The history of technological development can be defined by decreasing the time it takes to do something. Amazon changed customer expectations forever by turning speed into part of the product itself. Two-day shipping became one-day shipping, and eventually same-day delivery. Amazon’s customers weren’t just buying products anymore, above all, they were buying time. That is the mindset that drives this circuit board printing operation, and in doing so shows the power of speed as a value add

In this episode, we sit down with William Gallacher, CEO of CircuitHub, to discuss how they have taken turnover for custom circuit board production and shipping down from 6 weeks to just 3 days, printing the board within 8 hours of the order. From supply chain optimization and logistics to automation and company culture, William explains why no value offering compares to helping customers move faster. When it comes to technology speed compounds. Faster board creation leads to faster testing, faster iteration, and ultimately faster innovation. This conversation breaks down what it really takes to build a manufacturing operation around that philosophy.

Watch the full interview on YouTube!

Interview Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to William Gallacher and CircuitHub
• 7:00 Creating the Fastest Circuit Board Pipeline
• 14:10 The Business Practices that built CircuitHub
• 23:00 Maintaining a Customer Focused Mission
• 28:00 Taking Pride in Your Work
• 31:20 Helping Students Engage in Circuit Manufacturing
• 34:00 Investing in the Future of the Industry
• 35:15 The Company Culture at CircuitHub
• 38:00 CircuitHub’s Hiring Process
• 40:45 Implementing Time-Based Value Adds with Automation
• 46:00 Final Questions

Nate Wheeler is the owner of weCreate, a nationally recognized marketing agency that helps manufacturers grow, save money, and become more efficient.

Manufacturing Insights

1. Speed can be worth far more to a customer than a lower unit price

CircuitHub’s value proposition isn’t simply that it does custom circuit board printing. It’s that it can get a prototype into the customer’s hands dramatically faster than anywhere else. All of a sudden you are getting your component in three days instead of six weeks. The difference between six weeks and three days can mean getting a product tested, iterated, and brought to market much, much sooner. The manufacturing cost becomes relatively small compared with the revenue and opportunity cost associated with the waste of waiting for your circuit prototype to arrive for testing and iteration.

2. Manufacturers should identify the bottlenecks that actually determine lead time

CircuitHub didn’t make one enormous change that suddenly reduced lead time. They looked in the circuit board printing, packing, and shipping process. Eventually, they found “all the little bottlenecks”  and worked to eliminate or shrink them. That is an important lesson for manufacturers: Lead time is usually the result of dozens of small delays, not one giant boogie man causing all the problems.

3. Technology can eliminate handoffs between people and systems

CircuitHub moved from customers manually providing information toward digital ordering, APIs, and automated communication. Going from two weeks to three days involved making the process increasingly computer-to-computer rather than dependent on people manually transferring information.

4. High-mix, low-volume manufacturing requires a different inventory strategy

We’ve talked a lot about Traditional just-in-time thinking works particularly well when you’re repeatedly producing the same products. Their circuit board printing process operates in a very different environment, producing many different products every day. As a result, They are forced to keep more components in-house in order for them to move as fast as they do.

5. Changeover time is a major factor in reducing lead times

CircuitHub deals with boards containing hundreds of unique components. Traditionally, machine setup and feeder changes for that many components would make rapid turnaround extremely difficult. The company therefore developed its own equipment and processes specifically to reduce changeover time. For CircuitHub, solving changeover was a major factor in reducing lead times.

6. Automation lessons from fast circuit board printing: not everything needs advanced systems

When asked where an average manufacturer should begin, William doesn’t immediately suggest buying sophisticated automation. He recommends starting with the cheapest possible proof of concept, measuring the results, and then improving from there. Even something as simple as having an employee deliver a day’s worth of material instead of an hour’s worth, doing that for a week, and measuring the results is a first step. The key is always getting started.

7. Automation lessons from fast circuit board printing: you can’t improve what you don’t measure

This may be one of the most broadly useful lessons in the episode. CircuitHub measures its equipment and processes extensively. William emphasizes that manufacturers often have feelings about whether something is getting faster or slower, but until they measure it, they don’t actually know. Measure first. Automate second.

8. Employees are more likely to embrace change when they’re part of the improvement process

Rather than simply telling workers that a new process is going to be implemented, William describes a process of proving the improvement and then asking the people doing the work how it could be made even better. That turns employees from people affected by process changes into participants in continuous improvement.

9. R&D doesn’t always mean inventing a new product

CircuitHub has more people working in R&D than in production because its competitive advantage depends heavily on continuously improving the manufacturing process itself. That’s a particularly interesting takeaway for manufacturers. R&D doesn’t have to be for the product itself, it can be side by side with the continuous improvement of your process

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