Frank Coultard Column

Citation

Coultard, F. (2002), "Frank Coultard Column", Circuit World, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2002.21728bad.006

Frank Coultard Column

The year 2001 contained a great deal of challenge and pain for our industry with the added insecurity and instability brought on by the dramatic and horrendous events of September 11th. Unfortunately it is still not clear when a significant uplift in trading will occur.

The FEI/PCIF merger has been much welcomed by the members and our first 12 months has seen a realisation of many benefits of the union with many more to come. These were highlighted in a short presentation I was asked to give to the FEI Board Meeting on January 9th 2002. They included the strength of the FEI brand-name, the easy access to the influential broader membership, a stronger voice to Government, the advantages of joint events, illustrated by business briefings on E Commerce and also the Lead-Free seminar, the FEI’s new Business Support Line and the obvious benefits of the FEI’s central London offices, which have been used to considerable advantage by our membership. These are but a few of the most tangible benefits. It has been pleasing to see how neatly the PCIF has fitted into the Component and Manufacturing Group of FEI under the direction of Peter Maguire, who is that group’s Business Area Director. As time passes I am convinced that many more benefits of the merger will surface.

It should be pointed out that discussions are also occurring between FEI and the CSSA (Computer Software and Services Association) about the possibility of a merger of the two organisations. FEI is already a substantial force for the Electronics industry and this would augment its position considerably.

FEI has done much to encourage PCIF to retain focus on activities on behalf of its members both corporate and individual. The 2001 diary was full and already as can be seen from our web-site, we have a very busy calendar for 2002. There are planned seminars for the ICT throughout the year and its Annual Symposium is being organised now to take place on May 1st. ADE has been renamed at the request of its steering group and is now to be entitled Electronic Design Realisation Group (EDRG) so as to reflect more appropriately the complex nature of the work of modern designers. The inaugural meeting of this new group was held at the Tweed Horizons location on the same day, January 29th as the launch of the new EDR Centre, which is the nerve centre of the PCB Design Academic Programme. FEI formed a new company to provide the focus for running this new programme, the aims of which are to set up courses at five Universities and Colleges in the UK for design engineers up to degree level and beyond. This will provide for designers a career ladder, which has been sorely lacking and also meet the need for the expected demand for trained designers in the future. This whole programme has been made possible by grants from the DTI for the nation-wide courses provision and from Scottish Borders Enterprise for the Centre of Excellence at Tweed Horizons. FEI and PCIF wish to register their grateful thanks to these two organisations.

The vigorous Environmental Working group of the PCIF chaired by Dr Martin Goosey is ever active and at the time of writing has no fewer than five bids in to the DTI and other organisations for meaningful environmental studies and programmes; this group has already done a great deal for our industry and its latest ambitions augur well for 2002. An interactive web-site is planned to develop the legislation data-base information further together with the augmenting of the best practice guide. The annoying problem of the disposal of 25 litre drums is being tackled effectively and many other ideas are coming to fruition; just two examples of the group’s intentions.

The PCIF 2002 Annual Conference is scheduled for October 16th and is to be held by popular request at the same location as last year, Cheltenham Park Hotel in the West Country; the theme will be looking at the future and the likely shape of our industry ahead. Technical workshops are planned in March and September for corporate members on Embedded components, Opto-electronics and High Density Interconnect technology. There will be Business Briefings combined with FEI on a range of topics; last years were very popular.

I reached the ripe old age of sixty on January 27th and the best birthday present I could hope for would be the sign of an upturn in our industry. The year 2002 could signal that.

Frank CoultardPCIF/FEI