Ctrl+Listen Podcast

Your bill of materials decides how much e-waste a product creates long before it ever reaches a recycling plant. On this episode of the CTRL+Listen Podcast, James Sweetlove talks with Ian Levoi, founder of Selectronyx, about why circularity starts at component selection, how unplanned obsolescence and "end-of-life surprises" force costly redesigns, and why repairability should be treated as a design specification. Ian draws on years as a systems engineer and architect in aviation and the semiconductor industry to explain how EU rules like the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the Digital Product Passport are moving repairability from good practice to expectation. The conversation also covers where AI helps surface lifecycle and wastage patterns buried in BOM data, and where it still calls for caution. If you design, source, or manage electronic components, you'll walk away with a practical way to weigh repairability, reliability, sustainability, and total cost of ownership alongside price and specs.Resources from this Episode:- Selectronyx — FairSpec BOM scoring (free tier)- EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR):- Article: The EU Regulatory Super-Cycle: ESPR, DPP and CSRD for Your BOM- Article: NRND is a warning. End-of-life is when the options close.#circulareconomy #billofmaterials #ewaste

AI in manufacturing gets framed as a headcount question, and Chris Carolan of the Value-First Team argues that is the wrong place to start. In this episode of the CTRL+Listen Podcast, James Sweetlove talks with Chris about designing workflows where AI takes the repetitive work in order management, accounts payable, and supply chain teams so people can show up to the job fully present. They dig into the knowledge walking out the door as engineers with 30 to 40 years of experience retire, and why calling it "tribal knowledge" instead of human domain expertise changes what you actually capture. Chris makes the case that cutting people without adding capability is a trap, that hours saved is the wrong metric, and that an agent resolving a thousand tickets matters less than asking why there are a thousand tickets. If you lead a manufacturing, sourcing, or operations team and need to roll out AI without losing the people who know how things really work, this conversation gives you the question to ask first.Resources from this Episode:- Value-First Team's Website - Chris Carolan on LinkedIn- Browse Octopart for Parts & Tech News: #aiinmanufacturing #supplychain #octopart

AI PCB design is further along than most engineers assume, and further from finished than the hype suggests. In this episode of CTRL+Listen, host James Sweetlove sits down with Daniel Liu, founder of Solderable, and Ashwin Deepak, the company's VP of automation, for a straight answer on where AI circuit board design actually stands today. Their number: roughly 30% of the way there. Models already grasp components and low-level electrical behavior remarkably well; where they still fall apart is at the edges, on large and complex board designs. Solderable's focus right now is AI schematic design, with PCB layout to follow, and Daniel expects the compounding inflection point to land within a year. Resources from this Episode:- Solderable Website- Solderable — Component Search- Solderable — MCP Server - Book a call with Daniel- Daniel Liu on X- Email Daniel#pcbdesign #aihardware #octopart

How do you get custom overmolded cables in weeks instead of months? In this episode of the CTRL+Listen podcast — brought to you by Octopart — host James sits down with Sacha Fabien, co-founder of Fillio, a Quebec-based low-pressure overmolding and cable assembly shop that's modernizing a slow, old-school process. Sacha shares how a hunt for a low-profile M8 connector led him to develop overmolding in-house, why overmolding is the overlooked step behind nearly every cable you own, and how Fillio uses 3D-printed molds to cut tooling cost and iterate fast.They dig into the real challenges of overmolding and cable assembly — the cost of entry, lead times, and the teaching involved for engineers new to the process — plus how Fillio pulls live availability, pricing, and lead-time data through the Octopart API to quote faster. Sacha and James also cover the bigger picture: how COVID and tariffs are pushing hardware teams to reshore and build local supplier resilience, where robotics and physical AI fit into manufacturing, and why a reliable local supplier has gone from a hard sell to something buyers actively want. If you build hardware, source components, or care about supply chain resilience, this one's for you.Resources from this Episode:- Fillio site (newsletter signup at bottom of page)- Contact Fillio- Octopart API — how Fillio sources part data- Sacha's LinkedIn- Company LinkedIn#overmolding #cableassembly #supplychainChapters

Is vibe coding the biggest threat to big companies? In this episode of the CTRL+Listen Podcast, brought to you by Octopart, host James Sweetlove sits down with Len Ward — founder and head of AI at Commexis — to unpack how AI is rewiring the way businesses market, sell, and build. Len argues that the real competition for a 10,000-person company isn't the shop down the street; it's "Jenny and Mike in their garage" who can vibe code a product and flank incumbents from every side. He explains why he believes the billion-dollar companies of the future could have one or two employees, why "speed is the new moat," and how "random acts of AI" are quietly killing business growth.The conversation goes deep on the shift from a "search and retrieve" world to a "solve my problem" world, the real difference between automation and true AI, and why Len thinks B2B is now adopting AI faster than B2C. Along the way they cover AI in supply chain and procurement, automating sales without losing the human touch, when a customer still needs a human on the phone, and what's coming next as AI starts taking actions for you — not just answering questions. Whether you're an engineer, a founder, or on a sourcing team, it's a candid look at where AI-driven business is actually heading.Resources from this Episode:- Commexis (Len Ward's company) - Len Ward on LinkedIn#vibecoding #aiforbusiness