Manufacturing Lead Times

In this world of prolonged recessions many manufacturing companies have tried to offset some of their financial difficulties by decreasing the inventory they carry. While this have help their bottom line by increasing the number of inventory turns, it has far reaching effects on the flexibility that the manufacturing department has and therefore the lead times in which a company may be able to produce a given product.

The companies that limit their inventory are usually very financially savvy, at least in the short term. They are, however, limiting their ability to meet their customers' delivery requirements, especially as an economy exits the recession. Larger public companies tend to be victims of this short term focus where quarterly results rule the day. Their customers become secondary victims as a result.

Smaller private companies often have the flexibility not to get captured in this trap, as they don't answer to Wall Street. Res-net Microwave, Inc. is a great example of this. While many of their larger competitors' lead times have slipped to 10 to 12 weeks and beyond, their lead times for standard products remains just 4 weeks. Perhaps this is not the wisest thing from a financial standpoint, but if your goal is to delight your customers, it is the only this to do.

Airlines' New Tagline: What's the Hurry

I am writing this from Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas. I am on my way back to Florida from the west coast. I have time to write this because my flight is delayed, as was the one that left LAX this morning. In fact, on the way out west at the beginning of the week, my flight was delayed two hours in Tampa. So, they had to rebook my connection in Houston before my trip even began. I just received a text from my wife, and her flight was late getting into Charlotte.

I suppose we have come to expect these daily inconveniences in our travel. From security screening to gate changes, we have been taught to go with the flow. Had I scheduled a meeting for when my flight was supposed to arrive in Tucson, I would have missed it. This is the very reason I didn’t schedule anything that day. We are preconditioned to accept the fact that our flight has a good probability of being late.

In the last 3 months I have been delayed because of the lack of a crew, lack of a plane, no air-conditioning, and a broken toilet. You will notice that none of these are weather related.

So, I have been conditioned not to depend upon the airlines to get me to a prescribed destination at a prescribed time and they seem alright with that. As long as their customers lower their expectations and don’t commit to a hard schedule, nobody will get hurt.

Surface Mount Components

Electronic surface mount components mount directly to the printed circuit board (PCB). They are also known as SMT components (surface mount technology) or SMD (surface mount devices). These components can be either active or passive electronic components. Some of the types of components made in these surface mount configurations include: capacitors, inductors, resistors, semiconductors, and thermistors,

The actual technology was developed in the 1960's, but was not fully implemented or widely used until the 1980's. This technology helped to allow for the progression of smaller and smaller electronic devices such as calculators and computers. It also helped to open the door to an entirely new industry, electronic contract manufacturing.

In this process, the components are first put on reels using a tape and reel machine. Then the boards are populated with the various SMD components usually using a pick and place machine. Next, the printed circuit boards are run through a re-flow soldering oven. This solders the components to the board itself with a minimal amount of hand labor.

Their smaller size is not without its drawbacks. Most of the surface mount components cannot carry as much power as the older thru-hole technology because of their smaller size. Sometimes the transformer or inductor must be mounted in a separate (usually by hand) process because they are too large to be tape and reeled. Hence these boards cannot be entirely populated by a pick and place machine.

All in all, however, the surface mount technology is how most components will be manufactured in the future. The call for power is decreasing, with the exception of specific applications, so the smaller size is not an issues for most computers, tablets, and cell phones. Going forward most components will be surface mount devices, if they are not already.

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Chassis Mount Resistors

Chassis mount resistors are a form of wirewound resistors and are more specifically considered a power resistor, Some have power ratings up to and beyond 250 watts. These type resistors, as well as all resistors, are categorized as a passive electronic component.

Chassis mount resistors are a type of power resistor that has a heat sink to dissipate the heat away from the resistor. This is because the power the resistor takes generates an extensive amount of heat that could damage the actual resistor if it is not diverted away from the component.

The actual heat sink is almost always constructed of aluminum. This is due to the fact that aluminum is such an excellent conductor and can easily transfer the heat the resistor generates away from the resistor's body and into the surrounding air. This process, of course, protects the resistor from over heating.

Being a power resistor, as you might imagine, they are often used in power applications. This is especially true where there may not be a heat sink internal to the system or power supply that can act to transfer the heat for it.

These resistors are available in standard tolerances from 0.1% to 5%, but closer tolerances are also available, as well as non-inductive values. The resistances range from 0.005 ohms to 700K ohms depending upon the power rating of the resistor and its subsequent size.

Tepro of Florida, Inc. offers a full line of chassis mount resistors and although they are not used quite as often as they once were, with the move from analog systems to digital, they are still an important component that has a place in many power applications today.

Is Print Advertising Dead?

The electronics industry embraced the Internet early on. Now, it is reported that 80% of engineers use the Internet to find new information and suppliers. So, the question remains, what is the future of print advertising in an Internet world?

There is still a place for online advertising, but it will not garner the position it once did. There are still places where it is inconvenient to read a computer or I-Pad type device.

Just look at your children or grandchildren and how comfortable they are reading from the computer or some other electronic device. I personally like to have it on paper, but the next generations may not need that crutch. In fact, they may see the printed version as an inconvenience.

Another factor is the information is no longer current. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, print and online version. It is interesting to see how much new information in online that when I am reading the print edition that had been delivered within the last half an hour.

