Viewpoints

You’ve read the book. You know the book I’m talking about. It’s the one that tells you what wonderful things Toyota and Dell Computer have done with their supply chains and how you and your company can do the same if you employ the same procedures and techniques. While everyone knows running a streamlined supply chain, regardless of company size, ...

In electric vehicles, manufacturers are addressing charging and storage issues, while mass transportation systems such as trains require the full range of technologies – from power transmission and control solutions through to wireless access. Although the defence market is basically flat, that can change very quickly. There is an increase in the sophistication of encryption and security systems used by ...

Following robust sales in 2014, I expect to see a further increase in sales in 2015. We have seen the market for manufacturing professional electronic equipment, as opposed to consumer equipment, continuing to grow in UK and the rest of Europe. However, there have been recent reports of manufacturing output slowing in the UK, although the unemployment rate continues to ...

As well as all the other reasons to keep manufacturing local, certain parts of Europe are now comparable with China and Malaysia when it comes to pricing, which is probably why we are seeing a resurgence of manufacturing in Europe and an increase in ‘reshoring’ – business returning to the continent, primarily from South East Asia. No one is seriously ...

It is always difficult to predict what is likely to happen in the electronics market because we are, as ever, at the mercy of the general economy and there is little we can do to influence that. Uncertainty over the euro caused by problems in countries such as Greece and elsewhere may lead to slow-downs. If we look wider, the ...

Among all the internet of things (IoT) designs that we’ve been working on, some clear patterns are starting to emerge. Customers start by looking at point-point M2M (machine-to-machine)connections and move to full IoT implementations. The driver for adopting M2M is the opportunity to eliminate the user interface, and many customers are replacing it with a smartphone app. This not only ...

Currently the IoT playing field is a massive free-for-all mix-up, with hints of star players but no real team spirit. The goal of winning the IoT match looks to be years away due to a lack of agreed-upon rules and a secure playing field. Penalty flags are flying because devices are divisive and exclusivity is the call of the day. ...

For as long as many of us can remember, the PCB has been at the centre of the product design process. This PCB-centric design approach is characterised by PCB, mechanical and supply chain teams working in silos until the all the pieces come together at the prototype stage. If something doesn’t fit or a cost target is missed, recovery is ...

The rising demands will increase the need for automated quality checks. Actually, I believe that code analysis included in the day-to-day development work will soon cease to be an option and instead become a given. It’s already mandatory in many areas of the embedded industry to prove compliance with coding standards such as MISRA-C and international functional safety standards such ...

  There will be a number of technologies that seem destined to have huge influence on the test and measurement sector during the course of 2015. Some have already started to see significant uptake, while others are only just beginning to emerge. There is no doubt that, given its early successes, the roll-out of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) across Europe will continue ...