The Benefits of Flight Can Only Be Obtained By Leaving the Ground

For the last 10 years, I have been promoting the concept of eliminating solder from the electronics manufacturing process. The concept now widely known as the Occam Process, inspired by William of Occam’s observation that “It is vanity to do with more that which can be done with less”. It is unquestionably a radical idea and prospectively a highly disruptive one.

Not surprisingly the concept has met with significant resistance and derision from incumbent technologies used for electronic assembly. “It cannot be done”, “It is not practical” and “It would be impossible” are common responses from those rooted in the status quo technologies. And, of course, they are right because, to paraphrase Shakespeare “they have made their thoughts, their prison”

For those who are not familiar what exactly is being referenced here, you are invited and encouraged to download and read the free small book “Solderless Assembly For Electronics – The SAFE Approach”   to gain an understanding of the Occam Process concept and its prospective benefits.

The detractors/opponents of the Occam/SAFE concept also suggest that cost will be high. To an extent they are right and in the near term it will likely cost more because the infrastructure is presently dedicated to high temperature lead-free soldering. But this need not be a permanent condition, once a few relatively changes are made (and barriers and limitations in current thinking torn down). Moreover as is shown in the free book, much less material is required and designs can be significantly simpler requiring few layers of interconnection which can offset some of the transition costs. 

I’d like to suggest here that idea of solderless assembly is a little bit like the concept of flight in early days of the last century. At the time, ground transportation was sufficient for the needs of most people and the general consensus was that flight was impossible. Then when the Wright brothers demonstrated it was in fact possible, it was then concluded by most people that it was very dangerous to even attempt to fly. And that conclusion was actually true early on in the evolution of flight. It was a fact that many pioneers of flight were injured and even lost their lives in attempting to free themselves of the “surly bonds of earth”. However, over time, as the prospective benefits of flight were fully grasped and pursued, efforts to improved aircraft and air safety came from many places around the globe. The result is that today, one is actually (or arguably) safer at 10,000 meters up in the air than they are on the ground.

Turning back to the idea of eliminating solder, obviously those in electronic companies around the world have a vested interest in the status quo such as solder represents (much like was the case with ground transportation 100 years ago). Moreover, change, while inevitable and the arguably the only universal constant, is always resisted. As a senior and very sage engineer with whom I worked at Boeing almost 40 years ago told me when I became frustrated by my inability to effect production improvement and cost saving changes at the company: “Joe, you must remember that everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die to get there” He was so very right.   

The truth is that we humans are all creatures of habit and we like to do what we did yesterday because it is predictable.  We know how to do it and don’t have to be anxious about the new and different. Any kind of change is nearly always viewed as a threat by most individuals.

One can think of it this way: the two dichotomous motivators of humans are pain and pleasure and fear and greed.(or loss and gain, if you prefer) of these two pairs, pain and fear (loss) are the most effective in getting people to act or move. The human brain's amygdala has helped us survive as a species for many thousands of years and it works primarily based on our fears and not our hopes and dreams.

Personally I sense that my amygdala is less developed than most others for I see fear as an enemy to progress and not its ally, especially in the present times. Fear paralyses the mind and fear impedes progress. Fear is to be overcome not embraced.  

I have, in my life, been proven right about my projections for the future a sufficient number of times in my career that I am certain that the Occam (SAFE) concept will find a place in the manufacture of electronic products at some point when the benefits are fully understood and appreciated and when fear of change abates. It is the light of understanding that works best to eliminate fear. 

The message that I would like to close this brief opinion piece with is the same as that with which it is titled and that is that if one wishes to enjoy the extraordinary benefits of flight, one must be prepared to leave the security of solid ground behind. It is the only way…

I welcome the comments of all who read this either here in the shared comments or by personal email through Linkedin or direct to [email protected]