Engineering Experience

Paragon Innovations

5.0 (2)
TECHNOLOGY
UPDATED BIMONTHLY

Welcome to Engineering Experience, a podcast by Paragon Innovations, where engineering thought leaders share insight on how to deliver results, manage outsourcing, find the right engineering partners, maximize experience, generate engineering documents and come out with smarter and improved products through innovation and invention.

06/14/2022

Navigating the Semiconductor Chip Shortage with Joe Piccirilli and Mike Wilkinson

Joe Piccirilli, Founder and CEO of RoseWater Energy Group, and Mike Wilkinson, Founder, General Manager, and Vice President of Paragon Innovations, joined forces for a special combined episode of their respective podcasts’ Engineering Experience and The Next Generation of Energy to address the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage impacting their industry. Wilkinson wasn’t going to sugarcoat the situation. “It’s pretty devastating. Components are just not available in any flavor. It doesn’t matter if it’s a chip that everyone thinks about, like a microprocessor that goes into a car or something, or if it’s resistors and capacitors.” Wilkinson likened the situation to going to a hardware store and finding no nails available. Piccirilli seconded Wilkinson’s assessment. “I have a product, and it’s been on our shelf for almost five years. Getting the parts for the existing product that everyone knows what that part list is, I order them a year out, and it’s still painful. I have a new product in development that was supposed to be done sixteen months ago. It’s the simple things like breakers. And the microprocessors and controllers? Forget those. It’s out of control.” With promised delivery for parts that never show, Piccirilli said he’ll be lucky if he can get the product launched by the end of 2022. There isn't much Piccirilli and Wilkinson can do besides ration parts when manufacturers cannot fulfill distribution orders. Piccirilli looked at the possibility of engineering around the problem, but there aren’t many available avenues with this approach either. “There's only so much you can engineer around without compromising the quality of the product, and because of the market position we are in at Rosewater, I can't compromise the quality.” Although parts may be in scarce supply, the demand for Piccirilli and Wilkinson's products has never been higher.

30 min
03/15/2022

Navigating the Semiconductor Chip Shortage, feat. Joe Piccirilli and Mike Wilkinson

Joe Piccirilli, Founder and CEO of RoseWater Energy Group, and Mike Wilkinson, Founder, General Manager, and Vice President of Paragon Innovations, joined forces for a special combined episode of their respective podcasts’ Engineering Experience and The Next Generation of Energy to address the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage impacting their industry. Wilkinson wasn’t going to sugarcoat the situation. “It’s pretty devastating. Components are just not available in any flavor. It doesn’t matter if it’s a chip that everyone thinks about, like a microprocessor that goes into a car or something, or if it’s resistors and capacitors.” Wilkinson likened the situation to going to a hardware store and finding no nails available. Piccirilli seconded Wilkinson’s assessment. “I have a product, and it’s been on our shelf for almost five years. Getting the parts for the existing product that everyone knows what that part list is, I order them a year out, and it’s still painful. I have a new product in development that was supposed to be done sixteen months ago. It’s the simple things like breakers. And the microprocessors and controllers? Forget those. It’s out of control.” With promised delivery for parts that never show, Piccirilli said he’ll be lucky if he can get the product launched by the end of 2022. There isn't much Piccirilli and Wilkinson can do besides ration parts when manufacturers cannot fulfill distribution orders. Piccirilli looked at the possibility of engineering around the problem, but there aren’t many available avenues with this approach either. “There's only so much you can engineer around without compromising the quality of the product, and because of the market position we are in at Rosewater, I can't compromise the quality.” Although parts may be in scarce supply, the demand for Piccirilli and Wilkinson's products has never been higher.

30 min
06/16/2021

Contemporary Looks at Classic Designs Can Spur New Life in Engineering

On this episode of Engineering Experience by Paragon Innovations, host Tyler Kern talked with Brewster Waddell, CEO of TH Waddell Designs, Bob Landers, VP of Engineering at TH Waddell Designs, and Mike Wilkinson, Founder and CEO of Paragon Innovations.

