Podcasts about PCB

Simon Mann presents reaction from Headingley where England have beaten Pakistan inside three days in Joe Root's first Test back as captain of the side.Hear from former England captains Michael Vaughan and Sir Alastair Cook, BBC chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew, and former captain and PCB chief executive Ramiz Raja. Andy Zaltzman breaks down the Test with a stat-attack.Plus, hear the thoughts of Joe Root, Ollie Robinson, Marcus Trescothick, and Salman Ali Agha.

Altium Develop brings the full Altium Designer experience — plus multi-board and harness design and cloud collaboration — to individual designers and small teams, without paying for enterprise features you'll never use: https://www.altium.com/develop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=ontrack-podcast&utm_content=altium-is-coming-home-to-the-designer After 40 years as effectively a single-product company, Altium has repackaged its offering into Altium Develop, Teams, and Enterprise — and a lot of individual designers are asking what it means for them. In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Lawrence Romine, senior director of marketing at Altium, to explain the "homecoming": a deliberate return of focus to the individual PCB designer who made Altium Designer the industry standard in the first place. Lawrence traces the company's story from its founding in Hobart, Tasmania, through the rise of Altium 365 during COVID, to why the enterprise pivot left some solo designers feeling left behind — and how the new packaging is meant to fix exactly that. You'll get a clear breakdown of the three offerings — Develop (a PCB-centric, "you choose it" proposition for up to five users), Teams (out-of-the-box collaboration), and Enterprise (fully governed, tailored deployments for regulated industries like automotive, medical, and aerospace) — all built on the same Altium Designer and Altium 365 you already know. Lawrence and Zach dig into pricing , why you shouldn't pay for capabilities you'll never use, how Altium prioritizes new feature development, and a hint at a new Altium Designer release that should feel a lot more like the big annual splash releases of 2015–2020. If you're an individual designer, a contract shop, or a small team wondering where you fit, this one's for you.

Despite being banned around the world in the 1980s, the toxic forever chemical polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, continues to ravage communities across the United Kingdom in a major contamination scandal. Now, the actor Michael sheen has teemed up with two investigative journalists in a new documentary to investigate how this was allowed to happen and uncover the health problems the toxins have caused. Joining me now to tell us more is Lucy Taylor, an investigative environmental journalist and presenter of the ‘Buried' podcast on the BBC

AI is everywhere in the headlines right now, but is it actually doing anything positive for engineers? Or is it just going to take jobs and produce less competent engineers by putting everything on autopilot? I sat down with Tobias Pohl, Co-Founder and CEO of CELUS, and Matt Bromley, VP of Product Strategy for Siemens EDA, to try to get past the hype and talk honestly about what agentic AI is actually changing, from early concept and ideation all the way through the PCB design process, and just as importantly, what it's not changing. CELUS and Siemens EDA have partnered to bridge that early, "fuzzy" stage of concept design into the traditional schematic, layout, and manufacturing flow. Toby and Matt talk about how agentic AI is compressing the design flow, from comparing datasheets and selecting components to running simulations, while the architecture and the judgment calls stay firmly with the engineer. They also talk about how agentic AI is now working across toolsets. Engineers can ask a question in one platform and have it orchestrated across another, without all the manual handoffs, file conversions, and integration work that used to eat up so much time and introduce design risks.    00:00 — Introductions Toby and Matt introduce themselves and how the CELUS/Siemens EDA partnership came together. 01:17 — Why CELUS and Siemens EDA partnered The gap between early concept design and traditional engineering tool chains, and how the two platforms connect ideation to schematic, layout, and manufacturing. 04:20 — The real bottlenecks in modern design Why comparing datasheets and chip selection can eat weeks of engineering time, and how a non-linear design process creates constant rework. 07:59 — Where AI is already delivering real value Extracting models and data from datasheets, evaluating BOM choices against manufacturability and lead time, and using AI to interpret simulation results. 11:35 — Inside agentic architecture Toby explains the shift from single LLM assistants to full agentic systems, including guardrail agents, review agents, and orchestration across multiple tools, including agents that hand off work between CELUS and Siemens EDA without the engineer manually reconnecting the two. 17:54 — Does the engineer stay in control? I push Toby and Matt directly on whether AI is encroaching on architecture and design judgment. The answer is still no, and they explain why. 19:39 — Walking the design journey, start to finish Toby and Matt trace a real workflow: describing design intent in natural language, generating an initial architecture, comparing multiple approaches, and handing off an electrically correct design into Siemens EDA tools for simulation, layout, and DFM. 28:19 — Who holds the judgment Why the designer still drives architecture and intent, and how agentic tools add robustness rather than replace decision-making. 35:00 — The hard question about jobs I ask the question our listeners won't forgive me for skipping: didn't software engineers lose jobs when AI hit? Toby and Matt respond with the historical parallel to compilers, high-level languages, and past technology hype cycles. 40:46 — What's next Toby and Matt preview upcoming agentic capabilities across both platforms and how you can start exploring the tools yourself. Key takeaway The engineer remains the design intent and architecture. Agentic AI is built to take the manual grind out of design, the spreadsheets, the datasheet comparisons, the repetitive tool-switching, so engineers can spend more of their time on the judgment calls, the creativity, and the innovation that only they can bring. Learn more Siemens EDA:  To learn more about Xpedition and PCB Design For a 30-day trial of Xpedition Standard with powered-by-CELUS integration Matt Bromley on LinkedIn   CELUS:  CELUS Website CELUS Platform Tobias Pohl on LinkedIn        

Tom Kastner is the founder of GP Ventures, a company that provides M&A advisory services. He's been involved in PCB industry mergers and acquisitions for decades, and he's written extensively about M&A challenges and opportunities. In this episode of PCB Chat, Tom discusses his background and the career path that led him to become an M&A expert. He also examines some of the trends he's seeing in mergers and acquisitions, as well as the current PCB fabrication and assembly landscape in the U.S., and around the world. Plus, he answers this immortal question: How many board shops are still operating in the U.S. right now? Check it out.

As AI agents grow more capable, the question of trust becomes increasingly critical, especially in complex engineering environments like semiconductor and PCB design. Siemens EDA and NVIDIA are tackling that challenge head-on, combining deep EDA domain expertise with cutting-edge AI infrastructure to deliver a new generation of agentic AI capabilities for engineering teams. In this episode, we sit down with Amit Gupta, Chief AI Strategy Officer at Siemens EDA, and Tim Costa, VP and GM of Industrial and Computational Engineering at NVIDIA, to explore how their collaboration is shaping the future of EDA workflows. Together, they discuss domain-scoped AI agents that don't just execute tasks but verify their own outputs using physics-based EDA software validation, purpose-built to support the demands of long-running engineering workflows. We dig into what self-verifying agentic AI actually means in practice, what the Siemens and NVIDIA collaboration looks like under the hood, and what it delivers in terms of tool-calling reliability, token efficiency, result quality, and time-to-results for engineering teams working across the full EDA lifecycle.

In this episode, Sergiy Nesterenko (CEO @ Quilter) joins the pod to share how he turned a personal technical challenge into his own company, even before the market caught up. He shares his unique journey from SpaceX to Quilter and addresses common eng leader / founder challenges, including taking critical feedback to solve tough technical problems, knowing when your most important role is educating the market / customers, and choosing the right customers. Sergiy and Jerry also dissect insights into principles around building circuit boards, and common misconceptions around hiring top-tier talent, finding investors, and procuring customers as an early-stage company.   ABOUTSERGIY NESTERENKO Sergiy Nesterenko is the Founder and CEO of Quilter, the first physics-driven AI platform that fully automates PCB layout design. Under his leadership, Quilter has pioneered autonomous board design – creating the missing automation layer for hardware and compressing weeks-long layout cycles into hours. Backed by Index, Benchmark, Coatue, and Tony Fadell, Quilter is redefining what's possible in hardware development. Previously, Sergiy spent five years at SpaceX as a Senior Radiation Effects Engineer, building electronics for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.   SHOW NOTES: Introducing Sergiy Nesterenko & the inspiration behind Quilter (1:43) Why now is the right time to tackle this technical challenge (3:37) The technology landscape during Quilter's early days (6:05) Sergiy's fundraising journey & key takeaways (8:26) The importance of adopting an evolutionary mindset (10:52) Early problems that Quilter aimed to solve (13:08) Navigating the balance between technical problems & consumer readiness (15:59) How negative feedback can lead to solving a key problem (18:34) Knowing which feedback to incorporate into product iterations (20:08) Lessons learned from choosing the wrong customers (27:33) First principles approach to circuit board building (29:31) Signals that it's the right time to tackle a hard technical challenge (34:04) Advantages to solving really hard problems & tackling entrepreneurship (36:32) Common misconceptions surrounding early phase companies (38:17) Sergiy's experience working with Eric @ Benchmark (39:46) Why investors like founders who spend time in the “idea maze” (42:19) Strategies for convincing high-profile talent to join your org early on (43:22) Rapid fire questions (45:10)   This episode wouldn't have been possible without the help of our incredible production team: Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host Jerry Li - Co-Host Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/ Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan's also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/ Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lords: Gabe https://store.steampowered.com/app/4076590/GAARL__Gabes_Action_Arcade_RogueLike/ Andrew https://pancelor.com/ Topics: Building your own synthesizer will not save you any money Clipboard proprioception The latest podcast description length drama Fig, 6. “I I I Strong Stronger Strongest” Braggadocio Rap Rerebrace, by Douglas Kearney https://poems.com/poem/fig-6-i-i-i-strong-stronger-strongest-braggadocio-rap-rerebrace/ Esper says: "Comic lettering is certainly done digitally these days, but there's a lot of traditional and even hybrid lettering too. A whole world out there." Conversations in real life vs. discord Having “over a decade of experience in the interior design industry” Microtopics: Gabe's Action Arcade Roguelike. Spelunky with less secrets and more upgrades. Randomized item behavior. Tasteful Pranking. Using earbuds as earplugs in a pinch. The short but wrong description. Timed Mashing Games. A building that exists continuously. Why would you pay someone else to do something that you can do yourself? A 70%-complete noise maker. Deliberately building your modular synthesizer to be incompatible with every modular standard so you're not tempted to buy any modules. Synthesizers as folk instruments, every one unique and owned by a weird uncle. SDL taking your sine wave and making it pretty. An online MIDI thing which is pretty annoying. Video: it has so much more data than audio. How to make your audio engine samples play at the right time. Electricity: it just happens. Hitting undo on the breadboard when you blow up some capacitors. Making a synthesizer by drawing a circuit with a graphite pencil. Being old enough to have once seen a PCB that was laid out by hand. Having something important in your clipboard and knowing you'd better put it somewhere soon before it's lost. Sending files to your phone over the local Wi-Fi. Parts of your body you doing trust. Prodding the clipboard until it reluctantly copies the text like a surely teenager. Emailing support and slowly realizing that support is actually the guy who makes the decisions. What life could be like if venture capital didn't exist. Putting a warning on the 4001st M&M. How to send an edible arrangement without knowing someone's address. Inventing something that already exists. Inventing a process and thinking "that's too simple to work" but later you find out it does and has a name. Getting sick of using a rhyming dictionary to write poems so you just cut and paste a list of rhyming words right into the poem. A poem that it feels wrong to read aloud. What is a line break but moving to a new place where the next word starts? A poem that is approved by the Comics Code Authority. How all the comic book letterers came to have the exact same handwriting. A word that starts with a through e and ends with song. Talking online vs. talking in person. Trying to quietly talk to your neighbor in discord voice chat. Why Discord doesn't allow you to place voice chats participants in Dolby 7.1 space. Tuning your proximity happening settings. Three people pairing off and having two conversations at once. The next talk show guest coming out and everybody moving one chair over. That time Andy Richter tried to have a side conversation with Norm MacDonald while Conan O'Brien was talking to the next guest. That thing where two people are hard to tell apart because their voices are similar to each other. Your e-commerce platform giving your image a random four digit number. Choosing guests based on whose voice compliments yours. Being on a weekly video game podcast and realizing you'd better play some goddamn video games this week or you won't have anything to talk about. Changing topics when there are three minutes left on the show. Trying to finish recording the show when your laptop is at 7% battery life. An incredible way to pull rank. Telling the airline employee that you work in aerospace and you deserve more leg room. Promising your Kickstarter backers to go to Denny's for lunch. Bluesky handles that are a palindrome of themselves.

