Quality Solutions That Meet Customer Expectations

This blog starts with a story from the author about surfing.

On a recent trip to San Diego, I was watching some of the more experienced surfers sitting in the calm water, getting ready to catch the big wave. So, I charged into the ocean, got about 10 yards in, and the roller pushes me back to the beach. But I’m not daunted; I get back on the board and the roller pushes me back again. I got rolled back to the beach about 10 times in a row. I thought I was going to drown. Let’s stop right there…

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Interestingly, this image leads a little bit into the changes the **defense industry** is facing. If you feel like you’re getting rolled back to the beach more often than catching a wave, you’re not alone. The complexity of solutions needed in the defense industry is changing quite a bit, putting significant strain on all of the resources we have, not just in technology but across the board. At the same time the defense contractors are doing cost-down initiatives, and electronics manufacturers are being asked to do more and more, with the pressure to do it for less and less.

Cost-down effect on military electronics

The trend across the board is the cost pressures from the DoD pushing down to the primes, bringing about a new wave of technology where more is being investing in research and development. Advancements in high performance computing and initiatives, like SOSA, to standardize COTS equipment are all driving the pace of technology, pulling more components in from the commercial market to keep pace with the speeds necessary.

Those affected by these changes can be broken down into four major categories:

1. The primes are trying to outsource, or rather, they’re looking for ways to either get rid of a volume problem or a technology problem withing the supply chain.

2. The system platform providers have to pull in more technology, putting together chassis, backplanes and active cards and maybe operating systems as well as solving IPMI issues.

3. The traditional hardware building block vendors — the backplane, chassis or power supply only — have to find a place to play in this market

4. Lastly, because of the pace of technology, we’re also seeing commercial suppliers trying to get into the marketplace.