecasting to ensure shared communication and data

Talk to us today about how we can help you forecast with greater accuracy for the complexities of electronic manufacturing in the age of big data and AI. 

Scaling down: how manufacturers are consolidating suppliers to achieve more

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Electronic manufacturing

Many OEMs are finding that with great power comes greater complexity.

The twin forces of globalisation and growth by acquisition are creating both opportunities and challenges.

And the one area where this is most apparent is the supply chain.

Factors such a rapid growth through acquisition has seen big players in the electronics market facing the challenge of managing, monitoring and coordinating quite literally thousands – and in some extreme cases tens of thousands – of suppliers.

What are the problems thrown up by complex supply chains – and how can a trusted EMS partner help you overcome these?

Facing the challenge of an extensive and complex supply chain

The issues faced are far from confined to electronics.

Athletics brand Under Armour recently massively boosted its margins through supply chain simplification. Its gross margins were up 170 basis points to 46.5% in the second quarter of this year, with the vast majority of this year-over-year gain attributed to supply chain efficiency.

“Moving forward, it’s all about staying disciplined, focused and methodical, working smarter,” said Patrick Frisk, President and COO.

How can EMS help you stay disciplined and focussed when managing your supply chain?

Supply chain issues have long been under the spotlight.

The electronics industry has faced several disruptions and disasters that have had a profound effect on the way OEMs need their supply chain to operate. These have included ash clouds, defective software, the need for customisation, bankruptcy and the ever-present risk of obsolescence. Manufacturers are painfully aware of how fragile their supply chain can be and the costs that these disruptions entail.

Add into the mix the dynamic of businesses growing through acquisition, when the parent company inherits each target companies’ individual supply chain and, over time, the supply chain danger has intensified. Far from amortising risk, excessively large supply chains generate too many hidden/unknown risks and are impossible to effectively manage. A far better position is to have some supplier diversity, but maintain a manageable portfolio, which can be strategically developed for improved performance.

Minimising supply chain complexity is the best way to create a more efficient, more agile organisation, that can respond rapidly to emerging consumer demands and reduce risks in getting products to market in a timely manner while meeting margins.

Chemigraphic has always invested in smart resources and intelligent systems, introducing improved classifications that account for complete trackability and traceability throughout the supply chain. 

In addition, by working with our customers and supply chain at both the design stage and throughout the life-cycle of a product, our team ensures we can maximise efficiencies and reduce risks from supplier selection.

Our best-in-class ERP

Our recent introduction of a fully cloud-based ERP system has strengthened our ability to manage design, manufacture and our supply chain.

IFS Applications 10 is a best-in-class ERP – and we are one of the one of the first UK businesses to have had this version of IFS implemented from scratch.

Commenting on the benefits of the new ERP, Stewart Gadd, Technical Director at Chemigraphic, said that ‘our new and enhanced system has improved our operational efficiency by bringing everything together into one core platform. The benefits are clear for our customers: it enables superior planning, better forecasting and enhanced capacity management, allowing us to do what we do better, faster and more flexibly.’

To ensure the new ERP system enables the sales and planning team to work more effectively with each customer, Laura Goring has been appointed as the first Programme Manager, whose role is to liaise with customers so we can better understand their requirements, potential barriers to progress and expectations early on in our relationship.

This allows us to create an improved, clear forecast for each customer and each project, in order to manage capacity and activity peaks as far ahead as possible.

Laura explained that ‘understanding the variables for each customer before inputting information into our own systems provides our customers with considerable benefits and means that we can work more efficiently to their demands.’

Our focus on robust supply chain simplicity

Supply chain complexity cannot be managed by systems planning and early engagement alone.

Our team enables scale, scope and speed through established relationships. We offer a robust supply chain that reduces our customers’ touch-points and removes risk.

We use various sourcing platforms to secure supply, underwrite stock and in some cases carry out last-time buys on your behalf. We fulfil your Bill of Materials (BOMs) using only the safest supply routes, either by purchasing directly from the manufacturer or via our global network of partners who offer full product traceability.