In this episode of Clocking In: Voices of North Carolina Manufacturing, host Phil Mintz sits down with Tony McCullough, Sales Manager at GRT Electronics, to discuss the evolving landscape of printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing and the advantages of domestic electronics production. Tony shares how GRT Electronics helps customers bridge the gap between prototype development and full-scale production through quick-turn manufacturing, local support, and high-quality surface-mount PCB assembly. He also explores some of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers today, including component obsolescence, supply chain disruptions, memory shortages, and tariff-related cost fluctuations. The conversation highlights the growing opportunities for U.S.-based electronics manufacturers as industries such as biotechnology, data centers, medical devices, and advanced technologies continue to expand. Tony also discusses the company's expertise in ruggedized and high-reliability electronics designed for harsh environments, from military and automotive applications to smart plumbing systems and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. LINKS NCMEP | IES | GRT Electronics About the Guest Tony McCullough is Sales Manager at GRT Electronics, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based electronics manufacturing company specializing in printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, quick-turn prototypes, and low- to medium-volume production for industrial, medical, communications, and military applications. With more than 20 years of experience in field sales and account management, Tony has worked closely with engineering, purchasing, management, and manufacturing teams to help bring innovative electronic products from concept to production. His expertise spans electronics manufacturing, supply chain management, component sourcing, and customer relationship development. At GRT Electronics, Tony serves as a vital link between customers and the production floor, helping organizations navigate challenges such as component obsolescence, supply chain disruptions, product redesigns, and scaling production. He is passionate about supporting domestic manufacturing and helping companies leverage the advantages of U.S.-based electronics production, including quality, reliability, responsiveness, and faster turnaround times. Tony enjoys working with innovators across a wide range of industries, from biotechnology and medical devices to industrial automation, automotive technologies, and emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications. He is committed to helping customers solve complex manufacturing challenges while advancing the future of electronics manufacturing in North Carolina and throughout the United States. About the Host Dr. Phil Mintz is the Director of NC State University Industry Extension Services (IES). Through his leadership, IES supports manufacturers across the state with resources in innovation, process improvement, workforce development, and business growth. About NC State University Industry Extension Services NC State University Industry Extension Services (IES), established in 1955 as the outreach team for the NC State University College of Engineering, provides resources, tools, and customized training programs to help businesses survive, thrive, and grow. IES delivers comprehensive training and development programs tailored for a diverse range of sectors, including manufacturing, educational and research institutions, healthcare, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, defense contractors, aerospace, automotive, energy, and government agencies.  Your IES dedicated Regional Manager is available to assist in identifying and implementing customized solutions, tools, and resources designed to optimize your organization's productivity, efficiency, quality, and profitability.  ncstateies.com/RM

Os partidos Missão e PT oficializaram as candidaturas à presidência da república em convenções neste fim de semana, além da candidatura à presidência do PCB, com Edmilson Costa.O Giro de Notícias mantém você por dentro das principais informações do Brasil e do mundo. Confira mais atualizações na próxima edição.

Indonesia is rapidly emerging as a serious contender in global toy manufacturing, driven by its huge workforce, competitive labour costs, and a fast‑maturing industrial base. While many in the toy business still view Indonesia through the lens of Java and domestic consumption, the country now offers export‑ready capabilities that mirror what modern toy brands need — especially for electronic, interactive, and connected products. With rising wages in China and brands pushing for diversified "China + 1" strategies, Indonesia's manufacturing evolution is becoming impossible to ignore. Within this landscape, Batam stands out as Indonesia's most advanced electronics export‑manufacturing hub — a unique island‑wide Free Trade Zone just 20km from Singapore, built on three decades of electronics production. In this episode, Steve speaks with Chrispin from Tunas Prima Industrial Estate - https://tunasindustrial.com/en/ - who explains how Batam's deep ecosystem of PCB assembly, battery integration, plastics, finishing, and box‑build makes it a natural fit for toy brands. Add in Disney‑certified factories, a young labour pool, seamless Singapore logistics, and ready‑to‑use industrial infrastructure, and Batam becomes one of the most compelling new manufacturing bases for global toy companies exploring Indonesia for the first time.    

On this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson talks with Ben Dannan, founder of Signal Edge Solutions and DesignCon Engineer of the Year, and Tyler Huddleston, SI/PI engineer, about a problem every high-speed designer knows too well: DDR compliance simulation that can take 24 hours to several days per interface. They walk through why the traditional Keysight ADS Memory Designer compliance flow is so slow, how false positives creep into JEDEC compliance results, and why running corners across fast, typical, and slow for a full DQ and command/address bus can balloon into nine-plus simulations and weeks of waiting. Ben and Tyler then demo their new tool, MEM Check Pro, which ingests the raw HDF5 waveform data you already generated and returns full DDR4, DDR5, and LPDDR compliance results in under a minute — live on camera. Along the way the conversation digs into the real signal integrity and power integrity challenges behind modern data-center and aerospace hardware: thick backplanes and backside power delivery, managing loop inductance and PDN-to-PDN crosstalk, IBIS model quality, advanced laminate systems, and choosing the right decoupling capacitors. It's a practical look at how to trade days of simulation for seconds without giving up confidence in your results.

TUTAMÉIA entrevista a historiadora Anita Leocadia Prestes, que está lançando "Entre memória e história: representações de Luiz Carlos Prestes", que examina as principais narrativas sobre Luiz Carlos Prestes presentes na historiografia e na memorialística brasileiras.Anita é filha de Luiz Carlos Prestes e Olga Benário Prestes. Nasceu em 1936, em Berlim, na Alemanha, numa prisão de mulheres, onde estava presa sua mãe. Anita foi militante e dirigente do Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB). Em 1973 foi condenada à revelia a quatro anos e meio de prisão e teve os direitos políticos cassados. Afastou-se do PCB juntamente com seu pai, no fim da década de 1970. É doutora em história social pela Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). Atualmente é professora aposentada do Instituto de História da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). É autora de Luiz Carlos Prestes: um comunista brasileiro (2015), Olga Benario Prestes: uma comunista nos arquivos da Gestapo (2017), Viver é tomar partido: memórias (2019) e A Coluna Prestes (2024). Inscreva-se no TUTAMÉIA TV e visite o site TUTAMÉIA, https://tutameia.jor.br, serviço jornalístico criado por Eleonora de Lucena e Rodolfo Lucena.Acesse este link para entrar no grupo AMIG@S DO TUTAMÉIA, exclusivo para divulgação e distribuição de nossa produção jornalística: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Dn10GmZP6fV...

Join Scott as he tests the gameboy cart's functionality before ordering a new rev. Thanks to dcd for timecodes: 0:00 Getting started 0:42 Hello everyone, welcome, introduction to Adafruit 1:42 Feather esp32-s3 example circuit python (CP) microcomputer 3:05 CP GB cartridge pygp2350 4:30 adafruit_gameboy.py driver 5:24 changes to the gp cartridge schematic 7:00 explore the unfinished PCB layout 9:32 JLCPCB parts page ( for micro sd card ) 12:01 GB startup with LLM generated demo 16:00 dive into the common-hal/_gpio/__init__.c code and adafruit_gameboy.pas 26:09 next week - get back to hardware in the loop topics 27:00 vibe code code.py for pygb 2350 - test the midi 29:26 also test audio in parallel 30:00 uart loopback test 42:00 "Hopefully the last revision before we can sell it" :-) 50:00 GB color should work 57:00 debug the opto isolator 1:02:33 wrapping up Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

Mycronic just raised full-year guidance after a surprise rebound in equipment orders, and the stock already popped on the news. Here's what's actually driving the turnaround, and why we're still on the sidelines.Mycronic is a Swedish semiconductor equipment company that plays on the edges of the core wafer fab process, supplying pattern generators for photomask production, along with test, chip packaging, and PCB assembly equipment. In this episode, we break down Mycronic's Q2 2026 earnings, including a 7% year-over-year decline in its largest segment, Pattern Generators, offset by a 118% surge in Global Technologies, its fastest-growing test and packaging business. We also cover the smaller High Volume and PCB Assembly Solutions segments, one of which is undergoing restructuring after a recent acquisition underperformed.Combined net sales grew 17% year over year, and management raised full-year 2026 guidance by roughly 500 million SEK. We dig into Mycronic's tuck-in acquisition strategy, balance sheet strength (net cash, minimal debt), and run a reverse discounted cash flow model to estimate fair value.If you're looking for semiconductor equipment exposure beyond the "Fab Five" — ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron, and KLA — Mycronic is worth understanding, even if it's not a stock we're buying right now.Semi Insider members get access to CSI's research platform and tools plus deeper research as it happens. Join at chipstockinvestor.com.Full research and stock tools: https://chipstockinvestor.comGet 15% off your fiscal.ai membership with our link: https://fiscal.ai/csiContent in this podcast is for general information or entertainment only and is not specific or individual investment advice. Forecasts and information presented may not develop as predicted, and there is no guarantee any strategies presented will be successful. All investing involves risk, and you could lose some or all of your principal.

What if PCB design respins were a thing of the past? What if updating hardware was as easy as updating software? Itera CEO AJ Cooper co-founded the company to address this exact issue. And now, Itera has developed the world's first "fluid" PCB that can rewire itself in real time. AJ will discuss this groundbreaking technology in his PCB West keynote speech, "It's Time to Retire the Respin."  In this episode of PCB Chat, AJ discusses his prior work with Lyft and Uber, his efforts to eliminate PCB design respins once and for all, and the ramifications of this "liquid metal" technology on hardware design. He also provides a preview of his PCB West keynote, which takes place at 11 a.m. on Sept. 30 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Physics-of-failure models are often presented as the ultimate solution for predicting reliability—but are they always necessary? In this episode, Chris and Fred explore a listener's question about finding reliable references for physics-of-failure models, particularly for electronics and PCB assemblies. The discussion highlights the spectrum of available models, from simple empirical equations to highly detailed simulations requiring extensive material and manufacturing data. More importantly, they explain why engineers should start by defining the decision they need to make before searching for increasingly sophisticated models. If you're trying to improve reliability, select materials, design accelerated tests, or understand failure mechanisms, this episode offers practical guidance on when physics-of-failure modeling adds value and when simpler approaches may be more effective.

How does a region build a semiconductor and electronics workforce from the ground up? In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Nasska Medrano, Global Program Manager at Altium Education, and Professor Johan Estrada of the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY) to unpack the Mayan-on-Chip initiative—a collaborative workforce development program training highly skilled talent in electronics, embedded systems, and semiconductors in southeastern Mexico. They cover how the first cohort exceeded expectations, why coordinated effort among academia, industry, and government is essential, and how Mexico's national semiconductor plan is reshaping engineering education.

