The Tug of War That Causes Most Embedded Design Failures

Failed embedded designs suffer from many of the same common maladies, and a high percentage of those maladies can be traced back to the push-pull between engineering and management, two experts will explain at the upcoming Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) 2016.

“The push-pull between sales, marketing, and engineering is critical,” Craig Hillman, CEO of DfR Solutions, told Design News. “Early design choices not only drive mistakes; they drive mistakes that can be very difficult to correct.”

Often, pressure from management can cause designers to buy low-cost embedded modules instead of building them internally, with bad results, Hillman told us. By doing so, organizations ignore important issues, such as total life cycle costs and warranty returns, which can end up sucking more cash in the long run.

Hillman, whose company provides engineering services and design reviews for product teams, will be joined by fellow engineer Michael Blattau in a session called, "Common Mistakes by Embedded Systems Designers: What They Are and How to Fix Them" at ESC on Wednesday, December 7^th in San Jose. “We’ll talk about a dozen common mistakes, and we’ll structure our talk so that it goes from the beginning to the end of the development process,” Hillman said.

During the talk, Hillman and Blattau will also provide ways for design engineers to negotiate with management over such issues as building modules internally, versus buying them from low-cost vendors. They’ll also look at hardware considerations, such as whether designers are trying to make their products impractically small. Often, small size is an issue pushed by sales and marketing, he said, but engineers frequently try too hard to downsize their products, as well.

“Management plays a big role in all this,” Hillman said. “They have certain cost targets they want to hit, and they can set up the organization so that the people are not looking out for the bigger picture.”

Design TechnologiesLearn more about electronics and security at ESC Silicon Valley. December 6-8, 2016 in San Jose. Register here for the event, hosted by Design News’ parent company UBM.

 “Embedded systems designers are good at ‘the functional,’” Hillman said. “They know how much processing they need and how much memory they need. But their common mistake is to try to make their products too small. Then they end up having thermal issues, ESD issues, and manufacturing issues.”

Most such problems can be prevented if engineers and managers keep the bigger picture in mind, Hillman said. “You always have to understand the use case – who is the customer and how are they using it?” he told us. “If you keep that in front of you, and if you have it well defined, you’ll head off a lot of mistakes.”

Senior technical editor Chuck Murray has been writing about technology for 32 years. He joined Design News in 1987, and has covered electronics, automation, fluid power, and autos.

[Image source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net user: scottchan]