Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1197000
40 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2020 sia, and the Philippines, it's a natural evolu- tion. We saw movement from North America come to China back in the '90s. Now, we see that same sort of products being built else- where. For instance, Vietnam has a number of investors from China, Japan, and Korea who have moved some very large manufacturing operations. I went to one three years ago, and they had 3,000 people who each worked one shift; I was there this year, and they have 9,000 people who work 24/7. That's a sign of how their development is going. I see China moving into design as well. And we're looking beyond CFX to machines talking in a common language and the digital factory. How do we put in standards for both communication and security when everything is running around on the air- waves? We have some meet- ings this week to kick off this project in China. Matties: The digital factory is happening. Now, it's a ques- tion of finding the standards and getting the investment to go with it. Carmichael: And as CPCA's board chairman said this morning in his opening remarks, 5G will further push production in China as well. There will be more factories producing things that support that technology. I still see that this industry will be fairly robust going forward for the next period. Matties: We're starting to see manufacturing come back to America for a variety of reasons, such as labor and costs. As we look in North America, we see companies like GreenSource Fabrication setting up digital factories; Green- Source provided a blueprint for a lot of others. Their facility is zero waste and has continuous flow, a lot size of one, and digital fabrication. It lends itself well to becoming a model for cap- tive facilities. Do you see any desire for captive facilities, or is it still going to be drop shops? Carmichael: It's a matter of when and how it fits into the economics. It's going to come, but it's a matter of when. The other attractive aspect of that type of facility is no pollution. Having a green footprint makes it very impor- tant and attractive. Matties: It seems like there's still a lot of invest- ment going on in Chinese manufacturing, try- ing to become true smart factories. Carmichael: I've always been a big advocate of following the money if you want to be success- ful. In China, money is being spent on R&D and development in certain areas: clean man- ufacturing is one, and green manufacturing is another. If you want to get through tighter economic times, fol- low where the investment's going, and you will have a better chance for success. Matties: At one point, one of your product offerings was to help train the employees on work ethics and the end process. Is that still popular? Carmichael: Now, they're interested in learning how to be more green. How can they meet high levels of requirement for both green and ethical manufacturing that European companies put on suppliers? Again, it's a sign of the maturity of the Chinese industry that they're asking for these sorts of things. China has come a long way from green tunics and bicycles. I could never have predicted how much a part of the global economy that Chinese manufactur- ing is today. I had some inkling that there was a good opportunity, but I didn't think it would be on this scale. For example, there are so many people at this show making business connec- tions. It's extremely busy and well-attended. Matties: This is the first year with IPC is not a co-organizer of this event, but you're support- ing the event. That was always your intent.