Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine

Caveat Lector

Mike Buetow

What's Your Solution to the Juniority Problem?

Anyone who has boarded a plane in the past several months knows this all too well: the near-term operations of airlines are up in the air.

From smallest to largest, all the carriers have been dramatically affected by the post-Covid rebound in passenger air travel. How could it not? After all, Delta and United Airlines each cut 30% of their respective staff in 2020, for instance.

And while many observers point to the attractive buyouts the carriers dangled before critical employees (read: pilots) as a means to cut costs amid the mass groundings during the pandemic, employment has shot up over the past 18 months.

Read more: Grounded! What The Electronics Industry Can Learn from Airlines

Mike Buetow

For more than 20 years, PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY has been proud to be the exclusive publisher of the annual NTI - 100 list of the world’s largest board fabricators.

One of the striking changes over the years has been the reshaping of the industry geographical landscape.

In this year’s rankings, which begin on page 32 of the August 2022 issue, see how many Europe- and US-based companies are in the top 25. I'll save you the suspense. One each: AT&S and TTM Technologies, respectively. Long gone are the days when Photocircuits, Sanmina, Hadco, Viasystems and the like dominated the top of the chart.

Read more: In the Rush to Get Big, Let’s Not Forget the Little Guys

Mike Buetow

Twenty-one years.

That’s how long I’ve sat in this chair as an editor for this publication.

That’s 21 years of writing editorials. Never missed an issue. Many times, I’ve written them on planes, heading to or from someplace afar. (I may work from home, but traveling from Boston to China, as I have done many, many times, still means ample commuting time.)

I wrote one on my honeymoon. I wrote one from the recovery room after my first child’s birth. (With little else to do, I spent the time counting all the circuit boards in the equipment around me. Yes, I’m a nerd.)

There may even be a reader or two who was born about the same time I assumed this role in January 2000, first as editor in chief of PC FAB, to which my boss Pete Waddell then added Printed Circuit Design, and finally, in 2005, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. (Now I feel old. Thanks a lot.)

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Read more: As the Chair Turns

Mike Buetow

I left off last month on the subject of progress. “Are you making progress?” I asked. “In your career? In your life? And if not, do you plan to start?”

We at UP Media Group are planning to start right now. Last month, during our annual PCB West trade show, we announced the signing of a letter of intent to sell certain assets, including this magazine, to the Printed Circuit Engineering Association. More on that in a moment.

In its two short years, PCEA has already established itself as the leading association for printed circuit engineers. The leaders of the Designers Council formed it after IPC, its longtime benefactor, decided to go a different direction. The trade group has ties to SMTA and the European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC), among others. And it is the certifying body for the PCE-EDU Printed Circuit Engineering Professional curriculum.

What, exactly, does this change mean? I’ll answer three ways.

First, for PCEA, it acquires the PCB West and PCB East trade shows, PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY magazine; the PCB UPdate digital newsletter; the PCB Chat podcast; the PCB2Day workshops; and Printed Circuit University, the dedicated online training platform. It also includes all the databases and related websites, among other things. The move makes PCEA a significant player in terms of its capability to reach a huge audience of printed circuit designers and engineers, fabricators and assemblers, not to mention the massive trove of content it has for those audiences.

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