Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1111672
84 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 Vic Giglio: Our biggest chal- lenge is human resources and finding qualified employees who are in the advanced manufactur- ing world and have tech- nical expertise. Our high schools and colleges are not focused on manufac- turing anymore. Typically, in our China facilities, we don't have this issue. Even with engineering, when you talk about the graduation classes of engineers; they're not into electronics; they're into software, gaming, and chemistry. Feinberg: I totally agree with you. In fact, that's something that IPC is very involved in training and preparing young people involved in this industry. Vic Giglio: We're becoming albatrosses, us old people. We're involved with the incubators in the area, especially in the Boston area, and Lori has exposure to it as well as Jeff with upfront sales. Greentown Labs, MassChallenge, and others are coming out of MIT that are leading edge. But as large are those incubators are, very few design electronic hardware. It's puzzling to me that they're receiving funding from private equity companies and venture capital compa - nies that are investing millions upon millions of dollars into the futuristic view of these prod- ucts. Most of those young people don't have any concept of how to design hardware. Happy Holden: When you get a new product or customer, on average, are you having to invest more of your own engineering talents and expe- rience to make this manufacturable or less? Vic Giglio: Often, we need the technical exper- tise to assist these design engineers in creat- ing the hardware for them. Lori's typical focal point is throwing the engineering resources at that to do that piece of the design. Johnson: So, how do you see your customers' needs and requirements changing? Lori Giglio: From the NPI Center side of the business, I see things becoming quicker and quicker. People need products in 2–3 days ver- sus 5–15 days to procure and build. Everybody seems to be so "under the gun" on designing the newest, greatest thing that by the time they get here, everything is just so fast. Johnson: Are you also facing problems from the supply chain for components, etc., and the tim- ing you need on components to fulfill orders? Lori Giglio: We've been very fortunate and haven't run into a lot of issues except for Vic- tor's scenario where there's a lot of custom parts somebody has designed in and they weren't aware would take weeks to obtain. But for the most part, our quantities and lot sizes are small enough that we're not running into a lot of issues with being able to source; custom- ers just need things so fast. Johnson: Lori, when younger, creative design- ers show up at your doorstep with their design, I'm sure it's common for them to say, "The CAD tool said this will work; therefore, it will be straightforward to make." Is that a chance for you to educate them on what actually happens? Lori Giglio: Yes. I've done some projects with Dartmouth College, and often, especially with young engineers, they're still in school. Many have never seen the actual equipment that produces what they design, such as pick-and- place equipment. They've never seen the pro- cess that a PCB has to go through to become a product. When they're at the NPI Center, it's an extension of their education because they're learning that there are some restraints to what they're doing.. Johnson: Do you have a success story you could share. Lori, you probably have a number to choose from where the customer was well prepared, or you helped them get there, and it made a big difference in their design. Lori Giglio: We do that almost every day, but I like to share success stories where a cus- Vic Giglio