29 min
02/03/2021

Technology’s Role in the Future of Banking

Engineering can involve any industry, and Engineering Experience is all about bringing those unique stories to listeners. Host Tyler Kern and Paragon CEO Mike Wilkinson spoke with Chris Debrecht, Owner and COO of Tempo Financial Solutions, about his company’s partnership with Paragon.

19 min
01/21/2021

Bringing IoT Solutions to the Great Outdoors

Ray Dikun, Director of Technology at Plano Synergy, has a career in telecom that’s taken him around the globe throughout the past 30 years. From Motorola to RIM, Dikun’s seen the digital evolution up close and is one of its creators. Dikun joined Mike Wilkinson, Founder and CEO of Paragon Innovations, and host Tyler Kern for a peek inside that journey and at how he wound up merging his passion for the outdoors with today's technological IoT advancements.

25 min
09/09/2020

Works With Virtual Conference on September 9-10, 2020

Calling all engineers: The Works With Virtual Conference by Silicon Labs happens September 9-10, 2020. This free virtual event will bring together industry leaders, hardware engineers, application designers and developers for the largest smart home event dedicated to integrating smart home application designs with any hub or smart home ecosystem. Keith Nesrsta, South-Central Regional Sales Manager at Silicon Labs, and Mike Wilkerson, Founder & CEO of Paragon Innovations, spoke about the upcoming event. Both agreed now the right time for engineers to take advantage of the current smart home ecosystems. “The smart home, if you look at it today, is really in its infancy,” Nesrsta said. “There are a large number of ecosystems that are starting to get deployed into some high volumes. And so, what we wanted to do was create an event that hasn’t been done yet. It’s an event that really focuses in on the smart home itself.” Works With will allow engineers and developers to innovate, design, collaborate, build and learn how to connect to these different ecosystems with key industry stakeholders. “This is a conference very much focused on the engineering community,” Nesrsta said. “There will be panel events and technical discussions and over 15 hours of material, 40 sections, and 12 workshops spread throughout the two-day event.” “This event is a place for us to share things that we’ve learned and learn from others in the smart home space,” Wilkerson said. “I’m hoping my team will get the opportunity to learn even more about technologies we can put to use in wireless smart home stuff we’re already doing.” This two-day virtual event is free, but registration is required. Register Now.

24 min
07/29/2020

The Story of Finding A Perfect Technology Development Partner

Ron Farmer called up Paragon Innovations. He wanted to set up a lunch meeting. When the crew at Paragon received him warmly and started checking their calendar, he had to clarify. No, like, now. Luckily, there was a table available at Red Lobster, and Farmer, the CEO of US LED, started a relationship that would last for more than 20 years, with Paragon serving as his technology development partner. The key, Farmer said, is how well the companies fit together. “The gating issue is a cultural match, and that’s it. When it really comes right down to it, when we hired Paragon, Paragon did not know how to do what we were going to do in basic terms because they’d never done a product like that before,” Farmer said. “Really hardly anybody in the whole world knew how to do what we were doing. I had to bring the problem, they had to bring the solution.” “They had the skillsets, and it was a good cultural fit. If they had the skillsets and not the cultural fit, it wouldn’t have worked out.” Mike Wilkinson (embed contributor page), CEO of Paragon, said Ron’s direct approach, not just when asking for a lunch meeting but also when explaining exactly what he needs a white-light LED module to look like. “I love it the most when customers like Ron come and say, ‘Here’s what I want, here’s what I need.'" Wilkinson said. "Those are sometimes very different things but tell us what do you want, what do you need and then tell us about the environment, help us understand.” The way the two companies and their leaders gel mean the lunch meetings continue, even decades after that hastily scheduled seafood lunch.

27 min
07/16/2020 · VIDEO

Mike Wilkinson: State of the Engineering Market

Engineering Experience

11 min

5

out of 5

2 Ratings

Welcome to Engineering Experience, a podcast by Paragon Innovations, where engineering thought leaders share insight on how to deliver results, manage outsourcing, find the right engineering partners, maximize experience, generate engineering documents and come out with smarter and improved products through innovation and invention.

Creator

Paragon Innovations
Years Active

2020 - 2022
Episodes

20
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Copyright Paragon Innovations, Inc.
Show Website

Engineering Experience