We answer questions from you guys for our 300th episode special.

Many engineers still think of KiCad as a hobbyist PCB design tool. That perception is changing. In this episode, Judy Warner sits down with Seth Hillbrand, lead KiCad developer and founder of KiCad Services Corporation, to discuss how KiCad has evolved into a professional EDA platform trusted by startups, aerospace companies, research organizations, and enterprise engineering teams. You'll learn: Why more professional engineers are choosing KiCad How open-source EDA tools stack up against commercial tools Why preserving design intent and long-term IP matters How KiCad's architecture is enabling the next generation of AI-powered PCB design Seth's perspective on using AI to make engineers more effective, not replace them Whether you're evaluating new PCB design tools or simply curious about the future of electronic design automation (EDA), this conversation offers an inside look at one of the fastest-growing platforms in the industry.

Wally Rhines is the spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, part of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He joins Andy Shaughnessy every quarter to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of computer-aided engineering tools, semiconductor tools, PCB design software, related IP and services, and employment. In this interview, Wally discusses the results for Q1 2026, which marks the 21st consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth. He also delves into some of the market drivers in the electronics industry, as well as challenges and opportunities that he's seeing around the globe.

Liderka francuskiej partii Zgromadzenie Marine Le Pen uznana przez sąd apelacyjny winną sprzeniewierzenia prawie 3 milionów euro z funduszy europejskich i skazana na trzy lata więzienia, w tym dwa w zawieszeniu. Mimo to Le Pen zapowiada kandydowanie w wyborach prezydenckich w przyszłym roku. Jej partia prowadzi w sondażach i ma dużą szansę na zwycięstwo. Co o polityce francuskiej mówi historia Marine Le Pen, kolejnej liderki politycznej wysokiego szczebla skazanej za przestępstwa korupcyjne? I jak na jej decyzję zareaguje numer 2 w Zgromadzeniu - Jordan Bardella?Donald Trump zapowiada przekazanie Ukrainie licencji na produkcję rakiet do systemów Patriot i popiera ataki Ukrainy na cele w Rosji. Czy szczyt NATO w Ankarze był nowym otwarciem dla sojuszu? I na czym polega europeizacja Sojuszu?Na rynkach brakuje obwodów drukowanych, czyli płytek obecnych w niemal każdym urządzeniu elektronicznym. Czy deficyt płytek PCB spowolni rozwój sztucznej inteligencji? I kto na tym zarobi najwięcej?W Kolumbii władzę przejmuje prezydent, który zapowiada budowę ogromnych więzień zamiast rozmów z rebeliantami. Abelardo de la Espriella to kolejny latynoamerykański prezydent, dla którego wzorem jest Donald Trump. Jaka przyszłość czeka Kolumbię?Naukowcy z Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczego w Poznaniu rozpoczęli przełomowe badania tras migracyjnych bocianów. Dzięki kamerom, które zainstalowano ptakom na ciele, wiemy znacznie więcej na temat ich zwyczajów i zagrożeń w czasie podróży. Co nam daje ta wiedza?Rozkład jazdy: (02:20) Joanna Nowicka: Marine Le Pen skazana, wystartuje w wyborach(24:51) Justyna Gotkowska: Szczyt NATO w Ankarze(49:29) Podziękowania(56:27) Adrian Bąk: Brak PCB zagrożeniem dla AI?(1:08:10) Joanna Gocłowska-Bolek: Nowy prezydent Kolumbii(1:29:54) Piotr Tryjanowski: Świat z lotu bociana(1:53:33) Do usłyszenia---------------------------------------------Raport o stanie świata to audycja, która istnieje dzięki naszym Patronom, dołącz się do zbiórki ➡️ ⁠https://patronite.pl/DariuszRosiak⁠Subskrybuj newsletter Raportu o stanie świata ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠➡️ ⁠https://dariuszrosiak.substack.com⁠Koszulki i kubki Raportu ➡️ ⁠https://patronite-sklep.pl/kolekcja/raport-o-stanie-swiata/⁠ [Autopromocja]

In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Rob Barton, Head of Platform API at Altium, for a deep dive into how programmatic access is transforming PCB design and electronics development. Rob traces the evolution of Altium's API—from the early disconnected SDKs and the launch of Nexar, through Octopart supply data, all the way to the new Platform API that exposes design data, supply chain intelligence, and manufacturing services through a single, federated GraphQL schema. If you've ever wanted to connect Altium 365 and Altium Designer data directly into your own systems, this conversation maps out exactly where the technology is heading. Through two live demos, Rob shows how to query live Octopart supply data—pricing, availability, RoHS compliance, and BOM resolution—then navigates the Platform API down to individual PCB layers, nets, and track coordinates. The discussion also explores API-first design philosophy, why discoverable APIs now matter for AI agents and MCP servers, and the upcoming Altium Developer Center that will open this platform to engineers, enterprises, and third-party developers. Whether you're a procurement professional, a PCB designer, or building AI-enabled tools on top of electronics data, this episode is a clear look at the future of open, programmatic hardware design.

AI is starting to take on real work in PCB design, but engineering teams still want and need to stay in control of the process. In this episode, Judy Warner talks with Sergiy Nesterenko, founder of Quilter, about how their AI-powered layout tool has evolved over the past year. They discuss keeping designers in control through custom constraints, lessons learned from laying out Quilter's own NXP i.MX8 board, building trust with engineering teams and their downstream customers, and how physics-based verification, including a new signal-integrity integration with Simbeor, is helping to close the gap between solid engineering skill, automation, and real-world reliability.   Join The Engineering EEcosystem for curated resources for engineers including our FREE online Masterclasses with Dr. Eric Bogatin. https://theeecosystem.com   Learn more: Quilter https://quilter.ai Listen to The EEcosystem Podcasts on Apple, Spotify, and all major podcast apps.

Shehzar Mohammad is a former first class cricketer who represented PIA and Sindh. He has transitioned his career as a strength and conditioning coach, working with players including Shan Masood, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Azam Khan, and most recently the Hyderabad Kingsmen during the PSL.You can find Shehzar here:https://www.instagram.com/smfcrickettraining/

Flexible PCBs can solve some incredible mechanical design challenges—but they also introduce a whole new set of manufacturing considerations.In this episode, we answer a listener's question about flex and rigid-flex circuit assembly, covering what actually changes on the manufacturing floor when a board bends instead of staying rigid. Chris shares lessons learned from developing Worthington and CircuitHub's flex PCB assembly process, including the custom fixtures, dummy boards, baking requirements, and reflow considerations that make these jobs very different from traditional FR-4 assemblies.If you're designing a flex or rigid-flex PCB—or thinking about it—this episode offers practical advice that can save both time and money before your design reaches manufacturing.f you're designing flex or rigid-flex PCBs, Chris recommends these Global Electronics Association resources:IPC-2223: Sectional Design Standard for Flexible/Rigid-Flexible Printed Boards – The primary design standard for flex and rigid-flex PCBs. Covers bend regions, stackups, conductor routing, fabrication drawings, ZIF connectors, dielectric thicknesses, and many other design considerations. Used alongside IPC-2221. https://shop.electronics.org/ipc-2223/ipc-2223-standard-onlyIPC PCB Design for Flex & Rigid-Flex Boards Course – An in-depth instructor-led training course covering flex PCB design, manufacturing, assembly, documentation, and industry best practices. https://www.electronicsu.org/product/pcb-design-flex-rigid-flex-boardspickplacepodcast.com

What you'll learn… (00:46) Charlene and Terrie's origin story: a teacher, a career-changer, and 45 years of PCB experience (02:29) What concurrent design actually means — and the "chasing the sun" shift model (04:10) Why communication is the foundation of co-design — and what happens when it breaks down (05:57) The trust factor: building confidence in a teammate's work to hand it straight to the customer (10:06) Where concurrent design goes south in real organizations (11:31) Version control without PLM software: the date-letter-initials convention (15:52) Partitioning a complex motherboard without enterprise software — and who holds the master (21:38) Upfront setup essentials: Gerber outputs, stackup lock-in, and avoiding the rework avalanche (27:40) Treating co-design like a scientist: test revisions and never saying "it won't work" (32:41) The CAM2 success story: world-standard connector, half the typical timeline (37:03) AI in PCB design: a tool for experienced designers — and the lesson from the taping-board era More about the episode… In this episode of the Printed Circuit Podcast, host Steph Chavez sits down with Charlene McCauley, Senior PCB Designer and owner of McCauley Design Group LLC, and Terrie Duffy, Principal Electrical Engineer of AI Automation at Dell Technologies. Charlene brings 45 years of industry experience, including server planer design at Dell and PCB instruction at Austin Community College — where Terrie was her student, worked alongside her for nine years, and now teaches the course herself. The conversation is a practical look at what concurrent and co-design require beyond the tooling: master file ownership, cross-discipline communication, and version control discipline. Real war stories — wrong revisions loaded, external teams deviating from specs — illustrate where co-design breaks down. The CAM2/DDR5 connector project anchors the episode: a world-standard achievement completed in four to five years by a small, tightly coordinated team. The episode closes on AI — not a threat to experienced designers, but a tool that rewards those willing to learn it. Connect with Steph Chavez: LinkedIn Website Connect with Charlene McCauley: LinkedIn McCauley Design Group Website Connect with Terrie Duffy: LinkedIn

Die Reinigungsarbeiten am PCB-verschmutzten Fluss Spöl im Nationalpark laufen seit diesem Frühling. Bis nächstes Jahr soll ein erster Abschnitt von drei Kilometern saniert sein. Dann wird über das weitere Vorgehen entschieden. Die Verantwortlichen ziehen eine positive Zwischenbilanz. Weitere Themen: · AI: K.o.-Tropfen an der Appenzeller Landsgemeinde - wurden sie eingesetzt und wenn ja, in wie vielen Fällen? · GR: Keine Einigung im Schlichtungsverfahren zwischen Bündner Kantonalbank und Investor Remo Stoffel · GR: Valérie Favre Accola übernimmt das Erziehungs-, Kultur- und Umweltdepartment · GR: Reinigungsarbeiten des Spöls kommen gut voran · GR: Auch Gemeinde Samedan verbietet lautes Feuerwerk · SG: Mehrere Hundert Liter Diesel sind in den Fluss Necker gelangt, die Reinigungsarbeiten laufen · «Worte des Monats»: Monatsrückblick über die hitzigen Diskussionen in den Kantonsparlamenten im heissen Juni

Code-based PCB design is reshaping how engineers build hardware, and in this OnTrack Podcast episode, host Zach Peterson sits down with Ioannis Papamanoglou and Narayan Powderly, co-founders of atopile, to explore their code-first, AI-driven approach to PCB design. Drawing on backgrounds at Tesla and across the electronics industry, the founders explain why hardware has lagged behind software tooling and how capturing engineering intent in code can unlock automation across the entire design process — from requirements capture to schematic capture and layout. You'll learn why the real bottleneck in AI for PCB design is tooling and orchestration rather than raw model capability, how deterministic and nondeterministic layers work together, and why the designer's role is shifting toward system architecture as low-level boilerplate disappears. The conversation also covers test board generation, the Jevons paradox effect on engineering resources, supply chain and firmware integration, and a live demo showing atopile working alongside Altium Designer. Whether you're a PCB designer, hardware engineer, or curious about AI in electronics, this episode offers a grounded look at where code-based hardware design is headed.

