Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1067105
56 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2019 Stevenson: We have not really seen a noticeable reduction in quote volume. We are still trend- ing within the lines of our historic numbers for quotes received on a daily and weekly basis. We have seen some changes in customer behavior with the number of turn-key quotes, which has probably increased for us recently with people potentially trying to find a supplier who's able to actually do all of that rather than them trying to source parts here and boards there, and assembly over here. Matties: That's probably becoming a much more demanding role; it sounds like they just want to ship that over to a single source. Stevenson: Yes, and it seems like their toler- ance for longer lead times, etc., has decreased as a result. A lot of the customers want a two- day board lead time, and they want a two-day assembly lead time. If it takes them four days to get parts, they're not happy about these kinds of things. Johnson: Matt, is it fair to say then you're not seeing any impact on your fabrication raw material side? Stevenson: Exactly. The components, tariffs, and all of the other things that have been going on in the industry affecting a lot of the electron- ics have not directly touched Sunstone. We do source some of our materials overseas, lami- nates, chemicals, etc., but at this point, all of our suppliers have either found a way around some of the tariffs (i.e., using Taiwan as their manufacturer), or if they do have to source some of their materials on Mainland China, they absorb the tariffs as part of their supply chain. They're honoring all of the contracts that they had with us without adding any addi- tional processing or tariff-related fees. At this point, we're not really seeing our supply chain being affected by the tariffs and component shortages. Matties: What about the lead times for your laminates suppliers? Is that an issue associated with some of the high-speed stuff? Stevenson: The high-speed stuff has been a problem since before the tariffs, etc. It's been about a year since Rogers, our main supplier of the high-speed stuff, had a lot of the duroid materials go to 50- or 75-day lead times. As a result, we had to start ordering ahead of time on those materials that we knew we were going to use on a regular basis. As far as our FR-4 laminates, we haven't seen any changes. Our suppliers usually stock a pretty fair amount domestically, and then they have their own processing facilities, so they can press mate- rials as needed and are not held hostage by longer lead times in Taiwan. Matties: Rogers is one company that has a notable long lead time. Now, we're seeing other suppliers come in with new laminates that they're calling drop-in or replacement lami- nates. How does that work in the supply chain there? Is this something that you can recom- mend to your customers, or are they just bent on having a particular brand regardless? Stevenson: We can do some, and we have done some recom- mendations as far as using