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The PCB Design Podcast features conversations on all facets of PCB Design and Hardware Development
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Electronic parts shortages coupled with inflation has been affecting the electronic industry globally. Chris Cain our guest for today’s episode is a supply chain consultant and former VP at Keysight working on supply chain and supply chain products.
Chris will share with us his 37 years of experience and strategies to overcome electronic part shortages.
Show Higlights:
- Chris Cain briefly describes what supply management is, and his role as a consultant.
- Chris explains what it means to tap into the “scale for the larger ecosystem” of electronic providers
- Find alternatives and make some design adjustments where is possible
- Look for parts that are very scalable like memory parts and FPGAs
- Modular approach or designing for modules may also allow designers to have some flexibility
- If you can't get the parts, you can't ship your working design–having an insight into what’s coming in the supply chain could help designers in their decision making
- It pays to spend a little time keeping up with groups like IPC which does the groundwork of looking up the industry and what they think is coming
- Chris warns designers about silk-screened sand, he added “never pay, until you verify”
- Moving towards an open source model, Zach mentioned a recent article on All About Circuits which talks about companies transitioning their chip architectures to RISC-V to help them overcome some of these supply chain issues
- What is supply chain resilience?
- Fuel costs push up the cost of everything else it's related to and it's essentially an inflation driver
- Avoid buying three year supply of parts, it’s smarter to focus on design flexibility and overall sourcing flexibility
- What are the challenges involved with raw materials supplies for assembly?
- The dark scenarios, the dark side, the disaster scenarios
Links and Resources:
Connect with Christopher Cain on LinkedIn
Watch a related Podcast episode: The Benefits of Diversifying PCB Industry Supply Chain
Read Chris Cain’s Latest Article: Maximum Usage to Improve Supply Chain Resiliency
Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
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Altium Website
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Thursday Feb 17, 2022
Thursday Feb 17, 2022
It’s a privilege to be sitting down with Didrik Beck, CEO of Elmatica, the world’s oldest PCB broker company and now part of the NCAB group and CAB group. Together we will dive into exciting topics surrounding cybersecurity, compliance, and supply chain and his upcoming presentation at IPC Apex. Didrik has some interesting insights on supply chain Cybersecurity management in the PCB design and manufacturing industry. Make sure to watch through the end and check out the additional resources below. This episode will be an insightful one!
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here.
- Dedrick Bech introducing Elmatica
- World's oldest PCB broker
- Recently acquired by the NCAB group
- Securing PCBs for different partners in the PCB supply chain
- A quick summary of what was going to be in the IPC Apex paper that Dedrick is presenting
- Different levels of compliance and to what extent does this apply in the PCB design and manufacturing
- Controlled Unclassified Information (UCI)
- Every country has a different view on it
- Two possible aspects of greater focus on compliance
- Intellectual property
- Cybersecurity concerns
- How to get IT and compliance strategy come back and get implemented together
- Data security awareness - some tips and practical steps
- Is it worth it to invest for a data security software and team
- More ways companies can do to help guarantee compliance and prevent data to be copied
- Formalized packages for a high level of compliance - how deep does this have to go for small companies
- Compliance and Cybersecurity differs from country to country and depending on:
- the company
- the country’s regulations
- where the PCB is produced
- There is a room for improvement in creating some compliance hazards for designers
- Start with a good communication with the supply chain team
- Gather data ahead of time
- Misconception about sharing data
- Securing supply chain for large subcontractors
- The importance of reading and understanding Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) regulation
- AltiumLive Connect was successful! Watch the exclusive recorded sessions here
Links and Resources:
Connect with Didrik Bech on LinkedIn
Visit Elmatica’s Website here
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
Watch AltiumLive 2022 Connect Recorded Sessions Here
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Altium Website
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Learn More about Altium Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Octopart, the premier data platform for electronic components, handles at least 5 million unique searches every month. In this episode, together with Daniel Schoenfelder, head of Octopart, we will dive into the importance of having reliable access to electronic part data.
We specialize in democratizing electronic component data and helping engineers, designers, and buyers make better decisions faster. - Daniel Schoenfelder, head of Octopart
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction. The impact of the pandemic on Octopart
- Octopart’s vision: “Democratization of Information”
- New features: BOM tool in Octopart and Altium 365
- Embeddable Experience
- Global Price and Availability
- Inventory alerts
- Comprehensive Part Data - Core User Experience
- Lifecycle on Octopart.com
- CAD Models
- Lead time
- How Octopart fits into NEXAR—underpinnings of what’s available in the supply domain
- Shortages, State of Industry—saturation and duration
- Search Volume: 20 million unique users’ search on Octopart
- Learn more about Nexar—Octopart is a core component of Nexar
- What is on the horizon?
- Centralized community—very curated and engaged user community
- Solving industry-wide problems
- Octopart.com a destination for CAD
Links and Resources:
Dan’s LinkedIn Profile
Octopart.com
EDS Show August 2021 in Las Vegas at the Mirage
Semiconductor Industry Association Website (SIA)
Podcast: What is Nexar?
Nexar Website
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
More than 15 million components to choose from to design your board, where do you begin?