In this fascinating interview, Sergiy Nesterenko details the journey that ultimately drove him to solve a critical bottleneck in hardware engineering: the manual, slow process of printed circuit board (PCB) layout. In his discussion with our Moore's Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, Sergiy shares engaging anecdotes from his early career, including a SpaceX internship where he was assigned to literally watch paint dry. He also describes his first attempt at PCB layout at SpaceX, where a power switch board caught fire in his hands. This experience fueled his desire to bring robust automation to the PCB design field. Sergiy explains why traditional auto-routers have failed to gain widespread adoption for sixty years. He then explains how Quilter solves this by leveraging reinforcement learning and computational physics. They discuss several major technical insights and future directions, including: -The software compiler analogy.  -Physics-based automation. -Tackling complex boards.  -His 10-year vision.  

What you'll learn… (00:12) Why design reuse is energy conservation — and IP management is energy management (05:15) How the shift from physical tape-ups to CAD opened the door to reusable design data (08:09) The electric car analogy: charging cheap vs. designing under pressure (11:32) War stories from the field: reverse-engineering an F-14 Tomcat board and the square-pin-in-a-round-hole disaster (17:07) What happens when every designer controls their own library — and why that's a nightmare (21:33) Family trees, variants, and the art of tracking design history across decades (25:47) Why even great processes break down — and the role of the resident expert in keeping libraries honest (30:26) The designer as cross-pollinator: bridging mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing worlds (38:19) AI as a routing engine: from overnight Cadnetics autorouting to Tesla autopilot — and what both teach us about human oversight More about the episode… In this episode of the Printed Circuit Podcast, host Steph Chavez welcomes Paul Fleming, Senior Printed Circuit Board Consultant and IPC-certified design instructor — a 45-year industry veteran who built his own PCB service bureau in San Diego before spending two decades as an application engineer across Cadnetics, Cadence, Mentor Graphics, and Siemens, and becoming an educator through the IPC Designer Council. The conversation tackles why design reuse and IP management are the hidden levers behind every fast, cost-efficient hardware program — and why neglecting them is a tax companies keep paying long after the original engineer has left. Paul frames it simply: decisions are energy, and every design artifact is either stored potential or future debt. War stories from a reverse-engineered F-14 Tomcat board to a connector library defect that cascaded across hundreds of shipped units make the stakes concrete. Paul also addresses the human side: the self-preservation instinct that fragments shared libraries, the management–engineering gap that lets bad habits compound, and why the PCB designer — bridging mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing domains — holds more organizational leverage than almost any other role on the product team. The episode closes with a candid take on AI: powerful when an experienced engineer is watching the road, dangerous when they're not. Connect with Steph Chavez: LinkedIn Website Connect with Paul Fleming: LinkedIn PCEA Website

Welcome to another episode of TWIC.

20260622 PCB Peer Engagement Presents Originally Broadcasted June 22, 2026, on ACB Media 6 Director of Outreach and Engagement Thad Graham discussed a variety of topics including the role of social media in his work with the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind. Sponsored by: Pennsylvania Council of the Blind Subscribe to the PCB email list

Welcome, Massimo Banzi of SuperModerno and co-founder of Arduino Introduction and SuperModerno: Massimo introduces himself as a “friendly nerd” and discusses his new project, SuperModerno The project aims to explain the “behind the scenes” of technology to prevent people from becoming “slaves to the platform” The History of Technology: Massimo expresses his passion for technology’s history, emphasizing non-American innovators to show Europeans they can also lead in technology, citing the UK-based origins of the Arm processor The Legacy of Olivetti: He highlights Olivetti (founded in 1908), which moved from typewriters to creating the Programma 101, the first desktop computer used by NASA to compute orbits for the Apollo program Design as a Differentiator: Olivetti was the first tech company to apply design to everything (products, posters, and architecture) This inspired Massimo's concept of the “invisible touch”, the idea that consistent, intentional design creates a unique connection with users and gives a company a competitive edge The Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII): Massimo’s path led him to IDII, located in the former Olivetti research building, where he transitioned from a two-week sabbatical to a four-year stay Learning by Making: To help students with no electronics background, Massimo drew on how he learned as a seven-year-old (“learning by making”) to remove the friction of interacting with technology The Founding Team: He met Tom Igoe (ITP) and David Cuartielles, and they realized students were afraid to be creative because they feared “blowing up” expensive tools like the Basic Stamp The “Pizza and a Beer” Price Point: Massimo aimed for a hardware cost of 20 Euros, roughly what a student would spend on a pizza and a beer, to encourage experimentation Building the Platform: Along with David Mellis, the team adapted Processing (a language for artists) by “surgically” replacing Java with C++ to create the Arduino IDE Ivrea Manufacturing: Leveraging the industrial base of Ivrea and Torino (the “Detroit of Italy”), Massimo was able to find local PCB manufacturers and assemblers just a short drive away From Hacking to AVR: Massimo's early work involved hacking satellite TV PIC chips for soccer fans, but mentor Bill Verplank encouraged him to use AVR microcontrollers because they could be programmed simply in C Enabling Creators: Massimo shares stories of how Arduino enabled others, such as Josef Prusa, who started with Arduino as a teenager before building his global open-source 3D printer company The Innovation of Simplicity: Massimo argues that Arduino’s true innovation is the user experience This is measured by the “Time to First Blink”, the goal for a user to go from downloading software to blinking an LED in five minutes Standardization and “The Core”: Arduino became an ad-hoc standard by providing a compatibility layer across different microcontrollers Massimo believes in having a “small slice of a really large pie” by allowing other architectures to work within the ecosystem Hardware Architecture and the “Lasagna”: Inspired by the PC104 format, the board uses a layered approach where modules stack like a lasagna The “Shield of a King”: The name Arduino comes from King Arduino of Ivrea; David Cuartielles suggested that since the board was named after a king, the add-on modules should be called “Shields” Hardware Design Choices: The board fits a credit card size (to stay within the free version of Eagle software) and is blue because that color was thought to be less tiring for workers’ eyes Happy Accidents: The unique shape was chosen to be “ourselves instead of everyone else” During the design process, Massimo inadvertently moved a connector by half a step, creating an offset header that they kept for consistency after the first few thousand were made The Discovery of Auto-Reset: During a workshop in Germany, Massimo solved the frustration of manual resets by soldering a capacitor to the DTR pin, allowing the software to trigger the reset automatically The US Market and Legal Battles: Tom Igoe's adoption of Arduino at NYU helped the US become the project’s single biggest market This growth led to a difficult legal battle for control of the brand against a former partner Support from Arm: Massimo credits Arm Ltd (and CEO Simon Segars) for providing the strategic support that allowed the founders to regain control of the company. Massimo believes this is the first time he has talked about the role of Arm in the difficult legal process. Industrial and AI Expansion: Partnerships with Intel and Microsoft (Windows 10 IoT) led to early forays into TinyML (AI on small boards) back in 2017 The Qualcomm Acquisition: In October 2025, Qualcomm acquired Arduino, which Massimo sees as essential for bringing “advanced silicon” into the family to handle the increasing complexity of technology The “Arduino Formula” and Layering: Massimo views Arduino as a formula for simplification that can be applied to anything, including complex Linux machines like the Uno Q This is achieved by building in layers, where beginners use high-level abstractions and experts can “strip away” layers to reach the bare metal The Future Vision: Massimo looks forward to the “Arduino Formula” being applied to new fields, stating he is waiting for someone to develop an “Arduino for biology” using CRISPR and DNA technology

Altium Develop unites your design, sourcing, and manufacturing teams in one cloud platform so EMC and layout problems get caught long before your board ever reaches the test house: https://www.altium.com/develop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=ontrack-podcast&utm_content=70-of-pcbs-fail-emc-testing-and-ai-is-making-it-worse EMC testing failure rates are climbing toward 70%, and on this episode of the OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with EMC expert Dr. Anton Tishchenko to unpack why — and what role AI is really playing in modern PCB design. They cut through the AI hype, explaining why large language models will confidently hand you a bad PCB layout, why setting up constraints is "garbage in, garbage out," and why hardware is heading for the same reckoning software already faced. If your boards keep failing radiated emissions, this conversation explains where the real problems start. Anton also demos his web-based EMC analysis tool (pcb4emc.com), an EMC design rule check that works directly from Gerber files — no schematics, no NDAs, no sensitive data required. You'll see how it evaluates ground plane quality, differential and single-ended impedance, return paths, and crosstalk risk using the 3W rule, plus a frank discussion of coplanar waveguides, stackup awareness, and where AI genuinely helps engineers (datasheet summaries, literature reviews, and simulation enhancement) versus where it falls flat. Essential viewing for any PCB designer serious about EMC compliance.

EMC testing is one of the toughest hurdles in PCB design, with industry pass rates often falling below 50% and every failure triggering expensive respins. In this OnTrack Podcast episode, host Zach Peterson sits down with Andy Eadie—owner of EMC FastPass and founder of Engentica—to unpack why so many products fail electromagnetic compatibility testing on the first attempt, and what designers can do to get it right up front instead of budgeting for inevitable rework. The conversation digs into the growing role of AI in hardware design: where machine learning genuinely accelerates simulation, signal integrity, and power integrity work, and why a fully generative "design my circuit board" tool is still a long way off. Andy also demos Engentica, an AI-powered design co-pilot that runs compliance-focused checks on schematics and layout, lets engineers investigate EMC risks in natural language, and scales hardware design expertise across an organization. Whether you're a hardware engineer, EMC consultant, or software founder building your first custom PCB, this episode is packed with practical insight on respins, pre-compliance testing, and the future of electronics design.

