Welcome to the Engineering Solutions by Design News podcast, where we examine the toughest problems that engineers have overcome in their careers, sharing their solutions and insights.

Thomas Coughlin is the President at Coughlin Associates and is a widely respected storage analyst and consultant. Back in the early nineties, Thomas was running a hard disk drive design group that was in manufacturing. The components were made in Thailand and the final assembly was performed in Singapore. A problem arose with the manufacturing line in Asia that was originally suspected to be an issue with incoming material. But Tom and his team thought differently. Thomas recounts how he and his team dealt with this tricky and difficult problem in the supply chain. It’s worth a listen.

Thomas is currently running for the position of IEEE President-Elect in 2021. See his IEEE petition to learn more.

John Blyler is a Design News senior editor, covering the electronics and advanced manufacturing spaces. With a BS in Engineering Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering, he has years of hardware-software-network systems experience as an editor and engineer within the advanced manufacturing, IoT and semiconductor industries. John has co-authored books related to system engineering and electronics for IEEE, Wiley, and Elsevier.

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