Our supply-chain management team reviews top level products to mitigate obsolescence risks and investigates supply sustainability to ensure partners are resilient and capable of scaling.  

Our strong and long-lasting relationship with global supply chain partners ensures you receive:

  1. 100% transparency and traceability
  2. Confirmed supplier validation
  3. Consultancy on terms and conditions
  4. Contract negotiation support
  5. A proactive approach to changing market dynamics

Our focus on managing materials

Our efficient management helps you to eliminate waste, reduce material cost and shorten lead-times, while remaining agile enough to respond to changing market forces.

Our ERP offers an inventory management programme that optimises stock holding levels to minimise the costs of excess inventory.

By working with supply chain partners from design to delivery we can reduce costs and minimise obsolescence and availability risks.

How Chemigraphic adds value by simplifying your supply chain

As important as issues such as market research, design, validation, functionality and test regimes are to the success of OEMs’ products, the supply chain – as we have seen – poses significant risks and cost implications. And, in today’s climate of acquisitions and mergers, increasingly so.

The earlier such risks are considered the more effectively they can be minimised.

That’s why Chemigraphic can help you when reviewing your inventory or working on an NPI to reduce risk, delays and cost.

Building an effective supply chain to ensure on-time delivery, cost savings and a reliable flow of components is crucial when preparing any product for a smooth route to market.

The ultimate commercial success of any technology product hinges on having a developed, capable and sustainable supply chain – and we can help you maintain this throughout your product’s lifecycle.

Electronic tech and the fear of the future

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Electronic technology

‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’

Arthur C. Clarke

It’s not just military tech that has the power to shock and awe.

Science fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke is not exactly clear which type of magic he refers to in the quote above. Is advanced technology (in all its forms) indistinguishable from threatening black magic or the otherworldly magic of miracles?

Many of us feel a combination of attraction and repulsion when surveying the latest tech and imagining its future implications. In psychological terms this dual sense is known as abjection.

So, which tech trends spark the power of desire or horror in us?

Ask the public

Recent market research by Opinium, on behalf of London-based digital agency Studio Graphene, polled 2,000 consumers in the UK to find out which trends cause fear and which are eagerly anticipated.

People were asked to say if they were excited, curious, sceptical or worried about the technology – or if they had never heard of it.

Here’s what was discovered.

Biometrics

The possibilities offered by biometrics are being welcomed with open arms rather than closed minds. It received the highest percentage (32%) of people feeling ‘excited’ by its prospect.

Biometric authentication – such as retina or fingerprint scanning – is being used as a form of identification and access control. But far from being seen as an Orwellian attempt at control, it is seen as a way to add privacy and increase security.

5G and wearable tech

The next two technologies – in order of positive responses – were the connectivity solutions offered by next-generation 5G wireless tech and the leisure, medical and industrial uses of wearable tech.

Autonomous vehicles

The much-hyped driverless car, however, worries 43% of those polled.

This is despite the fact that many manufacturers are predicting launches in the next year or two. Concerns over safety easily outweigh the dream of commuting to work while leisurely sipping coffee and reading the paper. In many ways their concerns are entirely justified with coherent legislation regulating the use of such cars still being debated in many governments.

Artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data

AI failed to gain a ringing endorsement, with 24% expressing fear over its growth. Perhaps most surprisingly, however were two massive areas of tech that many claimed not to even be aware of. These were the IoT (which 37% had not heard of) and big data (a concept unknown to 35%)

What does this research tell us?

Commenting on the results, Ritam Gandhi, director and founder of Studio Graphene, said:

‘New technologies tend to conjure both fear and excitement. On the one hand they promise to make our lives easier, cheaper or better; on the other, they could risk our safety, compromise personal data or threaten jobs. AI and driverless cars still trigger fear among UK adults. What’s more, these are hugely significant trends shaping the world around us – like IoT and big data – which consumers do not fully understand.’