The print industry, will not disappear, from the landscape altogether, at least not in the immediate future. It is, however, going to be playing a less significant role than it had in the past. It's role will be inversed in the future with that of it's online cousin. At first, the Internet supported the print media advertising. Now, the print advertising's role will be relegated to supporting that of the online campaigns.

Flexible Microwave Cable

This is a post about one of our Wavetronix products.

There are essentially two different categories of RF/microwave cable. One is semi-rigid coaxial cable and the other is flexible coaxial cable. Coaxial cable has an inner conductor that is surrounded by an outer shield that acts as an insulating layer. Both of these types of cables are used in RF/microwave systems with an impedance of 50 ohms, but they can also be used in broadcast applications with an impedance of 75 ohms.

Obviously, both of these cable operate in the RF to microwave frequency range. The semi-rigid coaxial cable can only be bent one time at least without a significant loss it its usefulness. This is a limiting factor for it's use. The flexible coaxial cable, on the other hand, can be bent more easily than the semi-rigid coaxial cable, and more often, without significantly derating it.

The use of flexible coaxial cable has been on the increase over the last several years, whereas the semi-rigid coaxial cable has, for the most part, been on the decline. The semi-rigid cable still has its uses, such as in satellites and space applications, but the number of these viable applications has been dwindling in recent years.

The flexible cable has replaced many of the semi-rigid coaxial cable applications because of its ease in forming it to a specific shape. Even so, the semi-rigid cable provides superior shielding because it has a solid copper outer sheath whereas the flexible cable has a braided outer conductor.

In both cables signal leakage can create a problem. It can occur from the outside environment inside the cable resulting in noise and signal disruption. This signal leakage can also occur within the cable itself causing RF interference of nearby devices.

Both flexible coaxial cable and semi-rigid coaxial cable have their advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the correct one will depend upon the specific application, but these days the chances are it will be the flexible cable.

What's in a (Conference) Name

I just returned from a trade show and conference in Jacksonville, Florida where we represented two of our Subsidiaries, Tepro (resistors) and Arizona Capacitors (obviously capacitors). The name of this conference is CARTS, which stands for Capacitor and Resistor Technical Symposium. Although I believe it could be renamed CATS, as the capacitors have taken over and there is not much in the way of resistors anymore.

The next show I will be attending is for Res-net Microwave. This show is located in Clearwater Beach, Florida and it's name is WAMICON. This stands for Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (the word "Technology" must be implied). This sounds better than RF and Microwave Technology Conference (RFAMICON).

I have never been a big proponent of acronyms, but in the case of some of these trade shows, I think it is for the best, especially when a Tweet is limited to 140 characters.

Poor Customer Service

There are countless examples of good customer service incidences and likewise bad ones as well. I have recently encountered the later on a family ski trip to Squaw Valley.

The first day we arrived it was raining, so we decided to forgo doing any skiing until the next day when the rain was supposed to turn into snow, as it did to the tune of 22 inches.

Both my sons needed to rent ski equipment, so around lunch time I checked to see what time we could get the equipment for the following day from the ski rental shop closest to the cable car. I was told I could pick it up at 3:00pm.

We came back at 2:40pm, as I thought it might take a while to fill in the forms and was told by one of the employees that they would take care of me then because it was so close to 3:00pm. So, I filled out both forms and we were ready to go by 2:45pm.

Then the "manager" entered the scene. He tells me that we cannot rent the equipment until 3:30pm. I responded that I new I was early, but thought it was 3:00pm. Then he said. "OK, 3:00pm, you still have 15 minutes". There was no "I am sorry but you will have to wait sir". In fact, I had already caught him in a fib about the time, and there was no apology about that either. He just turned from me and walked away. If they had been busy it might have been a little more understandable or at least forgivable, but we were the only customers in the room and there were three employees, which ironically were bemoaning the fact that they had only booked around $400.00 that day.

The icing on the cake, was when we heard one of his employees ask this "manager" if they shouldn't help us and he ignored the question and walked away from his employee. I took the completed forms and dropped them in the trash as we headed out the door and back to the hotel room.

I am the worse type of customer when it comes to these instances, unfortunately for businesses most customers fall into this category. I do not yell or complain, thus giving one time to correct the problem (not that I think they would have). I just take my business elsewhere. We went back to the room and I went online and found a ski rental shop that had several location including Tahoe City, it's name was Tahoe Dave's. Both my sons ending up getting Demo packages at about half the cost of the standard package that was offered by Squaw Valley. Also, the customer service at Tahoe Dave's was outstanding. So, for a short 5 mile drive we ended up with better equipment, better service, and a cheaper price. Needless to say, when I return to the Tahoe area I will be going back to Tahoe Dave's.

Manufacturing Improving

The news these days seems to be pretty consistent. The manufacturing sector is improving, as is the economy as a whole. Output is up over last year, the stock market has totally rebounded, and the unemployment rate is down.

This is not news to us here at Electro Technik. As we enter the final month in this fiscal year revenues are significantly higher than they were for the prior year. Some portions of our business have done better than others, but all of our four "Groups" have improved. This is welcomed news, indeed.

The question remains, can it be sustained? Oil prices have started to increase and reach a hundred dollars a barrel mark. Meanwhile, the deficit still remains at record levels.

So, what will the remainder of 2011 hold in store for those of us in manufacturing? We are optimistic, as we think the recovery will continue through this calendar year, But we are keeping our fingers are crossed, just in case.