Without the right context, AI gives answers that sound right but can quietly derail manufacturing decisions.

It’s 9:15 AM on a Tuesday, and Maria – your rising star process engineer – is about to make a $50,000 mistake.

She asked AI a simple question: “What’s the recommended cure temperature for FR-4 laminate?” The answer came back instantly, confidently: “Cure at 180°C for 90 minutes.” She’s two clicks away from updating the work instruction that will go to the production floor for today’s run of 24 panels.

Laser doppler vibrometry enables simultaneous measurement at dozens of points across populated PCBs, revealing component-level failure risks that accelerometers miss.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in space, defense, aeronautics and transportation cannot tolerate in-service failures. Before deployment, these systems must pass environmental qualification tests, including vibration, shock, thermal cycling, radiation, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and ingress protection.

Innovation gets applause, manufacturing gets contracts.

We’re almost out of time. That is the message underlying US Department of War Secretary Peter Hegseth’s “Arsenal of Freedom” speech on acquisition reform last month.¹ We’ve spent a long time chasing “perfect,” with successful programs creating low volumes of some of the most exquisite military systems in the world. These military systems have allowed us to dominate non-peer adversaries with little attrition. Recently, the war in Ukraine and threats in the Indo-Pacific have resurrected the threat of near-peer conflict. They have shown us what to expect from modern battlefields and have exposed a fundamental flaw in the DoW’s acquisition approach: slowness.