2011 In Review: Selective Soldering

Posted by Chris Denney on Jan 13, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments Selective Soldering   Early in April we identified that there was a serious need to get one of our machines operational. This was our RPS Automation Rhythm Selective Soldering system. If you’re not familiar with a selective soldering machine, it’s basically a machine that creates a small fountain of molten solder that is controlled by an X,Y,Z robotic platform. This platform is...
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2011 In Review: Air Compressor

Posted by Chris Denney on Jan 10, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments Air Compressor Wair compressore did a ton of research on the purchase of an air compressor. We had been using a very large reciprocating style air compressor. It had a 10HP motor and an 80 gallon tank. Our filtration system left much to be longed for and our dryer required almost daily maintenance to keep it working properly. It was being heavily taxed with two pick and place systems that drew...
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The Chance of a Lifetime

Posted by Chris Denney on Jan 8, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments Seth Godin wrote a great post the other day. I liked this part. A friend asked me the other day, “…given the sorry state of so much in the world, what’s possible to look forward to?” The state isn’t sorry. It’s wide open. Interest rates are super low, violence is close to an all time low, industries are being remade and there’s more leverage for the...
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Steve Jobs and The Human Aspect

Posted by Chris Denney on Oct 8, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments There’s a podcast I listened to while running today, in tribute to Steve Jobs. It was rather moving. About a dozen people waxing poetic about how much of an influence Steve has had on their life. One of the speakers, and a favorite writer of mine spoke about the human aspect of everything that Apple does. And it really hit home for me what I’ve been desperately trying to articulate...
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Lousy Tomatoes and the Rare Search for Wonder

Posted by Chris Denney on Oct 4, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Lousy Tomatoes and the Rare Search for Wonder Seth makes some great points here. In particular he mentions my greatest pet peeve with most businesses (and products for that matter). Too often, it’s just being phoned in. Rather than reach out and try, they do just the bare minimum to “make the numbers”. When you fully develop to team that’s in it to nock it out of the park...
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China Inc. Hits a Snag

Posted by Chris Denney on Aug 24, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Interesting piece by Mike Buetow over at Hot Wires. Sounds like China’s beginning to taste the sweet nectar of letting corporations take care of their people instead of the government taking care of the people. There’s apparently a new round of fees levied by China on MNCs doing business in China. Apparently this has caused hundreds of businesses to go under already with thousands...
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Why we left our factories in China

Posted by Chris Denney on Aug 19, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Why we left our factories in China Here’s a feel good story for your weekend. Sleek Audio, maker of customizable earphones, recently moved most of their manufacturing back to the United States from China. I like the phrase they use “reshoring”. Fortune has the article so click the link to learn more. I’m seeing more and more of this. OEM’s are getting fed up with the...
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Apple’s Invisible Advantage

Posted by Chris Denney on Aug 15, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Apple’s Invisible Advantage           Some brilliant writing from the guy who originally named the “iMac“, Ken Segall. He points out some very interesting things about how Apple does business. For instance…     I had the pleasure of working on the “Making Of” video for the Cube, which appeared on apple.com when the store was first...
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What’s Happening to U.S. Manufacturing

Posted by Chris Denney on Aug 12, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments What’s Happening to U.S. Manufacturing Interesting article by Michele Nash on The Huffington Post. It’s well written and has some rather depressing statistics about American manufacturing. But I wish she had spent more time speaking about what to do about it. Honestly, it’s not easy. There’s not a very good answer. And I suspect it would take many good answers to fix the...
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Defining Quality

Posted by Chris Denney on Aug 8, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Defining Quality How can you make something more perfect? What if Apple said “You know what would make the iPhone more perfect? A stylus!” Truth is, there is an international standards body that defines product build quality. In our industry it’s called the IPC. They have 3 classes of product build quality. Class 3 being the highest. WAi pretty much doesn’t ship anything...
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