Author Topic: Design techniques to accommodate scarcity? How are you doing this?  (Read 623 times)

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Offline jrs45Topic starter

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How are people handling the scarcity of parts, from an engineering perspective?  How have you changed how you design commercial project?

Here's a few things I do:
  • Look at widespread availability from Octopart, including historical.  Abandon parts that don't have known delivery dates.
  • Select most common footprints, sometimes doubling up/overlapping (SC70 + SOT-323-5 for example, for single opamp)
  • Pads for piggybacking just about every circuit section.  Power, input, output.
  • More thought into "what opamp/etc. do I really need", and documenting part requirements more thoroughly, rather than "use this one"
  • Test/qualify multiple alternate parts, rather than only one.

I'd love to hear from others and what they're doing.  Any tricks or tips?
 
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Offline daqq

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Re: Design techniques to accommodate scarcity? How are you doing this?
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2022, 03:19:31 pm »
What you said. Also when some discrete blocks are present and board space allows it, I try to create separate blocks for more than one device of the same function. For instance I had a separate completely unpopulated area with a completely different reference, the selection was done using what would be populated and a 0R resistor.
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Online RJSV

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Re: Design techniques to accommodate scarcity? How are you doing this?
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2022, 10:13:37 pm »
   Nice topic!
Firstly, that's a difficult topic.  I would go along the lines you've laid out;  Depending on quantity, maybe prepare for much more rework options, meaning maybe spending 20 minutes at bench, for every unit sold. That depends on quantity.
So I would get really formal, with drawings, instructions, and drawing revision levels.
Perhaps consider who to hire, (quickly), as purchasing and vendor experts maybe going to get harder to find.
Strategy and...overtime.  It's a crisis.  My time, at Systron-Donner Safety Systems have me a taste, of CRISIS, as a big testing failure (relays) caused a whole series of ripple effects, resulting in mandatory overtime, I think it was 10 hours per shift.
   The management said: "Look, we've got a huge crisis and everybody pull together, ,...".

   Plus, first thing I did, before going in to post this; is to glance at your Country of posting. Ah, US,
That matters, because, 'Everything Better, now...'
Try apply for some COVID relief.

   They tried that tactic, in a movie: 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers':
..."Wife better now...". Which was indication that the 'body takeover' had occurred with him, now.

   "Country Better Now...".     (and you being asked to accept that...). problem solved, you're welcome.

 


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