With nearly half of those polled expressing worry over autonomous cars it looks like there is a lot of work to be done by the automotive industry if it is to achieve a return on investment for projects that have had significant sums of money sunk into them. And, likewise, a lot of work on behalf of governments to enact legislation and soothe fears.

The embracing of wearable tech bodes well for medical OEMs and 5G for consumer electronic device manufacturers.

But, the greatest area of concern must surely be the widespread ignorance of exactly how the IoT, big data and machine learning (or AI) are set to transform every aspect of how we work and how we live.

The responsibility now lies with electronics firms and other big brands to make this technology and the opportunities it enables more accessible to the public.

If people understand what is being used and why, and more importantly, how it stands to benefit them, then the fear will start to dissipate and uptake of new technologies and products won’t be compromised.

Get your coats: the new trends in conformal coatings for electronic manufacturing

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Conformal coatings have long been used to protect and prolong the life of a PCB’s components. But as with all things, technology and techniques evolve, and recently new coatings and methods of applying and checking have been developed to enhance the possibilities in this area.

Let’s start by defining exactly what conformal coatings are before we look at the latest trends and the reasons they are needed.

‘Conformal coating material is a thin polymeric film which conforms to the contours of a printed circuit board to protect its components. It is typically applied to thicknesses between 25 and 250 μm (micrometres) to offer protection against moisture, dust, chemicals and temperature extremes.’

The challenges facing conformal coating

Several factors  are at play here which necessitate new ways of doing things.

These include:

  • Increased concern with many conformal coatings about the concentration of volatile organic compounds they use and their adverse impact on both human health and the environment
  • The need to reduce the formation of tin-whiskers and prevent current bleed between closely positioned components has become critical for the aerospace industry
  • The continued miniaturisation of electronics and their circuitry presents challenges for precise coating
  • Conformal coatings are often not effective in offering protection in applications that involve significant exposure to liquid water (as distinct from water vapour), especially when it contains ionic material
  • Conventional liquid conformal coatings do not cover well over sharp spikes or sharp edges on components – with inadequate quality control checks, the coating will be much thinner or, sometimes, not even present in such areas
  • In particular the defence sector needs to ensure electrostatic charge, electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference are reduced, to avoid equipment failure and locational detection

The latest advances in conformal coating

Automation

Our expert team is fully trained in the manual application of coatings to both components and boards. However, increasingly, for high volumes we use automated equipment to apply coatings to selected board locations, increasing efficiency and reducing the opportunity for human error.

The benefit of automatic application is that it negates the need for masking and unmasking, application is vastly more accurate, consistent and repeatable, and once the initial setup costs have been amortised, costs are a small percentage compared to manual- 3mins automatic compared to 90mins manual (inc. masking and unmasking) is typical.

Flash UV cure

UV curing is increasingly used for conformal coatings, especially for high volume board production, and where rapid turn and process efficiency are key metrics. The rapid cure and lower temperature UV curing process removes delay without damage to sensitive electronic components.

It also enables in-line testing, further assembly, minimized handling introducing imperfections, increased throughput and lengthened product life – all while requiring minimal energy and space requirements.

This increase in the popularity of UV curable conformal coatings is due to its rapid cure speed, ease of processing, environmental friendliness (no VOCs) and thermal cycling resistance.

The one drawback is known as the ‘shadow effect’. Areas under components that are shielded from the UV radiation and can be slow to cure. This can be resolved by including a secondary curing process, which can involve a chemical, thermal or moisture cure, which takes place whilst undergoing other processing, transport or storage stages.

Two-stage cure with outer layer

Epoxy resins are usually available as two‐part compounds and create a very hard coating.

As a result, this conformal coating provides very good humidity resistance and isn’t generally permeable, as most conformal coatings are. It also has high abrasion and chemical resistance. It is typically used in potting compounds, which in contrast to conformal coatings, completely fill and enclosure and all the electronics within in a solid mass.

