• EEVblog 1722 - Manufacturing Hardware War STORY EEVblogNovember 25, 2025EEVblog,Industry StoriesComments Offon EEVblog 1722 - Manufacturing Hardware War STORY5,750 Views Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Re-telling of a manufacturing hardware war story talk I gave at a recent hardware meetup in Sydney.https://luma.com/Sydney-hardware-meetup?k=cHow a simple manufacturing change cost a company millions of dollars. • 00:00 - Sydney Hardware Meetup01:16 - Seismic Oil Survey Exploration: How to find oil03:29 - Seismic survey vessels are HUGE!04:25 - Solid Towed Array Streamers05:56 - On the back deck of the ships06:33 - Leading edge low noise 24bit ADC’s07:23 - Hydrophone module construction09:33 - The actual war story - Continuous Improvement…14:12 - It CAN’T be that, it’s impossible…16:58 - Field repair wasn’t easy… Forum:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1722-manufacturing-hardware-war-story/ Podcast:Download

Article Summaries:

  • At a recent Sydney hardware meetup, the EEVblog presenter delivered a detailed case study on how a seemingly minor manufacturing change triggered a multi‑million‑dollar loss for a company. The talk, titled “Manufacturing Hardware War STORY,” began with an overview of seismic oil‑survey equipment-highlighting the scale of survey vessels, towed array streamers, and low‑noise 24‑bit ADCs-before shifting to the core narrative. The speaker described the continuous‑improvement process that uncovered the flaw, the disbelief that the issue was possible, and the difficulties of field repair. The session underscored the critical impact of small design or process tweaks on large‑scale hardware production.

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