Electronics Engineers
Design, develop, adapt, install, test and maintain electronic components, circuits and systems used for computer, communication, command and warfare systems, entertainment, transport and other industrial applications.
A part that disappeared from the catalogue
You are an electronics engineer at a small company with a boat monitoring device due to launch in a month, and a key part has just been discontinued. It is Monday. Your supplier has sent an email saying a chip in your design will no longer be made. The launch is advertised, and several customers have already placed orders.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I just saw the supplier email. Please tell me this does not affect the launch. I have told customers the date, and the boat show is in a few weeks. Can we just buy up the old stock and sort out the rest later?
Say yes, buy all the old stock you can, and think about the future later
You get through the launch, but the stock runs out within months and you face the same problem under more pressure. Short term fixes need a long term plan beside them.
Tell her you need a day to assess options, then bring her a plan with dates and risks
The next day you offer a short term purchase of stock and a new part to test in parallel. Fatima can honestly tell customers the date is safe and the future is planned.
Tell her the launch is off until the redesign is finished
You may be right to be careful, but cancelling before you have looked at the options causes panic and loses orders. A plan was needed, not just a warning.
I have tried the replacement chip on the bench. It works, but the readings are slightly noisier than the old one. It might be fine for most boats, but I am not sure. Do you want me to carry on with it?
Ask him to carry on testing it in conditions closer to a real boat, including vibration and damp air
Samir finds a few issues and fixes them, but he starts the tests late and the schedule tightens. Realistic testing was the right call, and it needed to begin sooner.
Tell him the readings are fine and that he can move on to the next job on his list
The device ships and some boats report jumpy readings in rough seas. It was a bench test, and the sea was never part of it.
Look at the noisy readings with him, pick the test conditions together and note what you learn
You see that the noise matters only in one setting, and design a small filter to deal with it. Samir feels his observation changed the design. Good test notes become the next engineer's head start.
I put in an order weeks ago. My crew is relying on your device for this season. If the launch slips, I will need to buy something else. Can you tell me honestly, is my unit coming on time?
Say yes, it is coming on time, so he does not go and order from somebody else instead
He waits, and when the unit is late he feels let down and cancels. A confident answer you could not support was not kindness.
Say that you cannot talk about orders and pass him over to sales to answer his question
He gets his answer from sales, but he wanted to hear from the engineer who knew what was happening. A short, honest message from you would have meant a lot.
Tell him the plan, the date you are working to, and what would cause a delay
Captain Lowe appreciates the honesty and keeps his order. He even offers to try an early unit on his boat, which gives you useful feedback.
How it went
The launch holds, with a new part in testing and a plan behind it. Electronics engineers solve puzzles with real deadlines, and often have to tell people honestly what is known and what is not yet. Does it sound good to build something small that does a job for someone far away?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The soil sensor that went silent after rain
A fictional case set in a small company that designs and builds electronic devices for farms and boats.
The situation
Callum's company, Paddock Tech, sold a small battery powered sensor that told farmers how wet their soil was. In testing the sensors worked well. But after the first heavy rain, a good number of the units out on farms stopped reporting. Customers were calling. The sales manager suggested sending a quick message to say it was a signal problem that would fix itself, because the company did not yet know the cause and was worried about a bad reputation.
What they did
Callum asked the support team for the faulty units and tested them. Nothing on the circuit board was broken. He opened one case and found a few drops of moisture inside, which had been getting in around the cable seal. He recreated the problem in a bucket of water in the lab and designed a better seal. He asked the sales manager to tell customers the truth: the sensors had a leaking seal, replacements were coming and the company would cover them.
How it turned out
The company replaced the units with a redesigned version. It cost money and the launch of the next product slipped. Several farmers said they trusted the company more because it told them what had gone wrong, and a few ordered more units.
What would you do?
- What do you think of the sales manager's first idea, and why?
- How could you find the cause of a fault you cannot see?
- What would you want to test before sending a product out into the weather?