High solids coatings

A high solids coating is formulated to have higher concentrations (at least 65%) of solid components (binders, pigments and additives). It can be solvent- or water-based but due to the higher percentage of solids will have a much lower proportion of volatile organic compounds.

High solids became widely used in the aerospace and other industries as a way to comply with legislative regulations on emissions. A benefit of a high-solids material is that what is deposited, remains in place, with minimal shrinkage- thereby increasing consistency.

Insulative coatings

The miniaturisation of electronics has led to dense circuitry and more delicate construction. This in turn leads to a lowering of the operating voltage and the increased likelihood of electrostatic charge causing damage.

New insulating coatings allow for closer conductor spacing. They also increase the voltage rating of a dense circuit assembly as they can withstand a much stronger electric field than air. This is especially true at high altitude, an important consideration for the aviation and aerospace industries.

Anti-static coatings

When electrostatic charge is discharged through an integrated circuit it can create sufficiently large a current flow and energy dissipation to cause damage to the circuit.

Similarly, stray energy emitted from various other sources can interfere with the circuit, lowering its performance or, in the worst case, causing a malfunction.

As devices get smaller, and as more devices are used around us, both of these scenarios are an increased risk.

Get your coats

With the varied uses of electronic devices, we can help you decide early in the day which conformal coating will be right for your product and its intended use.

Whether you need a product that:

  • Will be used in highly charged atmospheres (such as for the aerospace, defence, oil and transport sectors)
  • Will be used in corrosive or challenging environments (underwater, exposed to heat or wind)
  • Needs to conduct electricity to move it around
  • Needs to ground the electricity or provide a barrier so it stays in one place
  • Improves sustainability and makes your products more environmentally friendly

As they say, there’s a coat for every season. Read about our specialist services in manufacturing to learn more.

Let there be light: the potential of Li-Fi for electronics manufacturing

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Electronic technology

Li-Fi technology has very quickly made the leap from the research labs and into commercial reality.

And it’s no wonder. Li-Fi could be a critical enabler of the switch from 4G tech (which offers a promise of bandwidth) to 5G tech (which can guarantee this bandwidth).

So, what exactly is Li-Fi and what opportunities can it offer OEMs?

Li-Fi’s rapid development

At a 2011 TED talk, a discernible ripple of excitement passed through the crowded auditorium when E Save & Exit Edinburgh University’s Harald Haas demonstrated how a standard LED lamp could be used to transmit high-resolution video directly to a receiver placed just beneath the bulb.

Since then the ripples have grown and Li-Fi has made the transition from academic possibility to commercial reality.

In today’s connected world, wireless data is the critical yet invisible element of many of the services upon which we rely. But, as the devices we use grow exponentially and the emerging technologies of autonomous systems, the Internet of Things(IoT) and virtual reality (VR) gain an ever-firmer foothold, the demand for reliable, secure and rapid wireless connectivity will only increase.

Herein lies a series of problems that threaten to limit the broader horizon that appears to be just within reach.

  1. The radio (RF) spectrum upon which the bulk of our connectivity relies is getting crowded. Some experts have predicted an imminent ‘spectrum crunch’ that could potentially crash our communications networks.
  2. The data spectrum for visible light is 1,000 times greater than the RF spectrum. This means that there’s more capacity to drive bigger bandwidths and higher data rates. Li-Fi developers expect to deliver speeds of 1Gbps or above – around 100 times faster than conventional Wi-Fi – very shortly.
  3. Li-Fi data can be contained within a tight area of illumination, there’s minimal risk of interference and a much higher degree of security. While radio waves penetrate through walls and can be intercepted, a beam of light is strictly confined.

The commercial benefits Li-Fi can offer – for manufacturing, retail, aerospace, defence and home electronic sectors among others – are quickly being investigated.

The global Li-Fi market is projected to grow from USD 801.7 million in 2023 to USD 2985.6 million by 2029.

Li-Fi in use

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the main players is a company that emerged directly out of Haas’s research, Pure LiFi. It has so far mainly focussed on components for next-generation smartphones and other connected devices, achieving 189 deployments of its tech across the globe.

