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The morning portion kicked off with “The Apple Way, the Motorola Way and the Next Way,” which was described as, “There are lots of ‘ways’ to do electronics NPI and manufacturing. Motorola gave us EVT, DVT, and PVT and Apple gave us execution at scale. What are the core lessons of these methodologies and how are modern organizations honoring or breaking them?” An interesting panel discussion ensued with Zach Scott, head of hardware at Backbone, Matt Hill, senior of device engineering at Snap Inc., and Felix Alvarez, manager of Second Order Effects. Their words were simple but wise: Learn from history but don’t be limited by it; the key to success is continuous, deep learning throughout your career; and (my personal favorite) don’t play by the rules that others have set out for you. Don’t be afraid to take a chance.
In another presentation, Sapana Talwaker, VP of hardware operations at Toast, spoke about scaling manufacturing, and was asked how she defines operational excellence. She responded that operational excellence occurs when operations are closely aligned with the organization’s objectives, when continuous improvement is built into the system, and when it can react and adapt as needed. She cited adaptability as perhaps the single most important characteristic for operational excellence in “the next way.” Toast is a POS platform, which is largely a software product. Talwaker underscored the importance of hardware in a software-focused world, “Hardware is an enabler product for Toast,” she said. Being out of stock is not an option, as it means missing out on much greater revenue opportunities. The two are inextricably linked. One simply does not work without the other—hinting at our industry’s own, “silicon to systems” approach to discussing chips and packaging.
Valentina Ratner, co-founder of AllSpice.io, a collaborative platform for engineers developing new products, gave a presentation on a survey titled “The State of Hardware 2025: 1,000 Engineers on Trends, Challenges, and Toolsets,” which provided data about the things we were pretty sure we already knew.
The greatest challenge for engineers over the past year has been shrinking product development cycles and deadlines. They have spent too many hours a week troubleshooting problems, although it’s probably the most helpful skill making someone a more efficient and effective engineer. In both the latter scenarios, it was pointed out how specific software tools can add tremendous value. Interestingly, they cited the feeling that only 25% of software, hardware, PCB, and firmware companies collaborate effectively. I also found it interesting, especially in view of ever-shrinking product development cycle times, was that 48% of the 1,000 engineers surveyed said they did between three to five iterations per product prior to release. From the conference, it was clear that hardware manufacturing is changing and the integration of high-level software tools that incorporate sophisticated AI functionality will be a very significant part of “the next way” for manufacturing. This is not groundbreaking knowledge for sure, but it is always interesting to see how the varied electronics industry is taking the same language and headed in the same overall direction.
