The quality of the relationship between design and manufacturing organizations is fundamentally limited by the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes by which they communicate. A significant cost is associated with cumbersome and time-consuming interfaces between these organizations. An example of a common inefficiency encountered is the ineffective translation of design data from the source format to that required by the destination organization. Another is the existence of design features that are either expensive or impossible to manufacture using current technology, requiring costly redesign efforts late in a product's design cycle.

The RASSP Manufacturing Interface addresses these issues by providing a highly effective and efficient interface between printed circuit assembly (PCA) design and manufacturing organizations. One feature of this system is a manufacturing facility-specific producibility analysis capability. This feature helps designers eliminate manufacturing related difficulties early in the design cycle. Another is a Mentor Board Station to NC code generation capability that requires little to no human intervention. This conversion capability is based on the STEP AP210 standard, making it possible to extend it to include other ECAD systems and NC code generators with O(N) effort. Results achieved from the implementation of the RASSP Manufacturing Interface in a production environment are presented. These results include a 10x reduction in the cycle-time required to go from design to manufacturing set-up, and a reduction in the rework for complex Printed Circuit Assemblies of up to 80 percent.

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