Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1391285
46 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2021 half, and we completed it. We've taken very complex, large-scale projects as well and com- pleted those. Shaughnessy: You came to the rescue. Irfan: Exactly. Matties: What advice would you have for an OEM that wants to streamline their process? Irfan: For one, do not underestimate the hand- offs between different outsourcing vendors if they have multiple projects in the development phase, because these are the typical "gotchas" in this whole process. e second is to leverage partners who can offer more integration inter- nally. It reduces the risk for them and mini- mizes product delays. eir time to market is a significant advantage, and they have one neck to choke: "is is the schedule; this is what I need. If in between your fab is delayed two days, make it up on the assembly side, I don't care, but I need boards on this day." at's a huge advantage we offer because we're able to recover from those nuances that happen in between a process. Matties: Right. You mentioned the handoff several times in this conversation, and that's something we actually look at, even in our own company. e handoff between one depart- ment and the next, or one supplier to one cus- tomer. Really, that first 15% is the most criti- cal because if you get that first 15% wrong, it's doomed for failure. When you say for an OEM to focus more on the handoff, what do you mean? Explain that just a little so there's clar- ity, please. Irfan: If they're outsourcing the handoffs, they should look at minimizing the handoffs between multiple vendors. For example, in a typical handoff, there's a separate mechanical design shop, a separate design group, or they may be internally doing design, maybe a layout subcontractor, a CM, and sometimes they have a separate kitting house. It's fielding the hand- offs in between those, running simulations, and keeping the schedule moving in parallel. ose are the handoffs we're talking about, the schedule ownership with one party. Matties: Right. And when we look at the hand- offs, we're also looking at data, right? It's really the data. ey have to show the data, make sure it's complete and understood, even com- ing into a BOM, because that's a handoff point of requirements to the vendor or to you in this case. at's a critical handoff as we see it. Irfan: And faster decision-making because of the component lead time issues. Matties: When they come to you, they need to be ready to move on it. It's not just kicking tires and trying to budget something for a year down the road because that doesn't play in this market; that's what I'm hearing. Irfan: Yes. And there's another important aspect. When they're planning their prod- uct development and they're planning their resources, sometimes under schedule pres- sure they want to run very fast, and they do a lot of multiple things in parallel. ere are stages where you can run fast and do things in parallel, and then there are stages where you actually become very counterproductive, and that's the part we try to educate customers on up front: "We have no problem running as fast as you like. But if you give us the go-ahead, we start running at 100 miles an hour where you have not actually made up your mind on some- thing." Let's say there are five design blocks in that system, and they give us a green light and we have resources, we're running fast because they're on a schedule crunch. But if the customer has not really made up their mind on block three and block four, and they've not communicated that to us, they feel that when they turn us on, they can try to