美鳳姐天天喝的【補體素優蛋白EX】✅222增肌*關鍵：20g蛋白質、2倍**BCAA及維生素D✅義大利摩洛血橙：促進新陳代謝忙碌也能輕鬆補給，趁少年要保養

What does great leadership actually look like? Can you make a difference even if you're in the middle of the hierarchy? "If you think you're too small, you've not spent the night under a bedsheet with a mosquito." In this episode, educator and Deming practitioner Balaji Reddie explains why W. Edwards Deming was far more practical about leadership than many people realize. Drawing on both The New Economics and Out of the Crisis, Balaji shares stories and examples that bring Deming's 17 principles of leadership to life. From creating trust and joy in work to understanding variation, coaching people, and improving systems, this conversation challenges conventional management thinking and offers a clear path toward transformation. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today I'm continuing my discussion with Balaji Reddie, who is an educator and trainer in the teachings of Dr. Deming and quality management generally. And the topic for today is Principles of Leadership. Balaji, take it away.   0:00:27.9 Balaji Reddie: Good morning. Thank you so much, Andrew. We had left our last session with that, we'd be dealing with this. And of course, Dr. Deming gave us the outline of Profound Knowledge and he gave us 14 points. He also gave us the deadly diseases and the 16 Obstacles. So people often talk about the diseases, but very often they forget the obstacles. And there are 16 of them which he highlighted for us. And if you think that they're outdated, they're as relevant as they ever were. So you need to keep revisiting those. I think if you start working on removing the obstacles, it's like you're taking your foot off the brake rather than pressing on the accelerator.   0:01:11.3 Balaji Reddie: So you're removing the things that actually stop you before you actually take things forward. But nevertheless, we start with point number 14 where he says, take action to complete, to make the transformation. And he says that there should be a critical mass of people that you need to educate and train and get them on the same page as you are. I'm gonna quote Hazel Cannon here, who is current president of the British Deming Forum. And she talks about the time when she was very young and she attended the Deming four-day seminar, I think in Birmingham. And at the end of those four days, she was overwhelmed as you normally are when you hear how the man speak. And he spoke... He wanted you to make drastic changes. It's not just tinkering here and there.   0:02:08.2 Balaji Reddie: And so she went up to him and she said, "I'm really taken up by what you just said." And then she made a statement, "I'm too small to make these changes in my organization." I believe she worked as a lab assistant in a chemical manufacturing company. They used to make chemicals for cosmetics. So she said, "I'm too small." And Deming just interrupted her and said, "Never think you're too small. If you think you're too small, you've not spent the night under a bedsheet with a mosquito." So make a change where you are and take it from there. So I would like to now quote Dr. Deming from Out of the Crisis. This is Plan for Action: Take action to accomplish the transformation. So he writes there, there are three points and then I'll come to what he writes below that.   0:03:01.8 Balaji Reddie: So he says, "Management in authority will struggle over every one of the above 13 points, the deadly diseases, and the obstacles. They will agree on their meaning and on the direction to take. They will agree to carry out the new philosophy. Management in authority will take pride in their adoption of the new philosophy and in their new responsibilities. They will have courage to break with tradition, even to the point of exile among their peers." So he talks about courage. He talks about courage of conviction. And then he says, "Management in authority will explain by seminars and other means." So I think he leaves it to people of the ways and means. And now today there are a lot of means of doing that. DemingNEXT is one of them. And he says, "To the critical mass of people in the company why change is necessary and that the change will involve everybody."   0:04:00.9 Balaji Reddie: Now he writes something very interesting. He says, "This whole movement may be instituted and carried out by middle management speaking with one voice." So he gave instructions. Why are people saying that he did not tell us what to do? It is just that he expected maybe a lot. And now let's get to that middle management and what he expected. He says here... Let's see here. I'm coming to chapter four now in The New Economics where he says, "A System of Profound Knowledge. The aim of this chapter: the prevailing style of management must undergo transformation." So we just heard that, that what we need to do. And he says, "A system cannot understand itself. The transformation requires a view from the outside. The aim of this chapter is to provide an outside view, a lens that I call a System of Profound Knowledge.   0:04:59.7 Balaji Reddie: It provides a map of theory by which to understand the organizations that we work in." Then he says, "The first step is transformation of the individual. This transformation is discontinuous. It comes from understanding the System of Profound Knowledge." Then he says that "the individual, once transformed, will set an example." So setting an example, I believe, is doing the right thing under adverse circumstances, when you stick to your principles despite the fact that there is an easier way out. As they say, choosing a path between good and bad is easy, you choose good. But good and better, you need to make the right choice. And that needs profound knowledge. "So be a good listener," he says, "but will not compromise. Continually teach other people and help people pull away from their current practice and beliefs and move to the new philosophy without a feeling of guilt about the past."   0:06:02.7 Balaji Reddie: So he explains to us what was needed here, right? And he says this is what we actually need to do. Now I'd like to, I mean, I'll be referring to a document. I don't know how we're gonna get this to people, but for the Principles of Leadership. All right, I think I'll have to send this over to you later, but we will do that. So in the Principles of Leadership, just come to them. I am quoting again from both Out of the Crisis and The New Economics. So you will find this there when he speaks about what needs to be done. Modern Principles of Leadership. And he says, "The modern principles of leadership will replace the annual performance review. The first step in a company will be to provide education in leadership." So that would be introducing people to profound knowledge from what we just heard. Then he said, "The annual performance review may then be abolished." Of course, that will take time. "Leadership will take its place, and this is what Western management should have been doing all along."   0:07:12.6 Balaji Reddie: So he says, "The annual performance review sneaked in and became popular because it does not require anyone to face the problems of people. It is easier to rate them, focus on the outcome. What Western industry needs is methods that will improve the outcome." And he says, "Suggestions follow." So first, institute... The first principle. "Institute education in leadership: the obligations, the principles, and methods." And so I think introduction to the System of Profound Knowledge will help. And then after profound knowledge has been sort of brought to the notice of... Of bringing to the notice of the people then you get into perhaps teaching them about 14 Points, et cetera.   0:07:57.8 Balaji Reddie: Comes the second principle. He says, "Ensure more careful selection of people in the first place." So choosing the people, he says again, now here's where it requires you to understand the purpose of what you're doing, purpose of your organization, purpose of the people you're looking out for and making this change. Because when you know your purpose, you know the aim, then you can choose people in the right way. And I believe he said this somewhere, it's a combination of education, training, skills, and experience. So we need to combine these four factors in choosing the right people. Then he says, after selection of the people, ensure better training and education. So we fine-tune all of their... He says a complete background. He said their aspirations, their goals.   0:08:54.2 Balaji Reddie: I kind of borrowed this idea from a company here in India where they had this thing called roles, responsibilities, and objectives. And they used to meet once in a month, but once in a year they used to decide. So the top management, the HR, would sit down with each and every employee and say that, "In this calendar year, this is what we intend to do and this is what we expect from you." And in turn, they used to ask the employee, "What do you expect from us? Because this is what we want from you." And then the employee had a chance of putting forth what he or she wanted, the management, what help they needed. And I think this is where we have to be... It's a give and take. And they didn't just meet once a year; every month they would meet and the question was, "How are we doing?" not "What have you done?"   0:09:51.1 Balaji Reddie: So I think it wasn't a traditional appraisal. If there was any appraisal, it was appraising what top management were doing or intended to do and not so much the employee. I thought that was a good move. So that's what we need to do here: better training and education. Principle number four states: "A manager understands and conveys to his people the meaning of a system. He explains the aims of the system. He teaches his people to understand how the work of the group supports these aims." Now, here's where, you know, when you talk about, say, hiring people in the first place, when you bring in new employees, I believe that there should be a special session by people inside the company who have stayed the longest, who served the company the longest, especially during their bad days. Because the employees need to know what really happened and how the company survived and how we were resilient, we came back despite all the problems that we had.   0:11:00.7 Balaji Reddie: And the historical perspective, especially if there's someone who's in touch with the founding members, that would be a great boon. I know nowadays we talk about the older companies, obviously none of the founders are there, but if there is such a person, exchanging those ideas with the young employees would definitely make a difference. So they would then understand the purpose, the aims, and how your work supports these aims. I think it's the best way to do that. But what I see right now in companies and I'm being very specific about this, because today when new employees join the company, they have an orientation, they have onboarding, as they call it, but that's done by a rookie, someone who's just joined the company and is just making...   0:11:46.8 Andrew Stotz: [0:11:46.8] Following a checklist?   0:11:48.1 Balaji Reddie: Exactly. Like a PowerPoint presentation. They don't talk about the history of the company. And I think there has to be an emotional connect before there is a logical or an intellectual connect. That emotional connect, I think, then makes you feel that pride and you feel good about coming to work and you say, "Oh, I did not know." So I believe this fourth principle is important in that sense, in the way to do that. Now, he says that... Principle five says he helps...   0:12:19.7 Andrew Stotz: By the way, do you know what chapter are you in?   0:12:23.9 Balaji Reddie: Oh, I have combined.   0:12:27.9 Andrew Stotz: Okay.   0:12:29.4 Balaji Reddie: I took some of the text... Okay. If you want to see here, this is management of people, all right? In that chapter. So I've taken... There are 14 principles there, management of people. In the new edition of The New Economics. It appears...   0:12:48.2 Andrew Stotz: So chapter six.   0:12:50.2 Balaji Reddie: Chapter six, yeah. That's chapter six...   0:12:51.8 Andrew Stotz: Yep.   0:12:52.6 Balaji Reddie: All right. And he talks about pictorial effect of transformation, and then he talks about management of people, role of a manager of people. So there were 14 there, but in Out of the Crisis, the first three which were there, he did not include here.   0:13:10.0 Andrew Stotz: Okay. I just just asked...   0:13:11.0 Balaji Reddie: So I just included those. Yeah. No, so that when people read the book, they could read it clearly, right? So, yeah. So he says now principle number five, which in Economics is principle number two or three, right? He says "he helps his people to see themselves as components in a system, to work in cooperation with preceding stages and following stages toward optimization of the efforts of all stages towards achievement of the aim." So we want optimization, not compromise. So you need to sit together. Just if I were to ask a simple question to you, Andrew, and without thinking, if I were to try to answer this question... Okay. I presume you know how to make a cup of tea.   0:13:58.7 Andrew Stotz: Yes.   0:14:00.1 Balaji Reddie: So what is the first step?   0:14:02.7 Andrew Stotz: For me, boil water.   0:14:04.6 Balaji Reddie: Boil water. And what if I say that's not the first step?   0:14:12.0 Andrew Stotz: Well, first of all, I think you probably have more experience with tea than I do, but I have more experience with espresso, probably. But anyways, go ahead and tell me.   0:14:20.9 Balaji Reddie: Okay. The first question is, whom am I making a cup of tea for? So what I just tried to convey is it's not natural to think about the customer. And so the first step is, for whom is the cup of tea? If it's the person...   0:14:30.8 Andrew Stotz: Grandma.   0:14:40.7 Balaji Reddie: That's right. If she's diabetic, then you would not need sugar. So you gather the ingredients accordingly. If he wants black tea, you don't take milk, right? And that's the point he's trying to say here. When you look at different stages, every every person has a customer. So the first question is, who is my customer?   0:15:07.1 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:15:07.4 Balaji Reddie: And that part of profound knowledge, understanding psychology, I mentioned this last time, is empathy. The word empathy captures this. So you go to the next process as, "Whom am I doing this work for?" and sit down with that person and say, "What do you expect from me? How may I help you?" And that's what decides what you're gonna do. So this this fifth principle here, that he helps his people see themselves as components, I think this is important. The next process is your immediate customer, and the rest of them are customers in a very oblique sense. But what you do is critical to the next person in line, right? So you always spend extra time with that person and of course the other people down the line who your work is gonna be impacting over a period of time, right? But these are the... This is the first step you find out. So who's my customer? So that's principle five.   0:16:09.0 Balaji Reddie: Principle number six: now this comes under psychology again, that a manager of people understands that people are different from each other. He tries to create for everybody interest and challenge and joy in work. Now, if you look at the theory of knowledge, what exactly did he give us when he brought that component of profound knowledge into play? He says that theory is a statement that conveys knowledge by relating cause to effect. So I repeat, theory is a statement which conveys knowledge by relating some cause to some effect. It fits without fail all the observations of the past and helps us predict the future with the risk of being wrong.   0:17:04.7 Balaji Reddie: So I'm gonna repeat this whole statement again. Theory is a statement which conveys knowledge. How? By relating some cause to some effect. It fits without fail all the observations of the past and helps us predict the future with the risk of being wrong. So no amount of examples can establish a theory, and even one example can lead to either abandonment of the theory or modification of the theory. That's what he kept saying. Now, how does this work? So he says it's a system of learning, and all of us have this built in, right? Now, he came from the school of Clarence Irving Lewis, Mind and the World-Order. And if you read that book, Lewis says all knowledge is a priori, it's based on what you already know.   0:18:00.9 Balaji Reddie: For example, let me take this example here. Now, suppose I were to start describing the road to my house. Now, you've not been here, but if I start saying that the road bends towards the left and then there is a command you get to see, now you start constructing a picture in your head based on what you have already seen. It's not the same. That's your theory, right? And then when you actually visit, you say, "Oh, it's the difference between theory and what I actually saw," and then you change your theory. So theory is... It's natural. All of us think naturally like this. And that's why he says here that people are different from one another and we need to celebrate those differences. All of us are born with the system of learning, but not all of us learn the same way.   0:18:49.8 Balaji Reddie: There are some who learn by watching, there are some who learn by doing, there's some who learn by reading, there's some who learn by writing. For some people, one word is enough. You utter a word and they say, "I got it." And for some people, you have to repeat the statement maybe 10 times, 11 times, and then the 12th time you repeat it, they say, "Okay, I got it." Now, is that wrong? We're just different, right? And that's why he says here that we need to understand the learning process of people. And when you understand the learning process of a person and then put that person in the right job, you'll have to stop that person from working. That was his definition of joy in work. People enjoy their work when they realize it resonates with them.   0:19:40.4 Balaji Reddie: And how does that resonance come in? When you under... And because this is so difficult to do, we just throw the responsibility on them by saying, "Here's the target." So the target actually distracts them when actually you should be working on understanding their learning process. So it's a lot of hard work. And sometimes people are motivated enough to discover it themselves, which is great, but we need to create that atmosphere for them to enjoy their work. So interest, challenge, et cetera, he tries to optimize. Now, here's the key. This is beautiful. He tries to optimize family background, education, skills, hopes, and abilities of everyone.   0:20:21.7 Balaji Reddie: So this is not ranking people, very clear. It is instead recognition of differences between people and an attempt to put everybody in a position for development. I think this is one of the most important principles in getting things done. When I teach this to the HR students in my college, I keep saying that I don't think you should call this science as human resource management, because the definition of a resource is obtain it, shape it, use it, and throw it away. We don't wanna do that. I think we should change the title of that department to Department of Learning, because that's what exactly this is all about, and it's learning in both ways where you are trying to understand their process of learning and in effect, you're trying to understand how the company is going to be learning.   0:21:17.0 Balaji Reddie: So you put this in... So this principle, he says, combine all of these things: family background, education, hopes, I love that word. Because if you see one of the things that people talk about, customer satisfaction, I think Deming was the only person who said customers should be happy. Not just satisfied, happier, right? Now comes the next principle. "He is an unceasing learner." So you can never say, "I know it all." Unceasing learner, he encourages his people to study. And I think this fits Dr. Deming himself. He made no excuses to learn. "May I not learn," he would keep repeating that. And I remember Bill Cooper getting irritated and said, "The last time I met you, you said this, and now you're saying this. I got that on tape." He said, "Well, you got this on tape now." He said that, "I do, I learn. And as I learn," he said, "that could have been under different circumstances that I said that, but I'm saying this."   0:22:22.4 Balaji Reddie: And so you keep learning. And he encourages his people to study. The word is study. And he provides, when possible and feasible, seminars and courses for advancement of learning, encourages continued education in college or university for people that are so inclined. So I think this bit is in many places getting to be a part of the systems in most companies. I've seen that happen now, which is a good sign. But it doesn't end there, there are a lot of other things to do. This was the Principle 7 in the list of 17. Now comes Principle 8, and this is so difficult to look at. He says "he's a coach and a counsel, not a judge." You judge people, they shut up.   0:23:15.4 Balaji Reddie: So he says coach and counsel. When they need help, guide them, show them the path. Sometimes maybe you need some help in doing that, well, go ahead. So that was principle number eight. Principle number nine says "he understands a stable system. He understands the interaction between people and the circumstances that they work in. He understands that the performance of anyone that can learn a skill will come to a stable state." Now, this is amazing. He said this way back in the 1950s when he was in Japan teaching them the control chart, where he took one example where he says that further training to the worker and the process was still in control. And he says, "I think he's reached the limit of his learning. He perhaps needs to be taken to another process or maybe given something more challenging so that we can develop the learning process."   0:24:17.6 Balaji Reddie: So he was speaking about this way back in the 1950s, which today you can say comes under understanding psychology through variation. And he says, upon which furthest the lessons will not bring improvement of performance, and a manager of people knows that in this stable state, it is distracting to tell the worker about a mistake, because he says you'll actually then demotivate someone. So these three principles...   0:24:44.1 Andrew Stotz: Because a mistake may be just normal variation, or are you saying... Okay. Yep. Okay.   0:24:51.0 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. I mean, it could be anything, right? But if you are highlighting that when he's already reached a stable state, it could just work in a detrimental way, the opposite direction.   0:25:05.4 Andrew Stotz: Ultimately you've reached your goal. A steady state is fantastic.   0:25:07.4 Balaji Reddie: A steady state. And then now you say if you want him to... Anything better here, I think you need to move him out from there, since maybe he needs to be given something either more challenging or whatever it is. But use of psychology and variation together. If people are saying that he spoke about this in the 1990s, he actually spoke about this in the 1950s in Japan. And I have proof. If you go and check Elementary Principles of the Statistical Control of Quality, the series of lectures that he gave in Japan, you will see this in one of the chapters, very clearly stating what needs to be done.   0:25:47.9 Balaji Reddie: Now we come to the next principle, which is... I don't know how to explain this, but it's amazing. He says that "the leader has three sources of power: authority of office, knowledge, and personality and persuasive power, tact." So authority, that's your title, knowledge, and personality. Now, personality, persuasive power, and tact is more of a personal thing. It is something that is an attribute. Authority is the title you're given. I think the only thing that you can really work on is your knowledge. And he says that a successful manager of people develops knowledge and personality and persuasive power, does not rely on authority of office. He nevertheless has obligation to use his authority, a source of power, for him to bring changes. He says that maybe some drastic changes to equipment, to materials, to methods, and to reduce variation.   