Preston Zen
Projects
Field work — summary onlyUkraine

Field engineering and component sourcing, Ukraine

High-level only. Hardware sourcing and field engineering work under wartime conditions, published at the level already in the public record and no further.

A sourcing chain where the specified part does not survive contactSPECpart chosenSOURCEpart goneSUBSTITUTEsubtly differentINTEGRATEunder loadLEAD TIME IS FICTIONDESIGN FOR THE SUBSTITUTE, NOT THE SPECDOCUMENTATION MUST SURVIVE ITS AUTHOR BEING UNREACHABLEDETAILS WITHHELD

Why this page is short

Some of this work does not belong on a marketing website. Specific capabilities, suppliers, units, locations, and timelines are not published here and will not be supplied on request. What follows is the part that is already public and the part that is relevant to a commercial buyer.

What is relevant to a client

Sourcing electronics into a contested environment teaches things that no procurement course does. Lead times are fiction. A datasheet is a starting position. The component you specified will be unavailable and the substitute will be subtly different. Logistics, customs, and export control are engineering constraints, not paperwork that happens to someone else. Documentation has to survive the person who wrote it being unreachable.

How this shows up in ordinary work

It makes me pessimistic in a useful direction. I design for the part being out of stock, the local contractor being unavailable, and the remote hands being someone who has never seen the equipment before. That is usually a better assumption than the alternative, even for a client whose worst day is a failed courier.