A comprehensive website is a salesperson’s best friend. So why don’t more EMS companies have one?

I read an article reposted on LinkedIn where a buy-side (pay-to-play) consulting group demeaned the EMS industry salesperson’s communication skills and blamed them for the dysfunctions within our industry. The premise was that, because Covid prohibited face-to-face engagements, the business development person’s lack of digital communications and their inability to redirect their sales efforts digitally were a root cause for woes in our industry today.

The EMS industry has been slow to embrace the digital world. But to assert that corporate digital dysfunction is an individual salesperson’s issue implies that one’s own accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook and X (Twitter) will drive enough deals to shore up a flat or declining EMS business. While I encourage my clients’ sales teams to utilize these platforms for various communications, gaining industry knowledge, networking and infrequent lead generation, they make up a tiny element of what an EMS company should undertake to optimize its digital sales opportunities and boost a sales process that even now has somewhat limited face-to-face engagements. Does your EMS company suffer from elements of this discussion? Let’s start a corrective action process.

Accounting for the assembly process will put your design on the fast track.

Thought-provoking questions keep coming my way, and then it’s down the old rabbit hole. So it goes something like this: “How do we integrate so many different parts in such a small PCB area?” The answer is a little deeper than the geometry of Tetris, but that’s a good illustration of packing the available space. This, of course, starts with the CAD symbol library and manifests in the assembly yields at the factory. We have to connect those dots.

Once the PCB logic is sufficiently captured, placement studies can start. Pay attention to the spacing and orientation of components. The interrelationships of neighboring parts can affect the solderability of the overall PCB. The assemblers like to see a consistent rotation of the components and an even distribution across the board.

It’s unlikely that every device on the board will be able to meet that preference. The electrical performance is going to take priority in several cases, particularly with analog designs. That said, you can still pick an orientation that suits most components. The similarity will inform the manufacturing engineer how the board should travel along the placement machinery and guide the soldering process.

The smartwatch has lived up to the hype. Can other wearable technologies follow its lead?

Will wearable technology ever realize its potential? Exciting technical innovations that should succeed often disappoint commercially, failing to take off for reasons that can be difficult to define.

Some forecasters would already have us walking around in clothing made from smart textiles that can monitor vital signs such as respiration and body temperature, track sports performance or fatigue levels, or assist treatment such as posture correction or physiotherapy. On the other hand, we could be routinely interacting with the world through AR glasses that overlay everything we need to know, wherever we are, minute by minute, and record our experiences wherever we go. And perhaps our wearables should be battery-free, powered by energy-harvesting technologies that can turn movement, daylight, or even the difference between hot and cold, into enough electrical energy to keep us connected all the way to the furthest extremities of the grid.

While these all have their place in the modern world – augmented reality is making inroads in industrial scenarios such as on production lines and in vehicle maintenance, and controls powered by ambient energy have been commercialized for smart-building applications – the massive, all-pervading adoption within consumer markets has not come about.

With more supply chain crises brewing, be proactive in your preparations.

The various issues that have beleaguered the supply chain, and those companies and individuals that rely on it, continue to baffle me. I fully understand that when Covid emerged on the scene, especially as quickly as it did a few years ago, the global supply chain, as well as so many other aspects of our “normal” life, came to a grinding halt. But that was then, and this is now, so I cannot stop thinking, “What does this all mean?”

That companies were forced to shut down, whether partially or completely, for lengthy periods of time while the pandemic was in full rage is understandable. Safety of employees and the fear of what might or could or is happening to public health have a way of moving to center stage in people’s minds and habits, regardless of where they live or what they do for a living. It was understandable that shortages occurred with factories’ production levels slashed for the health and safety of employees.