Tom Bilsborow
President
Equipped with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Adelaide, Tom seized on an opportunity to join Tesla in 2012. This was the beginning of a seven-year tenure that served as the foundation for first-principle reasoning and problem solving under often time constrained and highly consequential circumstances.
Initially part of the charging systems team, Tom played a significant role in testing and designing early fast-charging equipment. This included power electronics across multiple charging standards. Later, Tom transitioned teams where he led the architecture, design, and deployment of innovative PCBs to enhance bed-of-nail test functionality for contract manufacturers in Mexico and Korea.
In early 2017, Tom assumed the role of lead engineer for the factory automation material flow team, focusing on a mass-market vehicle program. He identified shortcomings in the existing $1.5B automation implementation and presented a direct recommendation to the C-suite, resulting in the removal of $100M worth of equipment and a fivefold increase in production throughput. Tom led the execution effort and provided long-term system support to ensure sustained production viability.
Following this success, Tom conducted an in-depth production cycle analysis with focus on vehicle storage buffer fundamentals. This analysis revealed an achievable $80M capital expenditure saving which he personally recommended to the C-suite. This recommendation was executed successfully.
This opened another opportunity — being tasked with achieving additional production capacity under a significant cost and time constraint. Tom took absolute ownership for an autonomous vehicle camera, ultrasonic and radar calibration facility enabling construction of a supplemental production line for 1% of the original overall automated production line cost in under 20 days.
Then, in 2018, was a promotion to architecting and designing next-generation vehicle communication systems with heavy involvement in a custom low-priced microprocessor silicon design and power layer design automation script for an artificial intelligence trainer silicon.
In early 2019, Tom joined a factory robotics startup as the owner of electrical systems. He architected, designed, tested and implemented a multi-application PCB controller for use with an autonomous vehicle fleet, storage robotics and conveyors.
In 2021, Tom led day-to-day engineering operations at an electric boating company. He undertook the architecture definition and autonomous sensor hardware design of a high-power and high-capacity vessel.
Tom founded Haywire with the core desire to help startups succeed through rapid product development. Now primarily residing in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with his wife and son, Tom spends his free time on auto projects, snowboarding, and mountain biking.
Equipped with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Adelaide, Tom seized on an opportunity to join Tesla in 2012. This was the beginning of a seven-year tenure that served as the foundation for first-principle reasoning and problem solving under often time constrained and highly consequential circumstances.
Initially part of the charging systems team, Tom played a significant role in testing and designing early fast-charging equipment. This included power electronics across multiple charging standards. Later, Tom transitioned teams where he led the architecture, design, and deployment of innovative PCBs to enhance bed-of-nail test functionality for contract manufacturers in Mexico and Korea.
In early 2017, Tom assumed the role of lead engineer for the factory automation material flow team, focusing on a mass-market vehicle program. He identified shortcomings in the existing $1.5B automation implementation and presented a direct recommendation to the C-suite, resulting in the removal of $100M worth of equipment and a fivefold increase in production throughput. Tom led the execution effort and provided long-term system support to ensure sustained production viability.
Following this success, Tom conducted an in-depth production cycle analysis with focus on vehicle storage buffer fundamentals. This analysis revealed an achievable $80M capital expenditure saving which he personally recommended to the C-suite. This recommendation was executed successfully.
This opened another opportunity — being tasked with achieving additional production capacity under a significant cost and time constraint. Tom took absolute ownership for an autonomous vehicle camera, ultrasonic and radar calibration facility enabling construction of a supplemental production line for 1% of the original overall automated production line cost in under 20 days.
Then, in 2018, was a promotion to architecting and designing next-generation vehicle communication systems with heavy involvement in a custom low-priced microprocessor silicon design and power layer design automation script for an artificial intelligence trainer silicon.
In early 2019, Tom joined a factory robotics startup as the owner of electrical systems. He architected, designed, tested and implemented a multi-application PCB controller for use with an autonomous vehicle fleet, storage robotics and conveyors.
In 2021, Tom led day-to-day engineering operations at an electric boating company. He undertook the architecture definition and autonomous sensor hardware design of a high-power and high-capacity vessel.
Tom founded Haywire with the core desire to help startups succeed through rapid product development. Now primarily residing in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with his wife and son, Tom spends his free time on auto projects, snowboarding, and mountain biking.
© Haywire, Inc. 2024