Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1361971
14 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2021 Years ago, I worked at a fabricator, and we bought seven new pieces of equipment, plugged them all in at the exact same time, and you can imagine what happened. We had all kinds of problems right from the get-go. So, what did we do? We unplugged them one at a time until we found where the root of the prob- lem came from and then started all over again. at's where capital expenditure and purchas- ing of equipment is key in your ROI. You need to be looking at all that stuff. You need to say, "How is this piece of machinery going to play with this other piece of machinery? Does it play well, or does it not play well?" Matties: What was your strategy in terms of prioritizing equipment for your facility? Thompson: It was based on customer need. We would look at the numbers and we'd say, "X number of customers are now asking for this type of technolo- gy. We need to head in that direction. What do we need to get to that direction? What sort of machines and equipment do we need to get there?" And that's where we would shoot for first. So it was based on a consensus of our custom- ers. Matties: I guess that's probably the answer for every fabricator. Because we're a service in- dustry, so we have to react to market trends. Thompson: Exactly. Matties: As a process engineer, how important is it for you to stay in tune with what's going on in the external marketplace? Thompson: It was very important. ere were many technologies that we didn't go aer, but I still had to know about them. I had to know about them to write about them. I had to know about them for presentations to customers. Because frequently a customer would ask me about a process, and the last thing I want to say is, "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that pro- cess." You want to be on top of all that stuff. You want to say, "I know what that is. Here are the drawbacks, here are the negatives of that particular process, and here are the benefits of that particular process." And again, it's all applications dependent. Matties: When you looked at your supply line, what attributes of the supplier were the most important to you? Thompson: I'd say price is certain- ly in there, but I'd say that's probably about three down the line. Delivery is first, support is second, and then probably price. Matties: Delivery: your in- ventory is dependent upon that. Thompson: Absolutely. Not every- body has the money or the where- withal to stock every possible materi- al in every possible dielectric and every possi- ble preg ply. It's not feasible. So what happens if somebody comes out of the blue and says, "I need to use X material," and it's not some- thing that we've dealt with before? A couple of different things have to happen. First, you have to qualify that material. So you're going to have to run a number of tests—gel, press, etch, every possible test—to make sure that it does play well with all of your chemistry and all of your processes before you can even put the green light on, saying, "Okay, now we can procure some of this stuff and we can actually run it for the customer and babysit it through the shop and special teams capability."