I would like to present some definitions which will be helpful in understanding the purpose of this book. From The American Heritage Dictionary of the En glish Language: Engineer 1. A person who skillfully or shrewdly manages an enterprise. 2. To plan, construct, and manage, as an engineer. 3. To plan, manage, and put through by skillful acts, or contrivance. Engineering 1. The application of scientific principles to practical ends as the design, con struction, and operation of efficient and economical structures, equipment and systems. 2. The profession of, or work performed by an engineer. Some words encountered in the definitions of engineer and engineering are Skillfully, Plan, and Manage. This book is concerned with engineering the man ufacture of printed circuit boards, and is dedicated to those people engaged in designing, planning, manufacturing, and achieving quality assurance in printed circuits. In The Handbook of Printed Circuit Manufacturing (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985), I presented detailed practical and theoretical information on the opera tions involved in manufacturing printed circuits. It is possible to perform each operation in an optimum fashion, and still leave room for improvement. Much of that room for improvement requires the skillful application of scientific prin ciples, planning, and management. It is the goal of this book to provide a sound background in industry standards and specifications, blueprint comprehension, artwork inspection, processes and tolerances, planning and quality assurance."

Of all the components that go into electronic equipment, the printed circuit probably requires more manufacturing operations-each of which must be per formed by a skilled person-than any other. As a shift supervisor early in my printed circuit career, I had to hire and train personnel for all job functions. The amount of responsibility delegated to my subordinates depended strictly on how well I had been able to train them. Training people can be a trying experience and is always a time-consuming one. It behooved me to help my workers obtain the highest degree of job under standing and skill that they and I were capable of. One hindrance to effective teaching is poor continuity of thought, for example, having to say to a trainee, "Wait a minute; forget what I just told you. We have to go back and do some thing else first. " It was in trying to avoid pitfalls such as this that I undertook a detailed examination of the processes involved, what I thought each trainee had to know, and what questions they would most frequently ask. From this analysis I developed the various process procedures. Only after I had done so was I able to train effectively and with the confidence that I was doing the best possible job. Answers had to be at hand for all of their questions and in what ever detail they needed to know."