How DfX eliminates the hidden costs in product design and development.

OEMs outsource manufacturing to control costs and accelerate product delivery. But by the time designs are transferred to a chosen manufacturer, many opportunities for optimization and cost savings have been lost.

A smarter path is to partner early with an EMS provider that offers robust DfX (design for excellence) capabilities – a team that understands not just how to build your product, but how to design to build.

AI is now helping engineers tame the “black art” of SMT reflow by optimizing oven recipes and process decisions.

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic in many industries. The technology suggests we can make better decisions, increase our productivity and discover information that we previously couldn’t find. Recently, SMTA (Surface Mount Technology Association) implemented an AI program named MAX that helps engineers find information on the surface mount process and defects. For example, if you want to know about void mitigation in thermal pads or the best method of cleaning a PCB, you can ask MAX, and it will give you an overview of the process and a list of papers in the SMTA technical library. Programs like MAX dive into the text of papers instead of just looking at keywords and the title.

Three months after the excitement fades, most AI tools sit open in a browser tab while engineers go back to email, ERP and ECOs.

It's 7:45 AM on a Tuesday. Your AI subscription auto-renewed last night – $20 you barely noticed leaving your account. You've had it for three months now. You've used it... twice? Maybe three times?

The first week was exciting. You summarized a meeting. You drafted an email that sounded pretty good. You even showed a colleague. "This thing is amazing," you said.

Leveraging artificial obsolescence to operationalize the domestic supply chain.

In my previous article, we explored the 1941 Victory Plan as a masterclass in industrial foresight, where the US moved from isolation to becoming the “Great Arsenal of Democracy.” As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt noted in 1940¹ the goal was not just to design weapons, but to produce them in sufficient volume to save future generations the “agony and suffering of war.” Today, as we face a new era of near-peer competition, the Victory Plan has been reborn, with a new focus shaped by the modern battlefield. While the 1940s emphasis was on steel and aircraft, our current challenge lies in the rapid, high-volume production of electronics and sensors like those that power modern unmanned systems.