CEO Alastair Banham identified a range of further potential applications for the technology, ranging from use in smart office spaces and domestic situations, whether to allow high-bandwidth machine-to-machine communications or provide domestic ‘hotspots’ in high-bandwidth areas.

French supermarket, Carrefour, has developed a Li-Fi-based indoor-positioning systems, whereby each LED has a distinct location code and interacts with a smartphone app to make finding products easier for customers.

Another initiative is the EU-funded WORTECS (Wireless Optical/Radio TErabit Communications) project, which is looking into how a combination of high-frequency mm-wave radio communications and Li-Fi technology could be used to meet the incredibly high data rate demands of VR technology.

And proof that the sky really is the limit for Li-Fi will arrive later this month when Air France’s Li-Fi enabled in-flight entertainment (IFE) solution takes off. The system will offer multimedia data throughput that is expected to operate 100 times faster than existing Wi-Fi systems.

Back at ground level investigations are also underway that will use a visible light spectrum, rather than infrared, so that ramp drivers can ensure rapid data loading is occurring while bags are being handled, for example.

Li-Fi limitations?

Li-Fi relies on a direct line of sight to work optimally. It is for this reason that it is being seen as complementary to, rather than a replacement for, Wi-Fi in most instances.

Oxford University photonics specialist Dominic O’Brien observed that:

‘It might be one of those things that actually the average user doesn’t really know about because it’s just another wireless technology integrated with the RF technologies that are available already. Together they provide some augmented service. But are users going to know it’s light and not radio?’

Another limitation is the quality of light conditions needed for Li-Fi to be effective. Full sunlight or conventional room lighting may compromise its accuracy, if not prevent it from working at all.

Safe and Secure

But even its limitations may be of great benefit to certain sectors.

Take defence, for instance. Since Li-Fi data transmission uses a much shorter range than Wi-Fi and is less vulnerable to interception, it is a strong contender for creating more secure data transfer and communication. You have to get between the light source and the receiver to intercept it, so in effect, you would need to sit on someone’s knee to do so.

And even as an added option to sit alongside Wi-Fi, it is still one that can offer a securer, more reliable and faster connectivity across a range of devices.

‘Where it can really bring a benefit is in the crowded radio spectrum where we see the launch of a new wireless LAN standard pretty much every year but fail to deliver those data rates in practice because there’s just so much RF noise and interference out there,’ argues Pure LiFi co-founder and CTO Mostafa Afgani. ‘By offering to shift that communication to a different band – the light band – we can now provide another wireless channel that can deliver those data rates over a medium that is much more reliable and can actually deliver the quoted data rates.’

How AI will transform manufacturing – and how to get ready for it

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AI in electronic Manufacutring

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in manufacturing is booming.

And new devices are enabling manufacturers to deploy it in more areas of their work than ever before.

  • What is the predicted growth in AI devices?
  • Where will they be used?
  • How will this affect the workforce?
  • And how can you prepare your operations and teams for the AI boom?

Let’s find out.

AI through the crystal ball

AI has already made many inroads into manufacturing processes. Yet, it is looking like these will become superhighways within five years. (You can find some examples of how AI is currently being used over at Robotics Business Review.)

In a recent report by ABI Research it’s claimed that AI will revolutionise the manufacturing sector, although this transformation can already be seen in many areas.

For instance, AI is already delivering significant gains for:

  • Product development (via generative design)
  • Inventory management (via production forecasting)
  • Production (via machine vision, defect inspection, production optimisation and predictive maintenance)

It is in the numbers of devices and the scale of adoption that this revolution is predicted. ABI Research claims that the total number of installed AI-enabled devices in manufacturing will reach 15.4 million in 2024. This represents a staggering compound annual growth rate of 64.8% from 2019.

