Our expert contributors clear up many of the miscommunication problems between PCB designers and their fab and assembly stakeholders in the March 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine. But as you will see, a little extra planning early in the design cycle can go a long way toward maintaining open lines of communication with the fab and assembly folks.

At the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the U.S. men's 4x100-meter relay team had high hopes of winning a medal. The team comprised some of the fastest sprinters in the world, but something went wrong. In a relay, four runners must smoothly pass their baton to the next runner inside a zone on the track. If a runner drops the baton or it’s passed outside the zone, the team risks disqualification. The U.S. team’s pass between the second and third runner was messy, slowing them down. By the time the last runner received the baton, the team had lost too much time. They finished sixth in their heat and didn’t qualify for the final.

We do indeed have a failure to communicate; designers and fabricators often seem to be talking past each other, which can lead to jobs being put on hold. We asked Jen Kolar, VP of engineering for Monsoon Solutions, and columnist Kelly Dack to share their thoughts on ways that we can break down the communication barrier between design and fabrication. As they point out, a design kickoff checklist and a solid review process can be invaluable tools in a designer’s toolbox.