While reading a series of articles posted on www.pcb007.com relating to IPC and Jedec Standards, I was surprised to see the results of a survey they carried out with regards to the new and updated MSD (moisture sensitive devices) standards release late last year. These standards are J-Std-020, J-Std-033 and the new J-Std-075.  While two of these are updated revisions of the old standards they still do hold a lot of new valuable information, especially when it comes to higher reflow and wave soldering temperatures.  However, the J-Std-075 is new and one can expect this to change and be updated as the industry evaluates this further.  Or perhaps not, as the results of the survey showed that these standards are currently not really being conformed to. Baking parts before use can be a costly and time consuming exercise and one that may be seen to have to real benefit.  However, when you consider that not putting simple processes in place to prevent damage can decrease yields, not to mention wasting what could be valuable components, the cost of not doing so can soon add up. What this shows me is that you can't just give an assembly house a bunch of parts, some PCB's and expect them to deliver functional and reliable products with high yields.  (Although this is exactly what everyone would like to see happen.) Any electronic design house needs to know what standards their suppliers adhere to and what consequences may occur if their chosen production facility does not apply these standards.  This does require a design house to keep up to date with manufacturing standards. This is especially true when you consider MSD damage to devices.  The units may pass any production testing bu fail later in the field.  This puts the failure back into the hands of the design house who then needs to deal with the RMA returns and upset customers. Another important question not to be overlooked is how widely known are these standards?  Do IPC and Jedec need to do more to promote the use of these standards within the industry?  Based on the results of the survey, it seems more in the court of the customer, i.e. any design house.  Once a customer starts to request compliance to the standards, component manufacturers/suppliers and contract manufacturers will put the required processes in place.