0:26:55.0 Balaji Reddie: So he attributes this to a gentleman, Dr. Robert Klekamp, or Klekamp, I don't know how to pronounce that. So he says, "He in authority, but lacking knowledge or personality, must depend on his formal power. He unconsciously fills a void in his qualifications by making it clear to everybody that he's in position of authority, his will be done." So I think he said if things needed to be done and if he's being guided the right way, then he has to bring his authority into power. I think this brings me to one of the interactions he had with... Was it James McDonald at Ford? When he made him stand up and asked him, "What is your job?" And he said, "I'm vice president, manufacturing," and he sat down. Deming said, "Stand up. That's your title, not your job." And then for the next half an hour, he grilled him on what his job was. And after half an hour, he still didn't get an answer. He said, "You don't know what your job is. Do you think other people in the company know what their jobs are? I think you're running a mess here."   0:28:02.2 Balaji Reddie: So Jim McDonald, instead of feeling insulted, took it in a very different way. Though he said, "I did feel that I wanted to resign and just walk out of there," but he said, "I knew this man was onto something." And that kind of thing of authority of office, I think he did not like if people used it for the wrong reason, but he wanted them to develop knowledge, personality. Personality, well, I think again, on the soft side, persuasive power tact. Not all of us have that, but I think we are living in a knowledge economy, so knowledge would be the key here. And he also says that if you're in a position of authority, use this to get the right work done.   0:28:47.3 Balaji Reddie: Then next he says "he will study the results with the aim to improve his performance as a manager of people." So when the system is not getting what it's supposed to do, then he does not put the blame on the people. He says, "I have... I may be going wrong somewhere." I'd like to share an example of my father in Japan. My father was in Japan in 1964, I said this last time. And he was on this Asian Overseas Technical Scholarship, AOTS. And they run these courses even today. They have three-month, six-month, nine-month, and one-year courses. And from what I remember my father telling me, it's integrated in the sense, I think he was there for six months. So during the morning sessions, they used to have classroom training, sitting in a classroom. And in the afternoon, post-lunch, they would go and work in a company, and that was like their intern. And so it was a combination of theory and practice taking place almost every day.   0:30:02.4 Balaji Reddie: Now, what happened there was on the first day... And that's where he started working with Showa Electric, and said they were called the interns. So on the first day, he was taken to the company and was introduced to his supervisor. The supervisor took him on the shop floor and introduced him to the team that he would be working with. And then, while he was leaving, that supervisor said, "I just need to tell you this, that we also form what is called as a quality circle." And this was... The quality circle movement started in 1962, so '64, the quality circle. And so my father said, "I don't know what you're talking about." And he said, "Well, this is something new. So would you like to be a part of it?" Because quality circle is voluntary, not mandatory. They make you a part of the quality, so if you want to be a part of the quality circle. It's not imposed on you.   0:31:05.0 Balaji Reddie: So my father said, "I need to talk to my teacher, my sensei, at the class." He said, "Yeah. You can talk to him." So he went back to the class the next day in the morning, he asked the teacher, the sensei, that this is what they said. He said, "Oh, it's a very good system. You can become a member of the quality circle." So on the second day, he said, "Yes, I'll be a member of the quality circle." "Great," he said. Now, on the third day, his actual work started. Now, they used to make television screens, CRO, et cetera. And one of the steps there was soldering. They had to solder. And the soldering was the dip soldering. You had to take the printed circuit board and dip it into the solder bath and take it out. Of course you were to... There was a technique.   0:31:52.8 Balaji Reddie: And so his job was that. His first job that he was assigned is to do soldering on these PCBs. And so the supervisor himself sat with my father and demonstrated 10 to 15 times how to do it. Then he told my father, "Now you do it." And then he was guiding him, and he made him make around 10 pieces until he said, "Okay. Now you're getting it right." Okay. Now he said the ground rules. If by any chance you press it down too hard or you keep it too long because of the extreme heat, there will be a superficial crack on the PCB. And that would not be something that affects the customer right away, but over a period of time, it can result in the board cracking and the radio not working. So when you see a superficial crack, you're supposed to pull the cord. There was a cord there. And when you pull the cord, the supervisor will come and help you. Fine.   0:32:56.1 Balaji Reddie: Now my father started doing his work, and his fifth or sixth piece developed a crack. Now, he said, I don't want to sound derogatory, but the Indian in me caught up. Should I report this? What would he think? I hardly left this man alone, and his fifth piece is a rejected piece. And he said, I did not want to pull that cord. But then... He said that, he told me, "Please pull the cord," I decided, let me go ahead and pull it. So when he pulled the cord, a red lamp went on there, and there's a big siren that went on. And the supervisor came running and turned off the siren and turned off that lamp and said, "What happened?" My father showed him the crack. So he said, "Okay, no problem." He put it aside. He demonstrated to my father 10 times again how to do it. And then he made him do it 10 times till he said, "Ah, see, you did this." And he got it right. Now he said, "Let's continue production."   0:33:58.8 Balaji Reddie: Now they went away and now my father got it right. After an hour or so, or maybe two hours, they had their tea break. And they were sitting around a table. Now, this was the quality circle. So the supervisor got up and started speaking in Japanese. Now, this was my father's third day there, so obviously he did not understand what was going on. The only thing he knew that they were referring to him because they could not pronounce his name properly. So instead of Reddie, he was being called Leddie. So Leddie-san, Leddie-san, Leddie-san. So my father said, "I knew he was talking about me." And he said, "I felt so ashamed, I was looking down at my cup of tea rather than looking up." And then when I looked up, he said, all of them were looking at him in admiration and the thumbs up sign. And he was wondering what the hell just happened.   0:34:51.0 Balaji Reddie: And at the end of it, when that supervisor stopped speaking, they all clapped. They clapped. And as they dispersed, each one came and held his hand and they went away. And now my father told the supervisor, "What did you tell them? Did you tell them I made a mistake?" He says, "Yes, yes, I did tell them that." He said, "Then why are they complimenting me? Why are they... Why did they clap? Why did they clap for me? Why are they shaking my hands?" He says, "They're shaking your hand, they're clapping, and they're complimenting because you pulled the cord." So he said, "What do you mean?" He says, "Well, we have a saying here, here in Japan, if after explaining to a person 10 times how to do something, if the person still makes a mistake, then there's something wrong in the way I explained it." So this bit over here is he will study results with the aim to improve his performance as a manager. Don't blame the other guy. What am I doing wrong?   0:35:54.0 Andrew Stotz: You hired him, you train him.   0:35:56.4 Balaji Reddie: Yep. So when Jack Welch used to say, "Sack the bottom 10% of the people every year," and he called them dead wood, well, I would say when you hired them, they weren't dead. You killed them. So that was principle number 11. Now principle number 12 is where he combined both variation and psychology together. He said "he will try to discover who, if anybody, is outside the system, in need of special help." So he draws a normal curve. I'll pass on this document to you so you could share it along with the podcast. And he says here that people belong to the system. These are people who need not be ranked. But a person outside the system on the lower side needs special help. People outside the system on the higher side, well, we need to take the system to that level to improve the system.   0:37:08.4 Balaji Reddie: So he talks about that. He says this can be accomplished with some simple calculations. If there be an individual with figures on production or on failures, special help may be only simple rearrangement of work. It might be more complicated. He in need of special help is not in the bottom 5%. He's clean outside that distribution. So he's trying to use the understanding of variation in a very different sense to understanding people. And he says that we try to reduce that variation in performance between people. That's the job of the system. So this is principle 11 and 12.   0:37:51.0 Balaji Reddie: Now you come to principle 13: "he creates trust." And that creates trust, I would believe, it's a two-way process. And he creates an environment that encourages freedom and innovation. That is the environment where people are unafraid to make mistakes. Because we learned that theory is not the opposite of practice; it's a guide to better practice. And we need all of us working together. And that trust, I think, has got a very funny meaning in my country. I keep joking about this. In India, trust is we will lie a little less to each other. But that's not what this is. We need to be straight honest with each other. And honest is you can only do that by example. Like what happened in my case. I remember when we had installed the ERP system in our company, and there are interlocks. And I remember there was a backlogged order. And I knew that because when we did not deliver the order on time, I negotiated with the customer and I got the delivery date postponed.   0:39:08.0 Balaji Reddie: Now I was trying to test the ERP that month. So I said, let me see if the ERP can capture this because it should show it as a backlogged order. But it showed it as an order that was to be delivered on the new adjusted date. And I said, "How did that happen?" Because that should not have changed. And so I called my assistant. I said, "This should be in backlog. Why is it showing me as a spillover order?" And he said, "No, I changed the date." I said, "Why did you do that?" And he said, "No, because the finance guy will get angry with me." And I said, "That is my problem." I said, "When I told you you're not supposed to change that date..." And I removed his administrative powers in changing the date so that he could not change the date in the system.   0:40:01.7 Balaji Reddie: I removed his powers. And he apologized profusely and said, "Please let me." I said, "No." So till the day I resigned, I kept it. I said, "You're not gonna be doing this because it's not a question..." I said... If I had succumbed to that Andrew, they would have lost my trust. They would have thought that, "Oh, Balaji just talks. He doesn't walk the talk." I said, "No, you're not supposed to do this. We are trying to go by a system. Let's go by the system." So I think you can only create trust through example, through demonstration, if I may say so, and especially under adverse circumstances that you need to demonstrate this.   0:40:46.1 Balaji Reddie: Principle number 14: he says "he does not expect perfection." I think that even he said it in principle of variation. Principle 15: he says "he listens and learns without passing judgment on him that he listens to." This is an extension of the previous points. Principle number 16: he will hold an informal, unhurried conversation with every one of his people at least once a year, not for judgment, merely to listen. The purpose would be development of understanding of his people, their aims, their hopes, and their fears. This meeting will be spontaneous and not planned ahead. So there should be no bias, like an audit.   0:41:41.5 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:41:42.2 Balaji Reddie: And lastly, principle number 17: "he understands the benefits of cooperation and the losses from competition between people and between groups." So these were the 17 principles of leadership, the beginning of transformation. I think there can be nothing more to do than this. He was so clear in what he wanted us to do. I wonder why people say that there was no method.   0:42:16.5 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. He definitely outlined a lot of stuff there. One of the questions I had for you on that list is, what do you say to people that say that he's kind of a dreamer? The idea that you can sit down with your employees and have this time and everybody's so busy and just talk about your fears and your goals and all that stuff where we live in this age of, we've gotta get the result, we've gotta be focused. How do you respond to that?   0:42:51.1 Balaji Reddie: Well, I say give this a try. All right? You've done it your way, right? You've done it... Let's just forget about it, and you're seeing what's happening. You want a change, you gotta do something different. So why don't you go by what this man is saying? And if you say that, you know, a dreamer or whatever, well, I'd like to quote John Lennon here: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."   0:43:16.8 Andrew Stotz: Yep. Yep. Yep. And what do you say for people that feel that you gotta have these targets and goals and KPIs to get the most out of people? And when we think about what Deming's talking about, we're talking about this intrinsic motivation. But it's scary for people to think. It's a lot more comfortable to have these goals and structures than what you could argue is a little bit more unstructured. And how do we balance that? And obviously Deming wasn't saying don't have goals.   0:44:02.1 Balaji Reddie: Yeah, yeah. I think Henry addresses this very well in his 12-day course where he has a specific section on goals, et cetera. And he talks about how Deming said that there are some things called facts of life. Facts of life is, okay, we need to turn out, we need to generate so much of revenue this year because we need to pay for all our salaries and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then we need to have some money for the future. So we need to make so much of money this year. Now that's not a goal, that's a fact of life. But when you are bringing that number out and showing that to everyone, please also indicate to them how we intend to achieve that. Don't just leave it to them and say we need to do this.   0:44:54.4 Balaji Reddie: Okay. I'll give an example here. I don't want to sound... It may sound a little self-serving, but okay, take it in the right spirit. I remember when we had our first strategic meeting at my company, and my boss... Okay, was... He said... I think 20 of us sitting in the room and he said, "Last year, our target was 30 million and we're getting there and we're doing a great job. So this year we're gonna aim for 45 million." Now when he said that, I just put my hand up and he said, "Yes." So I said, "Why 45 million?" And he just stared me down and he looked up at everyone and said, "That's it. Meeting dismissed." He just walked out. These are those days when you had... You know the OHP? You know the overhead transparencies, the projector?   0:45:56.9 Andrew Stotz: Oh, yeah. Overhead transparencies, yep.   0:45:58.8 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. So he had the transparencies, and he just took them and walked out. And all the guys came to me, "Are you mad? You're questioning the owner of the company? Are you nuts?" And I was thinking, "God, what did I say wrong?" And then we started going back to our cabins, and when I sat down at my desk, the phone rang, and it was boss. And he just uttered one word, "Come." So when I was walking towards his cabin, I was thinking to myself, "Nice company, nice friends." And then I knocked on the door, and he said, "Yeah, yeah. Come in." He said, "Sit down." And then he said, "Shut the door." He said, "What the hell were you trying to do today? Are you trying to mock me?" I said, "Please, why would I want to mock you, boss? I wouldn't want to mock you. I just wanted to know why 45 million."   0:46:52.9 Balaji Reddie: He says, "All right." And so he took out what is called the blue book, where we have the yearbook, what happened in our country in the last one year. We have these books that get written, right? So he said, "Look, this is growth in our country in industry. This is our... Sector that we are in, and we are in the organized sector in this industry. And the year-on-year growth for the last five years has been this, and this year the expected growth is so much. And can I expect at least 3 or 4% of that growth?" I said, "Of course, why not?" He said, "That, son, is 45 million." So I said, "Why didn't you tell me this? That's all I wanted to know." He said, "You think these asses..." He was referring to my other colleagues... "Would understand?" I said, "Boss, if I can understand, they can understand. It's one and the same." "Okay. Let's meet tomorrow."   0:47:52.1 Balaji Reddie: So the next day we met again. And he said, "Yesterday, when I uttered 45 million, this genius asked me why, and so I'm gonna tell you why." And he went on to explain. After he finished explaining, my sales guy... Sorry, my marketing guy got up and he said, "I have something to share." "Okay, please come forward." He put the transparency. And he had listed there the top 10 selling items in my company based on revenue, based on profits, and based on quantities. Top 10 for each. There were three products that were common to all the three. So obviously he was sending a message to us, that we had to attain our targets, at least by focusing.   0:48:44.8 Balaji Reddie: The moment he showed that, he underlined these three, the sales guy put his hand up and said, "Yes." "That second product you underlined, our competitor is selling it as a package with another product, but we don't seem to have that on our list." So the R&D guy got up and said, "Could you tell me what the part number..." And he says, "It's part number so-and-so." He said, "Hang on, I've already developed that." You know what was happening, Andrew? We were talking to each other. And that meeting went on for three and a half hours. And at the end of the three and a half hours, all of us knew how to attain 45 million.   0:49:23.8 Andrew Stotz: I thought you were gonna ask a question on the second day, "Hey, boss, so 45 million, why is there no market share gain of our business that we're growing faster than the industry?"   [laughter]   0:49:41.4 Balaji Reddie: So anyway, but this was... This is what I think goals should be transparent in this sense, that why are we giving you this number? And more importantly is the discussion that happens is how are we gonna do this? It just doesn't happen by itself, right? And if you leave it to people, they start distorting numbers, right?   0:50:03.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:50:04.2 Balaji Reddie: As Brian Joiner said, "Distort the data, distort the system, or distort both."   0:50:12.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And we're working on a growth plan for my coffee business.   0:50:19.0 Balaji Reddie: A growth.   0:50:19.6 Andrew Stotz: And really what it comes down to is three things. Number one, are we as the owners gonna hire more salespeople? Because salespeople bring in revenue.   0:50:36.3 Balaji Reddie: Right.   0:50:37.0 Andrew Stotz: Number two, are we as the owners going to develop together with the rest of the team a higher value-added offering...   0:50:50.6 Balaji Reddie: Wow.   0:50:50.8 Andrew Stotz: That we can bring more value than what we're bringing right now, which would bring potential customers to us and allow us to sell more easily. Or are we as the owners going to buy another company?   0:51:07.8 Balaji Reddie: Oh, okay.   0:51:09.2 Andrew Stotz: So those are the three things. And Dale and I have been discussing each one of those in a lot of detail, testing out and debating and discussing. But those are the type that... When it comes to growth, that's just... We know the growth we can produce with no change. And that's in line with the inflation rate or whatever the economic growth, for sure. But as long as we don't lose people on our team or something like that. But to go to our team and say, "How are we gonna grow faster?" Well, that whole point is we can see. Also the other thing is that we can see bigger about the industry sometimes. Sometimes they see something at a small level that they bring back to us and think, "Whoa, wait a minute, that's something valuable." And yeah, so we're getting ready for our final decisions on where we're gonna go with that. But yeah, without that type of change, we're not gonna reach the type of growth that we want to get. And really our idea is 5x growth in five years.   0:52:19.9 Balaji Reddie: Okay.   0:52:20.5 Andrew Stotz: And in order to do that, we have to have a completely different level of quality, service, product, thinking. And so, yeah, it's fun... It's challenging. Anyways...   0:52:32.9 Balaji Reddie: Right.   0:52:33.2 Andrew Stotz: So how do we wrap this up? What is it you want people to take away? You've shared a lot of different stuff. What would you like them to take away from it?   0:52:42.0 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. One, I'm trying to shatter that myth that Deming did not tell us what was to be done. I think he was very clear and we need to reread and reread. And we have to take these as guidelines. You may come up with your own method, but see these as a guideline by and large to put you on the right path. And once you do that, you may develop something which works for you, and that's what he wanted. But let us not just say that he only philosophized about things. I think he was very clear in his head. He just wanted us to do things our own way because nobody understood our problems better than we ourselves. And he was just showing us how to understand things around.   0:53:32.6 Balaji Reddie: He wanted us to know, to understand what we do not know. Through these principles, we can address some of the gaps. Perhaps we were getting a few things wrong. So point number 14, take action to accomplish the transformation. I think it begins with leadership. So point number seven comes into the picture. It begins with training and education. Point number six comes into the picture and it also brings in point number 13, which is learning and development. And education and training is different from learning and development. Training can be very company specific and you can measure the outcomes of training, but you cannot measure the outcomes of development because that takes time.   0:54:19.8 Balaji Reddie: So you need to have some things going in your favor. And for that you need to choose, and he told us how to do that. And yes, he wanted top management to be a part of this because he said those in authority need to do this. But that one sentence that middle management can commence, it can commence there, is a telling statement. So he knew it was possible.   0:54:45.0 Andrew Stotz: That's great. And I like that. Commence. That there's... It's not necessarily gonna be completed by middle management, but middle management can start right now, right where you are. So that's a great way, that's a great way to end with the start. So, Balaji, I want to thank you on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute. And it's an interesting discussion and I'm enjoying it very much. And for listeners out there, remember to go to deming.org and also there, jump on DemingNEXT to continue your journey. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and that is: "People are entitled to joy in work."   0:55:32.1 Balaji Reddie: Oh, yeah. Andrew, I think saying thank you on behalf of the institute, I am also a part of the institute.   0:55:38.5 Andrew Stotz: Of course. Of course. You are. I appreciate it. Okay.