Today’s guest is John Watson, a seasoned PCB designer with 40 years of experience in the electronic industry and now Altium’s Customer Success Manager. He will talk about everything you need to know about library management and how you can successfully keep it organized and functional for your PCB design needs.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- John Watson, 40 Years in Electronics, 22 Years in PCB Design, 5+Years PCB Design Manager for a global team of 65 Design Engineers
- What is Data Management and who are the stakeholders that use it?
- It’s the management of part data throughout the entire process of PCB design and manufacturing.
- Part Choices (Electrical Engineers-Circuit Designers, Schematic)
- MCAD (Mechanical Engineers)
- Procurement (Purchasing and Material Management)
- EMS Supplier (Suppliers)
- Recent data management webinar: Office Hours - Component and Data Management , Part Two: Follow up session and Homework
- Octopart part numbers: 15.1 Million!!
- “Eating the Elephant” Start with the item right in front of you. Full explanation on webinar
- Cost of doing it wrong, or benefit for doing it right: Time, Money, Delays, TTM, safety, job security
- The importance of accurate footprints, pin #1, orientation
- How do you stay ahead of component supply chain issues such as end of life, obsolescence, and shortages?
Tools that help: Active BOM, Octopart, IHS, Concord Pro
Links and Resources:
PCB Design 007 Magazine: Footprints
Chris Denney Podcast: 5 Things your EMS Company wants you to avoid
Octopart Website
Webinar Series: Avoid BOM stock cost and lifecycle surprises as you design
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
The town of Calumet, with a population of barely seven-hundred, was once the booming epicenter of Michigan’s upper peninsula mining industry. When the industry began to fail, unemployment skyrocketed, and the townspeople sought local solutions for creating jobs that could sustain the town’s families.
Rob Cooke, Director of Engineering Services at Calumet Electronics Corp, joins the OnTrack podcast to discuss the Open Source Ventilator project, his experiences implementing Altium-365, and the radical decision business owners in that small town of Calumet, Michigan made more than 50 years ago, which led to the rise of Calumet Electronics Corp.
Altium 365 Podcast Listener Discount
Show Highlights
- Intro to Rob Cooke: how he got involved with Dugan Karnazes and the Open Source Ventilator Project.
- From copper ore to copper pours: Calumet, Michigan’s fascinating backstory.
- So what’s the hold-up? The right tool for avoiding excessive holds and other barriers to expedient design.
- Reality transcends the map: Altium-365 demos vs firsthand experience.
- The impact and implications of sudden hyper-efficiency at the designer, fabricator, and assembler level.
- The shock of realtime: “This is what can happen when things don’t go on hold!”
- Rob offers some final thoughts on the purchasing and quoting paradigm.
Resources:
- Rob Cooke on LinkedIn
- Calumet Website
- Open Source Ventilator Video
- AltiumLive 365 Demo
- Altium 365 product page
- Open Source Ventilator Project (OSV) Combats Ventilator Shortage
- Previous Episode with Rob Cooke: How to Conquer Data Package Problems
Tuesday Feb 19, 2019
Tuesday Feb 19, 2019
In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast we echo the style of “Ask me Anything” and feature Ben Jordan and Judy Warner who will mine the AltiumLive forum for questions. Ben will answer your questions about Engineering and PCB Design and Judy will respond to topics related to manufacturing and supply chain. Join us today as we tackle the question: If we have only one or two EEs, do we really need data management?
For future episodes, you can submit your questions on the AltiumLive forum, and sign up to be part of the community. Or email your questions directly to us.
Watch the video here.
Show Highlights:
- The Lounge is where the community talks about interesting topics related to PCB Design and Electronics Engineering, not necessarily only Altium products.
- Today’s question from the lounge is: “Is the Altium Vault really worthwhile in a company with just two EEs??” Perhaps another way to pose this question is: is it worth having a formal data management system for your electronics design, if you’re only a small business? We could even ask, is it worthwhile for an individual design contractor? The short answer is: Absolutely!
- Statistics and analytics from webinars, show that 80% of designers do not even use a formal version control system.
- A version control system allows you to have a central location for storing data, and as you work and make edits, and save files; it must be committed to the system as a revision.
- Version control allows you to go back to any point in time and restore it. Also, it allows comparison changes, in context, in a team or if you’re an individual designer.
- A normal backup system does not give you associativity between that moment in time and what you were doing, or the engineering intent.
- A version control system is not a formal data management system: it doesn’t give lifecycle management or links to supply chain data.
- A true data management system would not permit release unless everything is saved, committed to version control and contains the latest revision. Including in the component library.
- Provides accountability in the way you use and store your data.
- What are some problems with footprints in manufacturing?
- Panelization, v-cut, scoring for breakaway tabs etcetera, not following procedure.
- Slow down to hurry up - spend time upfront to set up the system, then you can move faster.
- Documentation is essential in the industry for re-use and provides a lifecycle.
- Data management keeps you accountable.
Links and Resources:
Join AltiumLive forum, and check out The Lounge
OP’s original question and related question
Email new questions to: OnTrack@altium.com