Electronics Manufacturing Today: Pressures, Priorities, and the Path Forward with Trevor Galbraith

When you talk to one manufacturer, you hear a story. When you talk to hundreds, patterns emerge. Today, we step back and examine what those patterns tell us about the real state of electronics manufacturing.

Today’s episode takes a step back from individual processes and technologies to look at the electronics manufacturing industry through a broader, editorial lens.

My guest is Trevor Galbraith, publisher of Global SMT & Packaging—one of the industry’s valuable trade publications.

As a publisher, Trevor speaks with manufacturers, suppliers, technologists, and industry leaders from around the world. That gives him a unique vantage point—not just on where the industry is investing, but where it’s struggling, where expectations and reality diverge, and how issues like reliability, workforce challenges, supply chain pressure, automation, and standards are truly playing out on the factory floor.

In this Meet-the-Press–style conversation, we’ll explore the current state of electronics manufacturing, how reliability is being prioritized—or deprioritized—amid cost and speed pressures, whether manufacturing processes are keeping pace with design complexity, and what Trevor sees ahead for the industry over the next five to ten years.

This episode isn’t about promoting solutions. It’s about understanding the landscape, asking hard questions, and gaining perspective from someone who hears unfiltered voices across the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

Global SMT & Packaging Magazine
https://www.globalsmt.net