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. Background This episode describes the contents of an old fishing tackle box I got as a birthday present very many years ago. I used it over the years to gather a pile of mostly useless electronic components and junk. I came across it recently when we were doing a clear out. Mrs X wanted to throw it out. I had a lot of sentimental value due to the long time I've had it. I am a bit of a hoarder and it took a bit of persuasion on my part to be able to keep it especially since I could not think of a single use for any of the contents! I've not had time to add links against all the items. Hopefully I've managed to add links to most of the more unusual items. Apologies if I've missed any. Contents of Box Top row left to right, back to front Compartment 1 Stereo Jack plug & socket Double pole double throw (2-way) switch 12V dc relay from RS 3 legged semiconductor (voltage regulator?) Compartment 2 Multiple fuses mostly for cars Compartment 3 Small silica jelly pouch Micro Switch Reed switches (Not reed relays as I call them in my show) Compartment 4 Potentiometers, Rheostat, variable resistors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentiometer Control knobs Compartment 5 Large selection of miniature panel mounted toggle switches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch#Toggle_switch Compartment 6 Two crocodile clips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_clip Half of a Hi Fi speaker plug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Speaker_din_male_and_female.jpg Washer Compartment 7 Mostly chocolate block connectors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leuchterklemme_75dpi.jpg Small selection of glass cartridge Fuses Single 13 Amp mains fuse for UK plug Assortment of soldering iron tips Crocodile clip Air adapter for foot pump for blowing up an air bed or similar Spare nozzle for a de-soldering tool. Made from PTFE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desoldering#/media/File:Vacuum_plunge.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene Ferrite ring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead Compartment 8 Rubber Grommets and a heatsink Middle row left to right, back to front Compartment 1 Large selection of glass cartridge fuses Compartment 2 Another large selection of glass cartridge fuses Small selection of diodes, some quite Large https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode Compartment 3 Two multi turn precision variable resistors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentiometer#/media/File:Beckman_Helipot_potentiometer_SA1400A_2007.075.002.jpg Cheap variable resistor with in built switch Compartment 4 Bag of multi coloured LED's (Cheap for Pi add on board) 2 inch 8 ohm speaker Compartment 5 Panel mounted heavy duty toggle switch, two pole one way Compartment 6 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoresistor Large Tricolour LED Compartment 7 Variable capacitors PCB (Printed Circuit board) mounted Spare nozzle for de-soldering tool. Made from PTFE Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) Panel mounted heavy duty rotary switch, two pole one way Bag of various fuses Halogen 12V car headlight bulb Variable resistor with long plastic spindle, panel mount Heatsink possibly for heavy duty transistor Compartment 8 Variable resistor PCB (Printed circuit board) mounted Bottom row This is just a big jumble of stuff, listed in no particular order DC red and black power lead with inbuilt fuse Small solder-less breadboard for prototyping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard Bag of various plugs & connectors mostly Jack plugs and sockets Bag of quartz crystals and a components receipt from 1985 I added crystals to an old PMR (Private mobile radio) boot mount radio. Possible a Pye Westminster Radio. I looked but couldn't find picture of the radio Several bits of Perfboard or strip board https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfboard 1 Watt audio amplifier kit with instructions not built! D-type serial port mounted to PCB with screw down connections Bag of resistors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor Large bag of LED panel mount holders Electronic Instruction guide XH79L (Maplin) price 25p Chocolate block connecting block https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leuchterklemme_75dpi.jpg Telephone pickup for recording phone calls. (Never worked) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Telephone-Pickup-Sensitive-Microphone/dp/B000L1OZG8 Multi coloured ribbon cable Plastic trimming tool screwdriver set. https://www.amazon.co.uk/C-K-T4857-Precision-Plastic-Trimmer/dp/B000WKIYTW Panel mounted BNC socket (Baby Neill Constant) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNC_connector Provide feedback on this episode.

