Mitigating Risk Factors for PCB Manufacturing Lead Times

How to deal with nuances in PCB design and manufacturing? In today’s episode, Dave Young the owner of Young Circuits Design and founder of BlueStamp Engineering, and I will discuss mitigating risk factors early in the stage of electronic design.

Dave will also tell a story about his path to entrepreneurship as an engineer and his inspiration behind founding BlueStamp Engineering, a hands-on engineering program for high school students to design and create technology projects that they get to keep, from scratch!

Listen, watch enjoy, and make sure to check the additional resources below.

Show Highlights:

• Dave’s background, and the early days of his now 12-year designing firm
  • He learned most of his skills from his previous position as a Senior Design Engineer at Keithley Instruments
• The world of innovative electronic design and hardware – the software, firmware, and hardware
  • Expectations vs. reality in manufacturing
  • Designers must know what’s going on in PCB manufacturing, know what’s reasonable to ask your manufacturer
• How to deal with nuances in PCB design and manufacturing? Not only identifying risks but also mitigating all the risks
  • How to deal with hardware level risk?
  • Dave’s insight on the extent a manufacturer could step up and modify the design to make it manufacturable
• Zach recalls his conversation with Kelly Dack regarding the solder mask being modified by the manufacturer to ensure accurate assembly
• An electrical engineer’s path to entrepreneurship
  • Dave shares that he found his happy place working with small teams
• Career challenges for engineers coming from academia
  • Zach emphasized the focus on the “value you can create” as an engineer
  • Is freelancing the classic route to enter the PCB design industry
  • The best path to entrepreneurship – start doing it!
• A risk mitigating tip in PCB design – review all parts and address where you messed up (right away)
  • There is no fool-proof footprint
• Challenges of CM (contact manufacturer) overseas
  • What should be manufactured domestically?
• Educational programs such as BlueStamp Engineering could help address the workforce shortage in the Electrical Engineer Industry
  • How do engage the next generation of engineers to become more involved and interested in innovation and creating new things?
• Firmware vs. software engineering – the good, the bad, and the headaches

Links and Resources:

Connect with Dave Young on LinkedIn

Visit Young Circuit Designs Website

Learn more about the BlueStamp Engineering programs

Related podcast with Kelly Dack: How to Panelize Your PCB Design with EMS Expert Kelly Dack 

 

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