Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1221561
MARCH 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 55 Block: That's right. The subscribers are users of PCBs—OEMs, companies like us. A lot of large companies are using it for the same thing that we're doing. They're trying to validate the quality of a particular supplier. We also use it to see what's out there. When we need to add another supplier, we'll go look at the da- tabase for the technology we need to bring in and say, "This supplier looks pretty good. Let's start talking to them." It's a good way to find a new supplier and not waste your time looking at their websites, talking to salesmen. You just open up the database and can start screening through that to see what technology you need and which supplier you want to talk to. Goldman: The people that have their boards tested are mostly PCB shops? Block: Yes. It's only PCB shops. Goldman: How do they get into this database? Block: They have to be sponsored by a sub- scriber. My subscription comes with an allo- cation as to how many boards I can test. We use that subscription to test new suppliers that we want to add to the database. We also use it to monitor our current suppliers, and we test them and see how they're evolving because the only way you can move up in our quote database is to do better on the test board. Each time a PCB company does the test—let's say they add new equipment—they can slowly move up. But we can also see problems; if they start having problems with something they could previously build, we can use that as part of our audit as corrective action. We'll send them data and say, "You're having problems with this structure. Why did it fail so early?" So it's a total picture of the capability of their shop. Goldman: How many PCB facilities are there in the database? Block: There are about 60 right now. Goldman: How many subscribers are there? Block: Currently, there are 12. It fluctuates up and down, depending on who's in the data- base. One thing nice about being a subscriber is I can see all the shops that everybody else tested; it's not just the shops I tested. It's good in that way since we're not "double-dipping" on a supplier, which is not economical to do. It costs money, so a board shop doesn't want to do a whole bunch of test boards for multiple companies. If I see one of the other subscribers run a test board, I'm able to look at the data and analyze it. Goldman: And you don't have to test them yourself. The board shops then save money on evaluations because running test boards is ex- pensive, as you mentioned. And then you save money because you don't have to be doing this for multiple suppliers. It's very efficient. Block: Correct. Another benefit for us is that our cost has gone down on returns because now that we're putting the right technology with the right shop, we have fewer returns. And it helps the PCB suppliers. Perhaps they're not able to do certain structures and think they should—they're able to use the test system as justification to their management to buy new equipment, for example. We have seen our suppliers use it and tell their management, "If we do this, we're going to save this much mon- ey and be able to get this technology." Goldman: This is all ongoing. Everything is fine, and you're still having committee meetings. What else are you trying to accomplish? Block: What we would like to see is more sub- scribing members right now because if we have more members, we'll have a bigger da- tabase. That helps all of us to see where the technology is going; having a small picture of just a few subscribers, we are not seeing all the technologies that are hitting the industry. We need to evolve our test board to what the industry is doing. Goldman: You're looking for more subscribers to this model, and when they become a sub-