Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1193979
DECEMBER 2019 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 77 The U.S. market is going to be a major mar- ket for CML; we're already working on a three- and five-year plan. So, you could say that the tariffs were not factored in what we're looking at, but the reality of this situation is our long- term plans as a company have a lot of walls in place that we're building around. The tariff wasn't something we all foresaw in early 2018. But we did our due diligence, took the action plan early in 2019, and put into play a couple of new plant options in South Korea and Thai- land, which was a solution that worked out great for our customers. We don't have any barriers in front of us now. If the tariffs stick for the next five years, then we have solutions in place. If the tariffs go away, then we're back to having dual re- gional source options for our customers. In the long-term, I hope that the U.S. and China can come to an agreement, as the tariffs have glob- al impacts. CML is 600+ strong today, and we don't know if that will double, triple, or quadruple in the future. We need to strive to keep our business cost-efficient and service-oriented for our customers. There's confidence when you work for a company, such as CML, that is en- gaged in the long-term journey and want their employees to be a big part of that. Johnson: Thanks for speaking with us, Chris. Minard: Thank you for the opportunity. PCB007 Sponsored Links • Website: cml-globalsolutions.com • PCB resource hub In the long-term, I hope that the U.S. and China can come to an agreement, as the tariffs have global impacts. shop. I've been dealing with a variety of com- panies, and they all give me similar pricing. But in the last six years, I haven't had anyone look at my board and tell me what I could change to make them more manufacturable. What can I change to create some cost savings?" That was a perfect opportunity for me to organize a conference call with Juergen and his team in Germany. We looked at a few of their designs. We offered some alternative solutions as far as materials and solder mask went. On one of the boards, we saved them a fair- ly significant amount of money, which they were extremely happy with; that opened the door for them to say, "This is worth something to me." Juergen and his team played a criti- cal role in that. It's huge to have someone on the other side of the phone to share ideas back and forth and ask questions and get answers in real-time. Adding human interaction goes a long way in our service model. Customers begin to think, "Maybe I'm not only going to be a price-first guy, but there might also be a lot of value in the fact that I have somebody who I can reach out to on any given day to collaborate with." A certain seg- ment of the market seems to have a need for that, and our model and teams can offer great solutions. I had always seen that as a distinct advantage in CML's setup because we could service those personal service level needs. Johnson: You mentioned that strategically, your management team is planning even as far out as 2030, and we talked about tariffs; let's bring those two things together. Am I correct to read between the lines that your management team and your projections don't see the tariffs as be- ing a long-standing, long-term issue? Minard: The plans moving out to 2030 or be- yond are more about infrastructure and our global footprint. Since CML only entered the U.S. market in 2018, the amount of business we're doing in the U.S. as a portion of the over- all company revenue was not that significant. Now that we have tariff mitigating solutions in place, we don't believe they will impact our long term growth plans for the U.S.