However, it seems unlikely that this growth will see AI device’s data being stored in the cloud. A spokesperson for ABI Research commented that:

‘AI in manufacturing is a story of edge implementation. Since manufacturers are not comfortable having their data transferred to a public cloud, nearly all industrial AI training and inference workloads happen at the edge, namely on device, gateways and on-premise servers.’

The technology needed to accommodate this is already in place. AI chipset manufacturers and server vendors have specifically designed servers for manufacturers to address their requirements.

Expected AI use cases

Among all the potential AI use cases it is predictive maintenance and equipment monitoring that are the most deeply embedded so far. These two use cases alone are expected to reach 9.8 million and 6.7 million devices, respectively, by 2024.

A third area that is set for growth is defect inspection, which is predicted to make a quantum leap from 300,000 devices presently to more than 3.7 million by 2024. Much of this growth is expected to come from electronic and semiconductor manufacturing.

Here machine vision offers vastly improved precision in:

  • Detecting surface, leak, and component-level defects
  • Microparticle detection
  • Geometric measurement
  • Classification

AI’s new algorithms can find unexpected product abnormalities or defects that go beyond existing discoverable issues to uncover new insights for manufacturers.

What does AI mean for the human workforce?

One thing is already clear: there is a lack of talent available to build in-house data teams for implementing AI.

The ABI report notes ‘enormous competition because most AI talents prefer to work with web-scale giants or AI start-ups, making talent acquisition a challenging task for industrial manufacturers. They are left with one viable option, which consists of partnering with other players in the AI ecosystem.’

But for many it’s not the shortage of talent that is a concern but the waste of talent.

Opinion varies wildly. Oxford Economics predicts that up to 20 million manufacturing jobs worldwide will be lost to AI by 2030, whereas the World Economic Forum estimates that automation will displace 75 million jobs but generate 133 million new ones worldwide by 2022. Meanwhile, McKinsey Global Institute suggest that there will be enough new job creation to offset the impact of automation, but Forrester sees job losses of 29% by 2030 with only 13% job creation to compensate.

Looking at what’s happening now it’s likely that there will be a period of disruption to jobs and a desperate need to upskill the workforce.

  • Amazon announced earlier this year that it will spend $700 million to train about 100,000 workers in the US by 2025, helping them move into more highly skilled jobs
  • A recent Dun & Bradstreet survey found that 40% percent of organizations are adding more jobs as a result of deploying AI within their business and only 8% are cutting jobs
  • Mining data last year from more than 50 million job postings, ZipRecruiter found that AI created three times as many jobs as it destroyed
  • Deloitte also strongly argues that ‘as organizations embrace and adopt robotics and AI, they’re finding that virtually every job can be redesigned—creating new categories of work, including hybrid jobs and “superjobs”.’

So, where does this leave us?

How can you prepare your operations and teams for the AI boom?

It appears that predictions of mass unemployment are not on the mark. But there will be talent shortages and a significant number of employees requiring retraining.

Let’s end this review of the impact of AI with a six-point programme for any organisation to deal with the changing landscape that AI will inevitably bring with it. (This has been loosely adapted from the MAPI Foundation’s ‘How AI Will Transform Manufacturing and the Workforce of the Future’.)

  1. Start creating teams to drive and coordinate digital transformation in your enterprise immediately
  2. Define a cross-departmental ‘AI team’ to specifically manage and review AI transformation progress and effects
  3. Their first task should be to evaluate AI and workforce transformation readiness
  4. Their second, to set measurable and realistic objectives for digital and AI transformation
  5. Look to redefine all digital and physical product innovation processes across operations
  6. Fully invest in communication for change management

And remember:

‘The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.’

(Robert Tew)

Emerging electronic technologies set to revolutionise healthcare

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Emerging technology healthcare

Innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are catalysing rapid change in every industry, none more so than in healthcare. The medical sector is undergoing the most astonishing digital transformation. Just as antibiotics changed the course of modern medicine in the 1940s, digital and electronic technology is about to alter healthcare beyond recognition.

Disruptive digital trends will revolutionise healthcare in 2024, from AI to wearables and connected electronic devices. It is now entirely conceivable that surgeons in the near future will be able to perform operations in different continents without even leaving their hospital base.

