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We’re excited to kick off the Expert Insight on Sourcing BOMs series! In this installment, Joel Austin and Zach Peterson walk us through how you can make your component sourcing much more efficient using the Octopart BOM Tool. Whether you’re new to BOM management or working with legacy files, this guide will show you how simple it is to get started and keep your projects moving forward.   Do I need to install anything to use BOM Tool? It’s a...

The global PCBA market is projected to reach USD 90.91 billion by 2025, driven by the rapid growth of consumer electronics, automotive systems, and industrial automation. But within this booming sector, one segment is moving faster than the rest: rapid PCBA prototyping. This article delves into how sourcing strategies must evolve when speed is the primary objective. Drawing from our experience and insights from Altium’s integrated tools, we will...

Executive Insights Into Electronic Product Development Gaps You Need To Close The following custom research study - conducted by Forrester Consulting - surveyed 412 executives and decision-makers across North America, EMEA, and APAC. They surveyed executives and their responses highlighted and quantified industry-wide challenges, strategic priorities, and expected outcomes driven by the need to modernize electronics hardware development. Key...

Managing software projects in Jira is straightforward: build a backlog of user stories and technical tasks, prioritize them, select the top ones for execution in the upcoming sprint, and voila! You are managing the project.  Unfortunately, as shared in previous articles, this doesn’t work for hardware.  Why "Normal" Agile Project Management Struggles for Hardware You need early architectural clarity, coordination across EE/FW/ME/Supply Chain...

Jira, originally designed for software development teams, has become a widely used tool for agile project management. While its default setup caters to software teams using frameworks like Scrum or Kanban, hardware development projects have unique challenges that require a different approach to consider hard constraints, long lead times, and dependencies across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software disciplines. Despite these challenges...

Architecting for identical PCBs in a larger system requires coordination both on the board design side and with the software engineers to ensure that each board is treated uniquely. A very common approach is to stuff resistors on unique footprints during pick and place, so each board has its own configuration. DIP switches are also a popular option. Most of these options, however, require physical intervention with your boards. This means that if...

Design reviews are an essential part of the product development process. They provide a design evaluation method to align with the project goals. These milestones empower teams to detect potential problems early, preventing them from escalating into larger issues.  When conducted effectively, design reviews offer several key benefits: they enhance clarity, foster collaboration, and improve the quality of the final product. Unfortunately, a...

Ein Blockschaltbild oder auch Übersichtsschaltbild ist eine vereinfachte und abstrahierte Darstellung der Funktionen und Beziehungen zwischen Komponenten und Baugruppen eines komplexeren Schaltplans. Blockschaltbilder helfen allen Beteiligten, bei komplexeren Projekten den Überblick zu behalten. In diesem Artikel gehen wir auf folgende Fragen in: Welche Vorteile haben Blockschaltbilder bei komplexeren Projekten? Welche Tools eignen sich, um...

The electronics manufacturing market is projected to hit USD 666.97 billion by 2025, with much of the growth driven by high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) production. HMLV prioritizes flexibility, customization, and rapid iteration. Unlike high-volume manufacturing with stable supply chains, HMLV demands sourcing strategies that can adapt to shifting BOMs, short lead times, and strict compliance requirements. Suppliers often describe HMLV sourcing as...