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8 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2024 I've owned a few snakes in my lifetime. In my high school biology class, for example, I took care of our black rat snake for a few weeks. He escaped once, which they all eventually do, and climbed up inside our furnace. My next snake was a nine-foot yellow-tailed python. He suffered an ignominious end when he was killed by the giant rat who was supposed to be his dinner. In my 20s, I had a hognose snake that also escaped, and I never did find him. Snakes can be tricky, as you can see. is month we focus on one serpent that bedevils PCB designers and design engineers: the cost adder. Because approximately 70% of the manufac- turing costs of a product are determined in the design cycle, every decision a designer makes has some effect—good or bad—on the manu- facturing cost, as well as the cost of the final product. The Shaughnessy Report by Andy Shaughnessy, I-CONNECT007 Watch Out for Cost Adders