Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1284035
50 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2020 Armstrong: Yes, in most applications. There are some situations where, if it's a military appli- cation or something of that nature, we may not be allowed to see the actual product, and perhaps only the people with a certain clear- ance and qualifications can do that at the cus- tomer site. But when it gets right down to it, they want to see the direct application and per- formance on the particular product for which they are looking to find a solution. Normally, one way or another, we get some sort of sam- ple to be able to do a truly direct analysis of the product that they're looking to run in the equipment. Johnson: Koh Young is doing a lot of work on user experience. Tell us about that. Armstrong: Being a Korean company, we've got a large research and development group at HQ in Korea, but we have a very significant R&D group in the U.S., as well. And if we look at it from the overall organization of Koh Young globally, about 60% of the resources are in the R&D, support, and engineering areas. And in our U.S. and Americas situation, combin- ing this research group that is also based here, it's 70% of our entire group that constitutes Koh Young America. There's a lot of focus on that. And if you compare that to other play- ers in this niche of the market, it is something that makes Koh Young stand out. That's one of the keys to being able to provide the solutions that we do provide to best support our custom- ers. It's not only about the equipment, but also the accompanying software solutions, and the support that puts it all together. It sets us apart when we combine what we have at HQ with this research group in the U.S., and the entire support infrastructure. Johnson: Has the software and development side of the business changed its perspective? What is it endeavoring to deliver based on what we learned through COVID-19? Armstrong: It has put some more emphasis on certain aspects of it. The whole software solu- tions subject is something that's constantly evolving, and we've all seen the various things over the years. And now, we're talking about Industry 4.0 and how these software solutions play into that, being able to gather and uti- lize all of this data. That has been a focus— is currently a focus—and will continue to be a focus. But with what we've faced in 2020 with COVID-19, it has also put the focus on some- thing else that it wasn't the necessity of the moment. It has become more of a necessity as we worked through this. That is affecting some of the other development objec- tives so that we can even better handle these types of things going forward. Johnson: One other area that pops up a lot with respect to equipment on the manufacturing floor is ser- vice issues, service calls, service requests, and so forth. How has that changed? Armstrong: There were a lot of restrictions, and I don't know if you've been to an airport in recent months, but I never imagined that we would see airports so empty. They're ghost towns. It's quite shocking to see how all of that Demo board.