Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1080843
70 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2019 there, and fewer boards because they're able to do their bench testing without having to do as many hacks and changes to it to try and save a buck or two here or there. But overall, we think the market is in a good place right now, and the electronics industry is set for some re- ally good things going forward. Everything is becoming more and more electronic in one form or another, and most of those electronics all need some kind of circuit board. Maybe we have the opportunity to build fewer prototypes for a customer, but hopefully, they're doing more and more products and building volumes of prototypes rather than spins and spins on the same prototype. Matties: It's interesting because I don't know if you caught our recent issue featuring the new GreenSource Fabrication facility in New Hamp- shire. They have probably invested $40–50 million, and the strategy that they're adopting is to be an automated factory producing the highest technology that you can receive in the shortest amount of time. Essentially, it's a dark factory in that the only people there maintain equipment; they're not operators because all of the operations are through a digital strategy. People are knocking on their doors to doing business with them. They don't have to sell, per se. They're taking orders and doing it be- cause they've done something remarkably dif- ferent. As VP Alex Stepinski said, a typical HDI board may take a couple of weeks with all the lamination, cycles, and so on. They're able to produce it in 48 hours. They've also stream- lined the process of eliminating the steps that you would need if you let your board sit on racks and queues waiting for the next process for a day or two. That strategy of leading technology is fill- ing their sales pipeline and order desk. What they've done is created through process man- agement a desire for people to do business with them. And when you talk about building the relationships and that sort of thing, truth be told, that's what many fabricators are say - ing: "We want to get there early. We want to collaborate, and we want to help." So, you're still competing in the same space with the same language that everybody else is compet- ing. Meanwhile, I look at GreenSource's digi- tal strategy, and I see something entirely dif- ferent. Since Sunstone had such a strong presence on the internet, what sort of digital approach are you bringing into your factory, or do you see that as a strategy that you should explore? Stevenson: Overall, we haven't really explored a digital manufacturing strategy at this point. As we upgrade and replace equipment, typi- cally, we are going to some more of the cut- ting-edge digital equipment. That being said, we still have a lot of manual processes, such as the plating departments, etc. Sunstone is in a unique situation where part of our competitive advantage is our people. Our average length of service on the manufacturing floor is 12+ years. We have people that have been doing circuit boards for a long time. They know our business model, they live it and breathe it. We don't have a lot of queue times either between our manual processes. We have a drumbeat on the floor where orders move from cam to drill to plate, and they just go through. We're able to do what we do very effective- ly in a short amount of time. Could we throw HDI in here and do that the same way? No, because that's not where we want to go at this point. However, we do want to instill that type of methodology to some of the fringe products, such as RF, and other critical processes rath- er than just the FR-4 product. We want to do what we do well on different types of materials and designs. We have people that have been doing circuit boards for a long time. They know our business model, they live it and breathe it.