Partner Press Release
NEMI's Virtual Factory Project Premieres New IPC

Project's John Cartwright Named Program Manager of RosettaNet's New Manufacturing Cluster

For Release October 17, 2000

HERNDON

The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) yesterday premiered the first of the PDX (product data exchange) suite of standards developed by its Virtual Factory Information Interchange Project (VFIIP). PDX will be formally standardized through IPC as the IPC 2570 series of standards for supply chain communication. Yesterday marked the formal kick-off of the IPC standardization process with a meeting of the IPC committees tasked with standardizing the initial suite.

The VFIIP-developed standards introduced yesterday collectively form the beginning of a powerful tool to facilitate the exchange of technical data among OEMs, electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers and their suppliers. The goal is to shorten the time and reduce the cost required to establish and maintain information exchange partnerships across the manufacturing supply web.

The PDX standard, which includes all of the IPC 257x sectional standards, defines an XML* encoding scheme for the product design and manufacturing information that feeds the electronics manufacturing supply chain. It will enable dramatic efficiency improvements throughout the supply chain by enabling partners to exchange product content, changes and subsequent manufacturing information in a common language. The initial standards are:

• 2571 - Generic requirements for supply chain communication. This sectional standard provides an "overview" of the entire suite of standards for supply chain communications. It also describes how PDX is expected to work in conjunction with other related standards and formats.
• 2576 - Requirements for supply chain communication of as-built product data. This sectional standard defines how manufacturing product genealogy information -- the build history of boards and final assembly -- is exchanged. All characteristics of the product are represented as well as its serialization, lot information and how it was manufactured. The product configuration description as it relates to the form, fit and function of the as-built characteristics is also included. This information may be used to support products through the life of the equipment.
• 2578 - Requirements for product design configuration. This sectional standard facilitates quote, simulate, manufacture, configure, test and kit interactions among supply chain partners. It defines an XML encoding scheme, which enables a total product definition to be encoded at a level appropriate to facilitate supply chain interactions. An encoding scheme is defined for bill of material (BOM), approved manufacturer list (AML), approved vendor list (AVL), changes (engineering, manufacturing, product), and references to documents describing geometric and other part characteristics.

"The PDX standard serves an important need in the electronics manufacturing process. It allows manufacturers to link more easily with their partners for more efficient communication and, ultimately, faster time to market," says Dieter Bergman, IPC director of technology transfer. "This suite of standards forms a critical part of the IPC's 2500 series of standards, which covers everything from product data (IPC-2510) to shop floor communication (IPC-2540, from the NEMI Plug & Play Project) to enterprise communication (IPC-2560). With yesterday's meeting, we kicked off the review process which will lead to the release of formal IPC standards."

Through the IPC and, eventually, the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), these standards will be adopted nationally and internationally. In addition, VFIIP is collaborating with RosettaNet to leverage PDX into that organization's Partner Interface Processâ„¢ (PIPâ„¢) specifications. RosettaNet is a global consortium working to create and implement industry-wide e-business process standards that will provide an interchange solution stretching from component selection through production and final distribution. The RosettaNet PIPs are specialized business-to-business XML-based dialogs that support business processes between information technology, electronic components and semiconductor manufacturing supply chain partners.

Last week, at its EConcert meeting, RosettaNet announced the formation of a new Manufacturing Cluster to cover production, which includes attaching components to boards, putting boards into assemblies and turning out finished goods. This portion of the product lifecycle, which is where VFIIP is focusing its efforts, deals with a volume and level of complexity of data not previously needed in RosettaNet's IT and components specifications. John Cartwright of Intel, who co-leads VFIIP along with Barbara Goldstein of NIST and John Minchella of Celestica, has agreed to be program manager for this new Manufacturing Cluster.

"NEMI's Virtual Factory Project is addressing some of the challenges of information integration that have accompanied the rapid growth in outsourced manufacturing," says Cartwright. "These initial PDX standards being introduced yesterday represent the collaborative efforts of numerous organizations, including some of North America's leading OEMs, EMS providers and software vendors along with university and government organizations. Our next step is to initiate standards focusing on quality (IPC-2577) and work in progress (WIP) tracking (IPC-257x), which are expected to be introduced in the second quarter of 2001."

About NEMI's VFIIP
NEMI's Virtual Factory Information Interchange Project (VFIIP) is working to define standards to help shorten the time and reduce the cost required to establish and maintain information exchange partnerships across the electronics manufacturing supply web. Project participation continues to increase, and current members include OEMs (Intel Corporation, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks), EMS providers (Celestica, Inc., SCI Systems, Inc. and Solectron Corporation), vendors (Agile Software Corporation, Extricity, Inc., GenRad, Inc., Ingenuus Corporation, META Group, Netfish Technologies, Inc., PTC, Universal Instruments and Valor Computerized Systems), plus government (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and university members (Georgia Institute of Technology). The project is led by John Cartwright, manager of Factory Integrated Information Systems for Systems Manufacturing at Intel Corporation's eBusiness Group; Barbara Goldstein, strategic advisor to the director of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and John Minchella of Celestica.

The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's mission is to facilitate long-term leadership in the North American electronics manufacturing supply chain. The industry-led consortium is made up of more than 50 electronics manufacturers, suppliers, associations, government agencies and universities.

NEMI roadmaps the needs of the North American electronics industry, identifies technology as well as business practice gaps in the infrastructure, establishes implementation projects to eliminate these gaps, and stimulates standards activities to speed the introduction of new solutions. The consortium also works with government, universities and other funding agencies to set priorities for future industry needs and R&D initiatives.

About NEMI
The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative was formed in November 1994 to facilitate long-term North American leadership in electronics manufacturing. NEMI roadmaps the needs of the North American electronics industry, identifies gaps in the technology, infrastructure, establishes implementation projects to eliminate these gaps, and stimulates standards activities to speed the introduction of new technologies. The consortium also works with government, universities, and other funding agencies to set priorities for future industry needs and R&D initiatives. Participants: The industry-led consortium is made up of over 50 electronics equipment manufacturers, suppliers, associations, government agencies and universities. NEMI's member companies represent a combined total of more than $200 billion in revenues and employ more than 1.25 million people.