Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Nolan’s Notes: The Manufacturer’s Mindset

It’s the ongoing balance of the four forces of flight—thrust, drag, weight, and lift—that will keep any flying object aloft. To gain altitude, the pilot adds lift, which usually requires more thrust. To descend safely, there must be less thrust, allowing weight to exert more force on the trajectory. Applying this concept to the business world: thrust is revenue, lift is manufacturing capacity, weight represents various business obstacles, and drag stands in for the operating costs and other financial burdens on your business. Just as the bird or pilot must balance their four forces, you must balance yours to climb and stay upward.

Consider the external forces that contribute to the balance of the forces. Just as a plane may fly faster thanks to a tailwind, the economy, government, or investors can influence the thrust/drag balance in either direction. Investment can also increase the lift or capacity. The warning, of course, is that too much of one force can upset the balance enough to cause something unmanageable, like a stall. The key is to fine tune these forces to follow the flight path you’ve chosen. We can all think of examples of companies that tried to climb (expand) faster than their thrust and lift (revenue and investment) could sustain, causing the drag of their operating costs to pull them into a crash.

In the March 2023 issue of SMT007 Magazine, we address those forces working for and against our businesses. As we’ve made our way through some turbulent times, and on the heels of a quite successful trade show, this is the perfect time to find out what’s on your mind. If you were in San Diego, you likely felt the buzz; you know what I’m talking about. This is the ideal time to suggest reading our annual edition of Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2023 Show & Tell Magazine. It’s a comprehensive look and feel to what happened at the show. While there, we most certainly picked up on the EMS mindset, and you’ll see us discussing it here and in future issues.

For example, there was ample upbeat talk. Shawn DuBravac, IPC chief economist, repeatedly used the term “tailwind” in his keynote to describe external economic forces. There was also discussion of challenges and ongoing shortages with components and skilled staff. Overall, the opinion was that a lack of capacity is throttling industry growth, and that staffing is a prime contributor, followed by supply chain issues and investment. These are the challenges of an industry in ascent. They stand in stark contrast to the challenges of a shrinking industry, where companies are scratching tooth-and-nail to keep or steal orders, scrambling for as much “lift” as they can possibly find.

But did the conference attitude match the rest of the industry? Our March issue seeks to deliver a wide-angle view of the industry, a perspective from a somewhat higher altitude: Where are the common areas of thought? Is there a “hive mind” of thought to uncover?

This issue features an article by Mark Wolfe, a long time EMS industry insider now consulting with IPC. Mark’s job is to be the voice of the EMS industry, so he’s in constant contact with industry leaders. He provides an assessment of the industry and the top five challenges for EMS leadership. He was instrumental in making the IPC APEX EXPO EMS Leadership Summit a successful event in San Diego, something we’ll take a deeper dive into for our April issue.

We also conducted a series of interviews with EMS providers, looking for a sense of how business is progressing and what they think about it. We conducted these interviews during their daily routines, away from the show and the group discussions. This allowed for frank and insightful commentary.

To round out the issue, we have an interview with Schweitzer Electronics, as well as another with Sheldon Fernandez from Darwin AI. I’ve included a written perspective from Mark Laing at Siemens, and another by Norihiro Koike from Saki. Our columnists, Michael Ford and Ron Lasky, also share their current thoughts with an opportunity to get a free Dartmouth sweatshirt if you can solve Dr. Lasky’s three questions.

One of the unexpected outcomes of our conversations has been how AI has crept into everyday thinking. Quality control and final inspection seem like natural points to insert AI in the production process. In fact, one can argue that automated testing and inspection have been striving to deliver artificial intelligence all along; it’s just becoming more sophisticated thanks to the mainstream work done by entities such as ChatGPT. As I read and digest the information about this specific AI, I realize that it can be a most helpful assistant, automating the drudgery tasks and even helping us with research. But we are well advised to use generative AI output only as a starting point, not as the finished product. The facts in AI-generated information still need to be fact-checked, point-by-point.

I share this example because it touches on how AI is on the minds of more than just EMS managers. Will AI give us lift or will it be a weight? My interview with Sheldon at Darwin AI really helped clarify the issue.

Remember, you are at the controls, and I know this issue will help raise your perspective. So, what’s on your mind? It’s time to let me know.

This column originally appears in the March 2023 issue of SMT007 Magazine.