News description
        In 2015, the Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) began to adopt SECS/GEM as a reference, serving as the base of communication in the semiconductor industry for many years. After conducting six meetings with experts, the TPCA has decided to use the simplified Printed Circuit Board Equipment Communication Interface (PCBECI) that is much needed by the PCB industry.

Impact analysis
         To cope with the small and diverse needs of the consumer market in terminal technology products, large-scale PCB manufacturers are no longer concentrating on making buck quantity of single products as before. In order to survive the fierce competition, these manufacturers are actively dispersing their orders to avoid risk and engaged in multi-brand OEM production, which resulted in severe challenges in their production efficiency. As a consequence of this, the TPCA is assisting the manufacturers in using each factory base effectively through an intelligent integration system, while simulating an optimal capacity allocation to achieve smart production. This process has additionally become a necessary developmental phase as the PCBECI equipment protocol is considered as the key to complete the last phase in achieving smart production.
         Promoting the equipment communication protocol standards is the consensus of all PCB manufacturers and Mainland China’s PCB and equipment manufacturers are also actively participating in this respect. The determination of China’s PCB manufacturers to promote intellectualization is also shared with that of the Taiwanese manufacturers. Currently, several manufacturers have established intellectualization systems with companies such as IBM through a subcontracting basis and the amount invested is estimated to be on the scale of billions of RMB. According to the statistics of IEKView (Insightful, Enlightening, Knockout, Visionary), the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the annual per capita output value of mainland-listed PCB companies in 2019 has almost exceeded 500,000 RMB and the average per capita output value of some companies with a high degree of intellectualization has surpassed 1 million RMB. The per capita output value of the overall mainland-listed PCB companies is expected to reach 800,000 RMB, which will be slightly higher than the per capita output value of approximately NT$3 million in Taiwan. Moreover, the announcement and promotion of PCBECI in Taiwan will inevitably further encourage Taiwan’s PCB industry towards intellectualization, which will also have a substantial improvement on the increase of the per capita output value of Taiwan’s PCB industry.
           The key for PCBECI equipment protocol standards to be promoted successfully still depends on the PCB and equipment manufacturers and especially on the mindset of the leading manufacturers in the various process segments. If there were no substantive incentive and coercion, would the leading manufacturers be willing to participate in the protocol promotion under the existing advantages? Once the equipment protocol has become the consensus in the industry, would the leading manufacturers’ benefits be weakened? These are problems that must be solved in the future promotion of the protocol process.