Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1067105
74 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2019 Johnson: Once they join and see the value, do they keep coming back to what you have to offer? Baker: Absolutely. A lot of people don't get what we do at first. But once they try it, they keep coming back because it's a bit of a magi- cal experience. Johnson: Is one body of your audience easier to integrate with than the other? Baker: In the beginning, it was easier to work with distributors because they instantly see the value since people buy components. The vendor portion took longer, but now our value is clear to them. We're working with them more. I'm excited about this because I feel like we can help them a lot. Johnson: Where do you see your product going in the next three to five years? Baker: There are so many things I want to do and that I'm so excited about, but I think I'm going to keep them up my sleeve for now. Johnson: One thing we can take away from this conversation is that you have a pretty extensive roadmap for the next three to five years. Baker: Yes. I feel like we haven't even scratched the surface of where I want to go. Businesses can be hard because you always want to do so many things, but you can only do a portion of them. It's a constant frustration. Johnson: That makes sense, but it seems like you have a good strategy that's disciplined and will keep you focused. Before we finish, is there anything else you'd like to discuss? Baker: We're working something really special for electronics engineers and PCB designers over here at SnapEDA, which is so much more than just a symbol and footprint library. Yes, we're a company, but this is just as much a passion project for our team members, built out of our own experiences designing PCBs. We've made an incredible free product that saves engineers so much time, and we're constantly improving it based on the feedback we get from our community. I'd definitely recommend that readers create a free account and give it a try! Johnson: Sounds awesome. Thank you for your time, Natasha. Baker: Thank you so much for the opportunity to be involved in this. SMT007 Chinese New Year (CNY or the Spring Festival) is China's most revered and highly anticipated annual holiday and is observed by an estimated 1.4 billion people worldwide (or close to a quarter of the world's population). The date of the festival varies from year to year depending on the lunar calendar with the 2019 celebrations marking the Year of the Pig scheduled to begin on February 5. As China eagerly anticipates a fortnight of festivi - ties, electronics manufacturers who source their PCBs from China will be bracing themselves for some significant logistical challenges. The reason? Chinese factory work- ers often work in coastal areas far from their home prov- inces, so CNY offers a rare opportunity for some precious family time. While the official holiday only lasts for around 10 days (five working days, plus the weekends either side), suppli- ers typically wind down their operations one to two weeks in advance of the holidays to allow plenty of time for workers to travel the often vast distances back to their inland villages. And most factories aren't back running at full capacity until at least a week after the holidays officially end. It's also not uncommon for factories to resume production with as little as a third of their original workforce; some work- ers simply never return at all. Uncertainty about staff levels after the holidays is a very real obstacle for Chinese facto- ries if they're forced to replace or retrain workers after CNY, and can lead to potential quality issues for manufacturers. (Source: Neil Sharp, JJS Manufacturing) How to Avoid Supply Chain Disruption this Chinese New Year