Why PCB design skills matter - Business Case Study

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a product manager at an electronics manufacturing company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a report showing how PCB design skills impact product quality, production cost, and time to market.

📊 Data: You have data on several recent products including PCB designer skill level, number of design errors found, production cost, and time to market in weeks.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a dashboard that shows the relationship between PCB design skills and key business metrics: product quality (measured by design errors), production cost, and time to market.

Sample Data

Product	PCB Designer Skill Level	Design Errors	Production Cost ($)	Time to Market (weeks)
Alpha	High	2	15000	12
Beta	Medium	5	18000	16
Gamma	Low	10	22000	20
Delta	High	1	14000	11
Epsilon	Medium	6	19000	17
Zeta	Low	12	23000	22
Eta	High	3	15500	13
Theta	Medium	4	17500	15

1

Step 1: Group the data by PCB Designer Skill Level to analyze average design errors, production cost, and time to market.

Create a pivot table with Rows = PCB Designer Skill Level; Values = Average of Design Errors, Average of Production Cost, Average of Time to Market.

Expected Result

Pivot table showing average metrics per skill level: High (Design Errors=2, Cost=$14833, Time=12 weeks), Medium (Design Errors=5, Cost=$18167, Time=16 weeks), Low (Design Errors=11, Cost=$22500, Time=21 weeks).

2

Step 2: Create a bar chart to visualize average design errors by PCB Designer Skill Level.

Bar chart with X-axis = PCB Designer Skill Level, Y-axis = Average Design Errors.

Expected Result

Chart shows design errors decrease as skill level increases: Low=11, Medium=5, High=2.

3

Step 3: Create a line chart to show average production cost and time to market by PCB Designer Skill Level.

Line chart with X-axis = PCB Designer Skill Level; Y-axis = two lines for Average Production Cost and Average Time to Market.

Expected Result

Chart shows both production cost and time to market decrease as skill level increases.

4

Step 4: Add a summary card showing overall impact: Higher PCB design skills lead to fewer errors, lower costs, and faster time to market.

Text card with summary statement based on data insights.

Expected Result

Summary card states: 'Products designed by high skill PCB designers have 82% fewer errors, 34% lower production costs, and 43% faster time to market compared to low skill designers.'

Final Result

Bar Chart: Design Errors by Skill Level

↓

Line Chart: Production Cost & Time to Market by Skill Level

✓Higher PCB design skills strongly reduce design errors.

✓Better PCB design skills lower production costs significantly.

✓Time to market is faster when PCB designers have higher skills.

✓Investing in PCB design training improves product quality and business outcomes.

Bonus Challenge

Add a filter to the dashboard to analyze the impact of PCB design skills by product category or region if such data is available.

Show Hint

Use slicers or filter controls to let users select product categories or regions and see how PCB design skills impact metrics within those groups.