Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1111672
50 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 ability to support their system assembly and test requirements on the back end. Many customers take advantage of some or all of the services on the menu. What may happen is some of these service offerings will be introduced to a prospective or an existing customer as they're going through a particular job, but our customers may not have time to take advantage of them because a lot of what we do is quick turn. So, we may see a request on subsequent orders for this additional ser- vice. Again, the places they tend to overlook are on the front and the back end of the value stream. Johnson: Let's talk just a little about the very front end, such as design services. I'll confess that I didn't realize Green Circuits offered that service. Garcia: We can do full product design. Cur- rently, 80% of our design work comes from customers requesting some sort of board lay- out activity. We often hear from our custom- ers that their internal engineering teams tend to want to focus on new product develop- ment. So, there's an opportunity—especially in today's climate with material obsolescence affecting new and existing designs—to rede- sign or update the design of an existing prod- uct to incorporate better material availabil- ity or implement DFM suggestions. We can take over the type of work that the OEM's internal engineering or design development team doesn't necessarily want to do. Of our existing business, less than 15% of our customers are utiliz- ing our design service offering. So, that's an area where we are trying to create more awareness. The cus- tomers that use it are happy with the service and returning for follow-on work in the design space and manu- facturing. Johnson: That is a hidden gem. If you find a customer who needs a design service, you provide a great deal of value. Garcia: Absolutely. And we do a good job of implementing what we learned in the design phase when we run the first prototype job with the new design. So, we're very collaborative on the manufacturing side when working with our design team. Johnson: What does a perfect job look like for your shop? That might be how it's packaged or where it fits with respect to volume or type. Garcia: That's a tough question because every- thing we do is custom and/or customer-spe- cific. We really take pride in engaging with customers on jobs that are critical for them and require a quick turnaround. For instance, we had a customer who needed a project com- pleted for a trade show, and we were able to assist them with doing the final design—in this case, board layout—ordering the parts and delivering a product to them in just over two weeks. So, we felt like we added value to them. They came to us in a pinch, and we were able to move quickly, solve a problem, and, ulti- mately, help the customer be successful. Out- side of that, a perfect job would be customers looking for a full turnkey solution for a com- plex electronic product ideally going to go into box build with some test. Green Circuits' San Jose facility is a balanced mix of automation and human expertise.