Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1428512
NOVEMBER 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 45 Johnson: If you're having to invest in this kind of equipment because your customers are demanding it, how do you finance that? How do you make the ROI for that equipment so that it's making a profit for you? Capers: ere are two parts. Let's just take flying probe, for instance: the equipment itself and the personnel to run it. e equip- ment is probably $150,000 to $200,000, and then you need the personnel to run it. at's another annual salary. So, the ROI on that must be realized over years. I don't think you're going to see a direct ROI. You'll see an indirect ROI by the volume of business that possibly increases because you have this capability that a customer wants done in- house; they don't like using an outside ser- vice. e ROI is not something you can directly measure. I think it's measured in vol- ume of business and just the overall relation- ship and processes. When people come through and do a tour of the facility or audit the facility, they will want to see all this equipment in place. If they don't, then you don't get that box checked. If you want the business, you almost have to have it in place. Johnson: It's almost like having a building. If you don't have a building, you're not going to get any business. Capers: Exactly. It's a CapEx investment, but at the same time, you're not going to have a direct ROI that you're going to be able to quantify. Johnson: How are requirements changing from your customers when it comes to test and inspection? Is it just more of the same, or do you need to put in additional testing you weren't doing before? How do you respond to what they're asking for right now? Capers: First, let's talk about customers who don't have requirements. You can tell them we are going to do 3D AOI to make sure that everything looks good on their boards. Most small commercial-type customers say that's great. If you're building thousands of boards, you're going to be sampling. So, you're not going to be doing 100%. en you get the very tough customers. One of my customers is very particular about our processes and how we build their products because they're expensive. We're not talking about $20 boards; we're talking about $20,000