{"id":11349,"date":"2025-06-02T04:49:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T08:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/?p=11349"},"modified":"2026-03-27T09:46:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:46:57","slug":"closing-the-gap-how-manufacturing-driven-design-is-transforming-pcb-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/2025\/06\/02\/closing-the-gap-how-manufacturing-driven-design-is-transforming-pcb-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing the gap: How Manufacturing-Driven Design is transforming PCB engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Previously on episode 24 of the Printed Circuit Podcast<\/em>, host Steph Chavez brought together two seasoned experts\u2014Max Clark, Product Strategy and Technology Director at Siemens, and Gerry Partida, Vice President of Technology at Summit Interconnect\u2014to unpack a growing concern in the electronics industry: why so many designs still stumble at the finish line due to poor design-for-manufacturing (DFM) practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With nearly eight decades of combined experience, Clark and Partida didn\u2019t hold back on highlighting the systemic misalignments between PCB designers and fabricators\u2014and how Manufacturing-Driven Design (MDD) might just be the fix the industry needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From “throw it over the wall” to strategic partnership<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chavez opened the conversation by calling out a frequent disconnect: many PCB design teams still lack a formalized, documented process. \u201cWhen I ask how many people have their internal process written down, barely any hands go up,\u201d he noted. \u201cAnd if they are accounting for DFM, it\u2019s often done manually\u2014error-prone, outdated, and slow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partida echoed this, explaining how board shops are often left cleaning up ambiguous or inconsistent design data. \u201cYou\u2019ve got imbalanced stackups, fab notes that contradict themselves, drill holes missing, and conflicting IPC specs. We\u2019re expected to make it work\u2014then blamed when we catch issues too late.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who\u2019s seen designs live and die on the manufacturing floor, Partida had no shortage of war stories. One stood out: a five-lamination design with poor drill compensation assumptions was running at 25% yield. After applying industry-standard DFM rules and realigning spacing assumptions, the yield jumped to 88%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went from 9,000 dangerous locations to just 30,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s the power of understanding what\u2019s really in the design\u2014and collaborating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark emphasized that this is precisely where MDD fits in. \u201cDRC came first\u2014it was basic width, spacing, annular ring,\u201d he said. \u201cBut DFM evolved because we realized we weren\u2019t just checking for legality\u2014we were checking for buildability<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design for Manufacturing vs. Manufacturing-Driven Design: What’s the difference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While Design for Manufacturing has been a standard practice for decades, Clark and Partida explained how Manufacturing-Driven Design represents a mindset shift. It\u2019s not just validating after-the-fact. It\u2019s integrating manufacturing intelligence directly into the design phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the past, we left-shifted DFM from fabrication into design,\u201d Clark said. \u201cBut designers were left guessing. MDD enables a real-time feedback loop\u2014validating both electrical and manufacturing constraints as you go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summit Interconnect now shares its DFM profiles with clients using Siemens\u2019 toolsets. That means engineers routing a board can see, in real time, what will or won\u2019t work for a specific fabricator\u2014before<\/strong> the files are ever handed off.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf manufacturers are the ones doing DFM, it\u2019s too late. What we\u2019re really doing is manufacturing despite<\/em> the design.\u201d Clark advocated for tool-agnostic platforms like PCBflow<\/a>, which allow any designer to validate their output\u2014even if they don\u2019t know which manufacturer they\u2019re using yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partida added, \u201cMost designers don\u2019t send us files until the design\u2019s already finalized. If we find a mistake, like a bad dimension, it can cost the customer $30,000 to revise and re-approve it through all their internal stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With IPC-based rules now built into platforms like PCBflow and Siemens enterprise tools, PCB designers can catch these \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d mistakes long before fabrication\u2014and avoid spiraling costs and delays.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavez posed a tough question: even if teams have a process, are they getting consistent feedback from manufacturers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, the answer is no. Partida explained that sometimes fabricators themselves don\u2019t catch low-yield designs until they\u2019re producing in high volumes. \u201cYou might need five boards and we fit six on a panel. You don\u2019t notice the yield loss,\u201d he said. \u201cBut scale it to 1000 boards and suddenly you\u2019re hemorrhaging yield\u2014and nobody knows why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By tracking defects across customer portfolios, Summit is able to spot trends and flag root causes\u2014such as one customer whose design accounted for a quarter of all build errors. \u201cWe showed them the data, helped them redesign one section\u2014and the results were immediate,\u201d Partida said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark and Partida emphasized that this transformation isn\u2019t just about technology\u2014it\u2019s about people. \u201cYou can\u2019t apply complex design rules to a board if your team doesn\u2019t even know they exist,\u201d Partida said. \u201cWe still see designers using semiconductor test board specs for full production boards. It worked once, so they assume it\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manufacturing-Driven Design gives engineers the tools and the context<\/em> to make smarter decisions upfront\u2014like not applying 6-mil drill rules across a full 6-layer board just because it worked for one chip test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the rules have been established by the IPC design rules, they could take their designs, throw them in PCBFlows, and get feedback for that low-hanging fruit based on just IPC rules across the board, and do that before they finish the design,\u201d said Partida. \u201cBy using PCBFlow based on the settings that IPC has set up, they can do that shift left. And when they’re done, it’s going to work fine for any fabricator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smarter design starts with collaboration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The conversation with Clark and Partida emphasized how the more complex PCB designs become, the more essential it is for design and manufacturing teams to collaborate early, often, and intelligently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about getting the right data, into the right hands, at the right time,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAnd tools like PCBflow make that possible\u2014not just for Siemens users, but for any team looking to validate their design against real-world manufacturing rules.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Partida summed it up, \u201cNo one likes technical queries. The earlier you catch issues, the fewer TQs we all deal with\u2014and the faster, cheaper, and better your boards come out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more on manufacturing-driven design and design for yield<\/a>  or listen to the <\/strong>podcast episode<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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