News
Chicago -- Powell-Mucha Consulting is offering a tutorial on Creating Competitive Advantage in Today’s EMS Market. It will take place on Sept. 28, during the SMTA International conference in Chicago,
“EMS marketers face a lot of challenges: low budgets, prospects with unrealistic cost expectations, competitive issues and cycles of changing technology,” said Susan Mucha, president and tutorial instructor. “But, these challenges have been repeating themselves for decades. This tutorial looks at industry patterns and discusses strategies to overcome both current short-term challenges such as the transition to RoHS compliance and sustaining challenges such as finding adequate budget in a low margin industry. We also dissect the entire EMS value proposition and look at business models appropriate in various industry tiers.”
The tutorial covers five key areas: sources of competitive advantage in EMS services, brand
definition/promotion, lead qualification/mindshare maintenance, packaging EMS services and
account acquisition strategy development.
For more info., visit: smta.org/smtai/tutorials.cfm.
“EMS marketers face a lot of challenges: low budgets, prospects with unrealistic cost expectations, competitive issues and cycles of changing technology,” said Susan Mucha, president and tutorial instructor. “But, these challenges have been repeating themselves for decades. This tutorial looks at industry patterns and discusses strategies to overcome both current short-term challenges such as the transition to RoHS compliance and sustaining challenges such as finding adequate budget in a low margin industry. We also dissect the entire EMS value proposition and look at business models appropriate in various industry tiers.”
The tutorial covers five key areas: sources of competitive advantage in EMS services, brand
definition/promotion, lead qualification/mindshare maintenance, packaging EMS services and
account acquisition strategy development.
For more info., visit: smta.org/smtai/tutorials.cfm.
In addition to the tutorial, Powell-Mucha Consulting and Circuits Assembly have jointly organized a Contract Manufacturing Symposium on the morning of Sept. 27. The Symposium features six speakers in two sessions titled: Exploring the Dollars and Sense of EMS and EMS Program Management. For more info. on this session, visit: smta.org/smtai/symposium.cfm#cm
Oyster Bay, NY - - In the past year, the stationary form of WiMAX (fixed WiMAX or 802.16-2004) has seen steady adoption in the marketplace. But the mobile version, 802.16-2005, will be here sooner than many people think, according to ABI Research.
"ABI Research sees fixed WiMAX sales hitting a peak in 2007 and then leveling off," said principal analyst Alan Varghese. "Mobile WiMAX will start to see deployments in 2007, and the crossover point between the two will be late in 2008. Considering that it takes a year to design ASICs and then more time to design them into end-equipment, vendors up and down the value chain need to be discussing the required tradeoffs in their strategy meetings now."
Performance, power consumption and cost requirements for WiMAX ICs become much more challenging on the mobile platform. MIMO will be required, which means increased circuitry, so IC vendors may have to trade off MIMO performance for die area, power usage and price. The ASP for the WiMAX RF is about $15 and for the baseband about $23; the total is more than the BOM for a low-tier device, so considerable cost reduction is needed, ABI says.
According to the research group, WiMAX IC companies such as Beceem Communications and Runcom that went straight to the mobile platform are being shadowed by companies such as Redpine Signals, RF Magic, Sequans, Sierra Monolithics, Telecis and Wavesat, which have honed their skills through deployments in fixed WiMAX. Competition will also come from giants such as Fujitsu and Intel that understand the mobile platform intimately all the way from RF to applications.
"ABI Research sees fixed WiMAX sales hitting a peak in 2007 and then leveling off," said principal analyst Alan Varghese. "Mobile WiMAX will start to see deployments in 2007, and the crossover point between the two will be late in 2008. Considering that it takes a year to design ASICs and then more time to design them into end-equipment, vendors up and down the value chain need to be discussing the required tradeoffs in their strategy meetings now."
Performance, power consumption and cost requirements for WiMAX ICs become much more challenging on the mobile platform. MIMO will be required, which means increased circuitry, so IC vendors may have to trade off MIMO performance for die area, power usage and price. The ASP for the WiMAX RF is about $15 and for the baseband about $23; the total is more than the BOM for a low-tier device, so considerable cost reduction is needed, ABI says.
According to the research group, WiMAX IC companies such as Beceem Communications and Runcom that went straight to the mobile platform are being shadowed by companies such as Redpine Signals, RF Magic, Sequans, Sierra Monolithics, Telecis and Wavesat, which have honed their skills through deployments in fixed WiMAX. Competition will also come from giants such as Fujitsu and Intel that understand the mobile platform intimately all the way from RF to applications.
Marlborough, MA -- Software simulation company Flomerics has released a survey highlighting the conflict that often occurs between meeting thermal, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and signal integrity (SI) design requirements in new PCB designs. 59% of respondents agreed that thermal and EMC requirements are usually in conflict in PCB design (23% disagreed). 60% agreed that thermal and SI requirements are usually in conflict in PCB design (23% disagreed).
However, the survey reveals positive communication and collaboration between electronic and mechanical design engineers at most companies. 64% of respondents described communication as “good” or “very good”, 31% as “needs to improve” and just 4% as “very poor”. 56% of respondents stated that “better software interfaces between electronic and mechanical software would greatly improve collaboration between electronic design engineers and mechanical design engineers”, while 28% said “software is not the issue - good management, human interaction, etc. are more important”.
Respondents were also asked to identify the percentage of new designs that overran time and cost budgets, and the most common causes of such overruns. Most respondents (50%) said that 10 to 30% of new PCB designs overran time and cost budgets, while 4% said projects went over time/budget more than half the time. The most common causes of time and budget overruns were: design requirement changes (59%); circuit design (39%); thermal problems (34%); EMC problems (32%); SI problems (30%); physical layout problems (22%); and routing problems (19%). Respondents were allowed to specify more than one cause.
The survey also provides insights into typical PCB design flows and processes. The average design cycle time for a new PCB design from concept to final testing and manufacturing signoff was specified at 6 to12 weeks by 50% of respondents, more than 12 weeks by 29% and less than 6 weeks by 21%. When asked what generates the greatest pressure on the PCB design function, 54% said “functionality and performance”, 30% said “time to market” and 14% said “cost”.
For a copy of the survey, visit www.flomerics.com/contact.
However, the survey reveals positive communication and collaboration between electronic and mechanical design engineers at most companies. 64% of respondents described communication as “good” or “very good”, 31% as “needs to improve” and just 4% as “very poor”. 56% of respondents stated that “better software interfaces between electronic and mechanical software would greatly improve collaboration between electronic design engineers and mechanical design engineers”, while 28% said “software is not the issue - good management, human interaction, etc. are more important”.
Respondents were also asked to identify the percentage of new designs that overran time and cost budgets, and the most common causes of such overruns. Most respondents (50%) said that 10 to 30% of new PCB designs overran time and cost budgets, while 4% said projects went over time/budget more than half the time. The most common causes of time and budget overruns were: design requirement changes (59%); circuit design (39%); thermal problems (34%); EMC problems (32%); SI problems (30%); physical layout problems (22%); and routing problems (19%). Respondents were allowed to specify more than one cause.
The survey also provides insights into typical PCB design flows and processes. The average design cycle time for a new PCB design from concept to final testing and manufacturing signoff was specified at 6 to12 weeks by 50% of respondents, more than 12 weeks by 29% and less than 6 weeks by 21%. When asked what generates the greatest pressure on the PCB design function, 54% said “functionality and performance”, 30% said “time to market” and 14% said “cost”.
For a copy of the survey, visit www.flomerics.com/contact.
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