Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1406534
90 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 them and are very transparent. It takes just as much time to buy 100,000 resistors as it does 10,000 resistors. When problems arise, you're dealing with a smaller subgroup, and one con- ference call. You're not dealing with 50 con- ference calls with issues, because that all takes time and time is a precious commodity. Johnson: Well, that stands to reason. You have long-standing customers with a predictable behavior pattern who allow you to do compo- nent and material procurement much more predictably, thereby addressing some of the is- sues. When a company starts to get particular- ly transactional is when they find themselves having to do spot buys for something they just snapped up. Walker: I agree. We have long relationships; we forecast out. We can talk to customers about buying certain devices (with lead times now going into 2022) and we have a comfort level and an understanding with them to do what is right. ey value us as much as we value them, so when committing these dollars to these buys you must have that type of relationship. Johnson: Gary, how does your company ap- proach process optimization? ere's the tech- nical side of optimizing processes, which trick- les down into your bottom line, but are there other strategies you're exploring at Javad to maintain, and maybe even grow, your profit- ability? Walker: We continually challenge how we do business and whether that approach makes sense going forward. e worst thing anyone can ever say to us is, "Well, that's the way we've always done it." We're constantly looking at ev- erything we do to make our process and peo- ple more productive. For example, we went pa- perless. It's a better process control way of do- ing it. You control what people are using much better than pieces of paper that get slipped un- der ESD mats and no rev control. e benefit is you get the process control, but you also get much more productivity. One feeds the other. All the information systems and everything we have are geared toward making things much easier for people to communicate to- gether as teams, to work together moving in- formation. We're an information company. If Smart material handling systems significantly improved manufacturing efficiencies.