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One World, One Industry: Problem Solving While Innovating

How Electronics Manufacturers Are Coping With COVID-19
There is a saying that true character is revealed by the choices we make under pressure, and this is certainly true of this very uncertain time. Those of us in the electronics manufacturing industry are no different from anyone else facing this pandemic; we are not sure of what will happen next, but we are working together to find solutions. We are engineers and problem solvers, after all, and it is in our nature to fix things. As we discover new ways to innovate, keep our employees safe and healthy, and keep our businesses running smoothly, all of these actions are allowing us to move forward. 
 
I am privileged to be the president and CEO of IPC, where I have the opportunity to talk daily to members of the electronics manufacturing industry—a global industry that supports millions of jobs worldwide, contributing to nearly every sector of the global economy.
 
On frequent calls with IPC members, we offer an open forum to attendees—a place where we can gather online to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on our global industry. We share operational and manufacturing challenges, discuss how our industry can help meet the needs of health care workers and frontline workers, and consider how we can help one another. 
 
These calls and the various discussions I have had with other leaders in the industry have encouraged me in more ways than I could have imagined. It is gratifying to see the way we are coming together without competition, but with a desire for all of us to succeed in keeping our employees healthy, safe, and employed. While we are learning more about coronavirus every day and following the news very closely, we are also implementing innovations that will have benefits long beyond this crisis as we take the opportunity to learn from something so unprecedented. As crisis often does, this is bringing out the best in us as leaders, employees, innovators, and creators. 
 
There are so many stories of how the industry is coming together. A company in Illinois is making free circuit boards for respirators, and a company in Wisconsin is bringing together workers from other states to build ventilators. These stories, along with so many others, inspire me as problem solving takes on global importance, and engineers do what they do best—fix the things that are broken. Out of something catastrophic, we are striving to find the good, the possible, and the best way forward for all of us. 
 
Our job as leaders in the industry has become enhanced and much more critical. We are communicating with our teams by balancing the realism of the situation with the optimism of what innovation we may find in this crisis. We can explain to our staff that what we envisioned six months ago is no longer possible, but perhaps this crisis is opening us to opportunities that did not exist before. We are being tested as leaders, but we are also given a unique opportunity to change our processes not to go back to the way things have always been. By being transparent and helping our teams to understand the situation facing us, we offer them the chance to take on leadership roles themselves, enhancing the work all of us do in problem solving.
 
We don’t have all the answers. But by working together on this enormous, worldwide problem that touches us all, we are leveraging the talents we already have, providing clear communication, hiring good people, listening to them and encouraging them and then getting out of their way.
 
Only time will tell if we are making the right decisions, but I am optimistic. It is in our nature to take things apart and put them back together in a better way; now, we’re doing it on a grander scale with the safety and health of our staff paramount.
 
For additional COVID-19 updates and to see how your peers are providing support, visit ipc.org/coronavirus. And, as always, feel free to reach out to me personally for any issues, concerns, or solutions you may have.
 
This column originally appeared in the June issue of PCB007 Magazine.