Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1269815
JUNE 2020 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 35 for those? Because you're saying that the larger you are, the more leverage you have with your supply chain. But it seems like there's still a case for these people to go to a captive facility as well. Stepinski: I'm not going to say that I'm com- petent to answer that. I have not analyzed the product mix for a large OEM or looked at their pricing and lead times to say if it makes sense. I've only been approached by people in the small- to mid-tier OEM range who are interested. I have been approached by larger OEMs talking about prototype shops and not mass production of a commoditized product. We have not discussed that with anybody. It's hard to engage with people who do that be- cause they have very professional supply chains that are extremely focused on the supply chain. The tendency seems to be these aren't the kind of people you talk to about reshor- ing. They're trying to find ev- ery penny in the supply chain. In my experience of selling boards to people like that, it's not typically the right skillset to talk with them about building a factory. Matties: It has to come from another voice in the organization to make that shift. Stepinski: Correct. That has to be driven by en- gineering or C the suite. Matties: Let's talk about your factory. The last time we chatted, you were pretty close to hav- ing it up and running, and the warehouse was the last component going in. Stepinski: All of the equipment is here. We're still developing all the time, and we have a lot of new equipment we've built that we're shuf- fling around because of that. We've developed some new processes that we're going to be re- leasing as new to the market. As an example, we have developed an etch technology. We have chemical-less etching, and you regener- ate it, depending on which etching it is, with electricity or air. It's zero waste with 95% less variation than anything else on the market in terms of etch quality, etch alignment distribu- tion, or feature size distribution. This is something that we're currently build- ing for ourselves internally—self-qualifying work cells where we have the metrology in- corporated; it's self-checking and not just per- cent metrology but product metrology to do automated feedback. This is something not in the market right now that we're focusing on, and we plan to have available generally next year. Another one is our wastewater systems, which is going to be coming to the market next year. We already have plans for going commercial, but we are fine-tuning some of our IP before we do it. There's a lot of interest in this around the world. It looks like the initial orders will be in the U.S. market, and probably Japan as well. This is our focus. Rather than being the per- son who sells an individual piece of equip- ment, we're trying to be the person who sells a work cell with all aspects of the process en- gineered for you. Whether you buy the chem- istry from a supplier or we tell you how to do it with air or electricity, or some homebrew, we're trying to provide the whole process. Our methodology now is that with any new pro- cess we bring to market, we make it first for ourselves in New Hampshire. We build it in Europe, ship it to ourselves, qualify and debug it, and then incorporate improvements. After all that, we make it generally available. Matties: Are you seeing a lot of interest in cap- ital equipment investment in the U.S. right now? Stepinski: There's a lot of interest in what we have to offer, although I don't know if there's a