Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1111672
26 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 Nolan Johnson and John Vaughan, I-Con- nect007 columnist and VP of sales and market- ing at Zentech Manufacturing, discuss how to make customer programs successful through early communication, complete design pack- ages, and more from a company servicing mis- sion- and life-critical industries, including mili- tary, aerospace, and medical. Nolan Johnson: John, can you start by giving us a brief introduction of Zentech Manufacturing? John Vaughan: Zentech Manufacturing is an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) pro- vider located in the Pentagon Region of the U.S. with operations in Baltimore, Maryland, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. Our business is pri- marily focused on the Department of Defense (DoD) and the military prime defense contrac- tor space. We have approximately 200 employ- ees, and this is our 21 st year in business. Johnson: That's a pretty significant size and a vibrant market. Vaughan: We're about 80% mil/aero now, and the balance would be approximately 20% med- ical. We also touch a handful of commercial products each year that tend to be in the high- end computing space. So, we do high-complex- ity manufacturing for highly regulated mar- kets. One thing you've likely noticed is that we were early adopters of the IPC validation ser- vices programs, and I believe we were one of the first to become IPC-610 Class 3 mission-crit- ical certified and were the first to become IPC J-STD-001 certified with the space addendum. We are also one of only three certified under the new IPC-1791 trusted assembler certification. In short, we support these highly regulated mar - kets with advanced certifications and high-com- plexity level manufacturing and test. The result is a pretty narrow pool of competitors. Johnson: What's the one thing you would want every customer to understand about delivering a data package to your quote team? Vaughan: Well, I'm old-school, so planning and communication still matter more than any- thing to me. Often, if customers are running late against their deadlines, they will feel pressure inter- Zentech's Mission-critical Tips for Program Success John Vaughan