System and method for the non-contact heating of an electronic substrate using inline heating elements in combination with an automatically controlled airflow. Air heated by the elements is communicated to one or more plenums, which discharge the heated air towards an impingement plate. The impingement plate includes a plurality of openings through which heated air from the plenum passes on its way to heat the electronic substrate. The automatic control of the airflow may be prompted by an operating condition, such as a sensed airflow and/or a transition into an equipment operating mode, e.g., a warm-up, standby, halt production and cool down state. Production may be automatically optimized by using a profile to conjunctively control both the heating of the air and the directing the flow of the heated air. Such a profile accounts for a combined affect of both heating the air and directing the flow of the heated air.