Delve a little deeper into what is on the horizon, and the British science fiction anthology series, Black Mirror, which focuses on humanity’s relationship to technology and its consequences, doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched after all.

Let’s take a look at the emerging disruptive medical technologies that are about to transform our world.

Wearable tech is about to disrupt the healthcare industry

Fitness monitors are just the beginning of what is possible in terms of monitoring health. Wearable devices are expanding rapidly in many fields of healthcare from home monitoring of vital signs and health conditions to wearables for surgical procedures.

There is an increasing demand from consumers to be able to monitor their own health, including heart rhythm, blood pressure, respiratory rate, sleep patterns, temperature and more.

Internet of Things (IoT) developments in wearables will undoubtedly lessen visits to the GP surgery and empower users to engage proactively with their own health. Wearables offer huge potential for early diagnosis, and will help patients take medications on time. Remote patient monitoring is about to become the norm and real-time data will support sharper and quicker clinical decision-making from afar.

Thanks to IoT, medical devices and apparatus, such as wheelchairs, defibrillators, nebulisers and other expensive equipment can also be tracked and easily located.

Innovative support tools driving evidence-based diagnosis and surgical accuracy

It’s not just physical health that is benefitting from these great technological advances. An AI-enabled health platform will be launched. The clinical decision support tool will help mental health practitioners to make a more accurate, evidence-based diagnosis, and improve outcomes.

Natural language processing is a branch of AI that focuses on the interpretation of human-generated spoken or written data. It will transform how we store and summarise medical data. Predictive analytics will vastly improve the process of diagnostics and patient health outcomes.

Robotic assisted surgical devices with instruments that mimic the human hand and wrist are already helping surgeons to emulate scaled-down movements of instruments inside the human body.

Implantable 3D-printed organs on the horizon

The boundary between body and technology was first crossed in the 1950s with the development of the cardiac pacemaker.  Cardiac implantable electronic devices, such as pace makers, cardioverter-defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) devices are now widely used and accepted as people are living longer with more significant cardiac disease.

3D printing, including bio printing technology is revolutionising the healthcare industry. Earlier this year scientists successfully 3D printed an organ that mimicked lungs. Who would have envisaged we would be developing models to print tissue and organ replacements a few decades ago! But, the goal of developing functioning whole organs is becoming more of a reality.

While 3D organ printing is still in the early stages of development, 3D bio printing, especially in the area of skin and bone, has huge potential. One scientific report reviews the potential use of bioprinting for skin and wound reconstruction following burns, confirming it as extremely promising.

3D printing also offers great promise for cheaper production of surgical tools and improving personalised and accurate fitting of custom-made prosthetic limbs.

Will AI and machine learning beat GPs in diagnostics?

Machine learning (ML) is set to lead the way in healthcare. Data and analytics will help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and improve critical decision-making. But could chatbots really take the place of a GP for certain tranches of healthcare?

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) have dismissed claims that a chatbot can diagnose medical conditions as accurately as a GP.

While many physicians believe that chatbots will be useful for appointment scheduling and providing medication information, they point out the limitations with ML in healthcare in the interpretation of human emotion, and in taking into account psychological and social factors that may be impacting a patient’s health.

However, ML is gaining much interest in the field of image analysis and could prove to be much more effective than a human radiologist in detecting subtle tissue changes.

Predictive analytics is also an area to watch out for. The growth in healthcare data and the availability of predictive tools is catalysing predictive analytics in healthcare.  Since 2011, over $1.9 billion of capital has been raised to fund companies that claim to use predictive analytics.

The role of medical manufacturing

Every challenge in the digital age besets an equally grand opportunity. Electronic medical devices are big business. Specialist medical device manufacturing is on the cusp of exponential growth. To prosper in the current healthcare landscape, device firms must position themselves as more than providers of a single medical component.

