A striking lesson in leverage against a larger opponent.

The worst part is the silence. Experience says silence means they have nothing but bad news to report, and they’re afraid to report it. The technique is notably effective when conveyed (or not because it’s silent) across 10 or more time zones, thereby avoiding real time confrontation. Silence seldom means anything good.

So they say nothing. Employing the time-tested method of patient endurance, they expect by saying nothing that attention will be diverted inevitably, enabling the problem to magically go away. Just like politicians’ common practice, taking a dim view of voters’ average intelligence and grasp of the facts. People have short attention spans. They know that. They count on it.

The problem never goes away. Receivables still age until they’re settled. You have to push. They need to know that you know. Otherwise, they wait it out, and the silence, their friend, prevails. Notch one more for them. And you’re still not paid.

Stereotypes abound, but don’t let first impressions fool you.

You never know quite what you may run into when you go looking to hire new staff. Such was certainly the case for me at a local job fair hosted by a state-sponsored regional workforce development organization.

I received the invitation from the local Chamber of Commerce to have a table at this event. The cost was free and the hours were 9 a.m. through 1:30 p.m. Based on the description, I thought the chance was reasonable to find a couple hires to fill openings in our drilling and plating departments. While it has been years since I participated in a job fair, I was familiar with the format and the similarity to the proverbial "speed dating": quick conversation and move on!

Consistent with my expectations, on the specified day I show up bright and early at a community college, find the massive meeting room, locate my table among the 50 or so others in the room, and set it up with information about the company as well as the industry. All the tables were spoken for, and looking at the plethora of companies in attendance, I noted most were service providers. A good number, however, were manufacturing companies that produced everything from pianos to metal castings, with two of us, an EMS company and my circuit board fabrication company, representing "high technology."

Buyers beware: An ounce of copper is not 1 mil.

Long before I became part of the PCB industry some 30 years ago, a large study determined that for the typical two-layer printed circuit board, the amount of copper required for a reliable connection in a plated through-hole (PTH) was 0.0007 inches, or 0.7 mils.

Anything less than that could compromise PTH reliability, the study found, and anything more would not make much difference.

Simply put, the 0.001″, or 1 mil, as stated on most PCB fabrication drawings is a safety factor. Some corporate fab specs will even state a plating average of 1 mil, with 0.8 mils as the minimum, higher than the originally determined 0.7 mils.

However, even today, some PCB buyers confuse ounces with mils when it comes to the copper plating of a printed circuit board. It is important to know the difference.

Tips for adjusting to changing customer forecasts.

The EMS industry is running true to a cycle no one likes: big drops in demand following a period of inventory buildup. The drivers for inventory buildup were material constraints and unpredictable spikes in demand following the Covid lockdown period. OEMs increased both raw materials and finished goods in their desire to stay ahead of parts shortages and customer spending sprees. Unfortunately, our heated economy is finally slowing. While consumer spending has remained strong, they are tightening their belts on big purchases and purchasing fewer discretionary items.

As a result, electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers are seeing a different set of issues than they have been dealing with the past two years. Material inventories are still high and forecasts are dropping as customers slow down new orders to burn off existing finished goods inventories. How do you counter these challenging trends? There should be three areas of focus: