Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1411055
SEPTEMBER 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 27 growth in the business, security, customer feedback, and continued long term support of vital systems. Had we continued to grow at the near exponential rate that we were prior to 2017, it would have been a home run decision, but now that we are in 2021 where the mar- ket growth rate has slowed, COVID happened, and the changes to the competitive landscape … looking back on it, we might have made a different decision. Johnson: Let's pivot into going forward. Does this system that you're using now do an ade- quate job as a platform you can extend? Stevenson: Yes. Very much so. It's very easy. It's just a matter of having the appropriate tables in the database, adding the correct columns and the quoting, and updating the front-end sys- tem and the backend system to support it. Yes, it does a very good job where our old systems probably would have been a lot more challeng- ing to make even small changes. Johnson: Right. e value you're buying then is a much longer growth path. You were saying earlier that streamlining processes has become a first order strategic plan for you. What's the most important criteria to streamline right now? Stevenson: In terms of streamlining, continu- ing to focus efforts on our front-end processes through CAM and tooling is our number one opportunity. Between our customer service team and our CAM team, we have many highly skilled, highly paid em- ployees that we are not able to utilize fully. e streamlining of processes in- volves removing some of their daily menial tasks that are perfect for script- ing and automation, freeing up time and allowing them to do what they do best. I mentioned earlier some of the website projects that we have going on to benefit both groups. Addition- ally, we can add functionality to the tools that we have, remove the menial tasks that aren't adding any value or benefit to those roles and get them just doing what they're really good at: serving our customers and building high qual- ity PCBs. In addition, on the manufacturing floor, we've added digital technology, LDIs, printers for legend printing, AOIs for inspection, and probe testers for electrical test to automate as much of that as can be done without the inter- mediate use of tools, films, and fixtures that eat the value and quality out of those processes. We are digitizing and automating those types of processes as well as looking at equip- ment, where the footprint allows, for poten- tial loading and unloading of product, allowing operators to do more value-added inspection, real time, so they can improve their process as they're manufacturing product. Again, it's tak- ing out some of the menial tasks that don't add any value and replacing them with value-add- ed tasks. On our manufacturing floor, we don't have a lot of extra space available and many of those loaders and unloaders take up a lot of floor space. It's a fun process though, figuring out the right technology, the right capability, and the best improvements that need finding and implementing a solution. Johnson: Files submitted by customers can af- fect processes. What is Sunstone's take on Ger- ber vs. IPC-2581 vs. ODB++? Do you accept them all? Do the new ones help you streamline your process?