Research and development is happening at a frenetic pace. As a result OEMs are increasingly reliant on reputable EMS partners to help optimise products at every stage from concept to ramp.

In the manufacture of medical electronic devices risk management, quality and accuracy are essential. There are increasingly stringent regulatory requirements at every step of a product’s life cycle and with increasing interest in devices that will be applied to or implanted in the body, regulatory scrutiny is only set to get tougher.

Barney Sheppard, Sales Operations Manager at Chemigraphic says that medical device component manufacturing is no longer all about electronics. “Networking, wireless, computer, and data communication technologies are being incorporated into leading-edge medical electronics.”

The depth of medical equipment knowledge required in today’s electronic device manufacturing is colossal and requires continual analysis.

As one of the larger UK electronic medical device providers, Chemigraphic’s approach has been one of embracing technology and innovation. For example, at key test stations they use camera-based system verification, X-rays or automatic optical inspection (AOI) to double-check placement of materials at levels the human eye cannot identify.

Technology is having a massive impact on our lives and is changing healthcare for the better. Manufacturing in the medical sector is in part driving this growth and will be instrumental in the next wave of electronic technological advancement from motion control and bionic prosthetics to transplanted valves and robotic surgery instruments.

We simply cannot imagine the changes in healthcare and ground-breaking medical treatments that are yet to come. One thing is for sure. Forward-thinking EMS’s will be at the heart of electronic device manufacturing.

Chemigraphic appoints new Chairman and Chief Financial Officer to support extensive growth

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chemigraphic chief officers

Announcement follows the EMS provider’s £7m investment from PE firm NVM

Chemigraphic, the leading provider of Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) to the fast-growth medical technology, defence and power systems sectors, today announces the arrival of a new Chairman of the board, Geraint Anderson, and a new Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Docherty. Both have extensive experience of operating global electronics and manufacturing businesses which will help to accelerate Chemigraphic’s international growth.

The key appointments are the latest developments for the Crawley based business, which received £7m investment from PE fund, NVM, in July this year. The investment will help to support Chemigraphic’s global expansion and drive continued development of its technology and expertise, particularly in the fast-growing med-tech sector.

Geraint Anderson joins as Chemigraphic’s new Chairman. Geraint was previously CEO of TT Electronics and has undertaken a number of non-exec positions with large electronics firms such as Cisco Systems and Volex.  An advocate for operational excellence therefore creating a fabulous customer experience, Geraint is dedicated to ensuring Chemigraphic continues its record of delivering high quality and strictly governed manufacturing support for its very demanding and growing customer base.

New Chief Financial Officer Kevin Docherty brings with him significant experience and knowledge of both finance and the EMS sector, with an acute understanding of how global manufacturing businesses operate and excel. He has previously held positions at Worldmark CCL, Haemonetics, Diageo and Bunzel.

In addition, Oscar Balboa has been hired as Chemigraphic’s Quality Assurance (QA) Manager, supporting diverse ISO certifications and adherence to various standards across multiple sectors. Oscar has extensive quality management experience, having supported Amtek Corp to meet multiple certifications within its manufacturing operations.

The planning and engineering teams have also been boosted by new appointments, including Michael Pieterson as Senior Production Planner, Laura Goring as Programme Manager, Brian McKay as SMT Process Engineer and Zibi Kowalczyk as SMT Production Manager.

Chris Wootton, CEO of Chemigraphic, comments: “As we continue to grow the business and our capabilities in order to support our customers both in the UK and globally, it’s essential we have the right talent on board to help us achieve this. The new hires are all highly experienced and exceptionally talented individuals, who will all bring valuable knowledge to the business and allow us to achieve further growth and success in the months and years ahead.”

Headquartered in Crawley’s prestigious Manor Royal business park, with a sourcing office in China, Chemigraphic builds complex products for a wide range of specialist UK and global technology brands, from conception to production, supporting them at every stage of their product lifecycle. With over 150 staff and experience spanning over four decades, Chemigraphic is now set for a period of strong growth, which has been boosted further by the NVM investment.