In this short podcast, Roman Baugh takes over with his new series, "The Deep End," where he shares tech support conversations. This time, Roman is on the other end of a live tech support call about a grounded compressor with an existing Mitsubishi mini-split (Mr. Slim heat pump). The unit in this case had an unclear service history due to the homeowner moving in recently. In this issue, the compressor kicked on and kicked off immediately. After the technician in this scenario told tech support that he had no continuity from the compressor to ground, tech support asked him to check the resistance (which was 43 ohms from black to ground and 43 from white to ground). Tech support concluded that the compressor was grounded, and it needed to be replaced (along with the PCB). However, the resistance disappeared mid-call, and intermittent resistance readings don't always indicate a failed winding; it's worth noting that cool ambient temperatures that enable liquid refrigerant to migrate into the compressor could potentially skew electrical readings. Roman recommended shutting the system down and trying to get the system to run. His rationale was that if the unit ran and didn't keep stopping, the system may have been overcharged or lacking a crankcase heater. However, that did not show any improvement in operation; the compressor rattled for about a second and shut off. A resistance test confirmed that the compressor was grounded, pointing to a mechanical issue with the compressor and not just a one-off instance of refrigerant migration. This type of failure can happen when there are repeated instances of liquid refrigerant in the crankcase over time.   Have a question that you want us to answer on the podcast? Submit your questions at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool. Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium. Subscribe to our podcast on your iPhone or Android. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Check out our handy calculators here or on the HVAC School Mobile App for Apple and Android.

This week on The Tone Mob Podcast, Blake hangs with Shea Sterner of thisheavyearth, a Portland-based builder making heavy pedals, brutal solid-state amps, and gear that looks like it crawled directly out of a fantasy-metal record sleeve. Shea shares his path from punk and metal scenes in Pennsylvania, to recording experiments in Texas, to learning repairs and circuit design in Salt Lake City, and eventually launching This Heavy Earth in Portland. The conversation gets into acid-etched pedals, self-taught PCB design, the FleshRot amp and preamp world, Ampeg VH140C inspiration, HM-2 chainsaw tones, baritone guitars, and why solid state deserves a much louder seat at the table. They also dig into building a gear company with your spouse, NAMM stories, fantasy artwork, plugins, small-business chaos, and the joy of making sounds that can swing from beautiful to absolutely disgusting with a single stomp. Check out the brand's offerings HERE https://www.thisheavyearth.com/ Support The Show And Connect! The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577 You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tonemob.com/reverb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tonemob.com/sweetwater⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tonemob.com/stringjoy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Chris and Melissa dig into one of Chris's favorite PCB design topics: pocket masking vs. gang masking on fine-pitch components.Chris explains why solder mask slivers matter, how PCB design tools can accidentally create manufacturability problems, and what designers can do to help prevent solder bridging during assembly. The discussion covers solder mask expansion, registration tolerances, stencil printing, pick-and-place placement pressure, and why “gloves, not mittens” is the mental model to remember.The episode also opens with a few updates, including Chris becoming a Certified Electronics Program Manager and CircuitHub announcing a $28 million raise from Plural Ventures.TL;DR: For fine-pitch components, especially 0.5 mm pitch and smaller, pay close attention to your solder mask expansion.Chris's rule of thumb:Start checking at 0.5 mm pitch or smallerAim for 10 mil spacing between copper pads, edge-to-edgeReserve 3 mil for solder mask registration on each sidePreserve a 4 mil solder mask sliver between padsIn metric, that means roughly:0.25 mm copper-to-copper spacing0.075 mm registration allowance on each side0.1 mm solder mask sliverIf space is tight, Chris recommends trimming the copper lands slightly rather than sacrificing the solder mask sliver. The sliver is what helps prevent solder from bridging between pads during printing, placement, and reflow.The short version: protect the solder mask sliver. Gloves, not mittens.pickplacepodcast.com

Signal integrity engineers working on high-speed serial links, Ethernet, USB, PCI Express, and DDR memory interfaces need powerful simulation tools, but commercial software licenses can be cost-prohibitive. In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with David Banas, Solutions Engineer at Keysight, to explore three open-source Python packages that are transforming how engineers approach serial link simulation, IBIS-AMI model testing, and channel operating margin analysis. David walks through PyBERT, his most popular tool, demonstrating live how it handles eye diagrams, bathtub curves, jitter analysis, and equalization techniques like CTLE, DFE, and TX de-emphasis.   The pair explore PyIBIS, a Python tool for IBIS-AMI model developers, demonstrating its capabilities in analyzing signal transmission parameters. They look at how it helps debug models and apply equalization techniques to address signal distortion. Understanding this tool is crucial for effective data transmission analysis and ensuring signal integrity, especially when working with complex designs in Altium Designer or Cadence Design Systems.  

In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast, Zach Peterson sits down with Gabriel Guglielmi, VP of Global Product Management at Infinite Electronics, to explore one of the most disruptive shifts in electronics today: the rise of unmanned systems. From group one commercial drones to group five collaborative combat aircraft, Gabriel breaks down how the same revolution that transformed the space industry through SpaceX is now reshaping aerospace, defense, public safety, and consumer delivery. Learn why interconnect technology has become just as critical as semiconductor performance, and how a new generation of startups is compressing decades-long development cycles down to mere months.   The conversation digs deep into the supply chain challenges facing US and allied drone manufacturers, the FCC's part 108 regulations, the Department of War's Drone Dominance program, and why companies like Neros and Infinite Electronics see massive opportunity in rebuilding a friendly-nation supply chain. Gabriel also shares his thoughts on humanoid robotics, counter-drone systems, drone racing, agricultural applications, and the emerging low-altitude economy that could rival the internet revolution of the 1990s. Whether you design RF systems, work in aerospace and defense, or just want to understand where electronics is headed, this episode delivers a clear-eyed view of an industry being born in real time.