Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1433652
28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2021 tors in the factory who just check the quality of the product direct- ly out of the lines. We send the product to the lab to validate the sam- ple before the customer receives the boards. e target was a long- term strategy—to sell everywhere in the world. We are opening new offices all the time. We started in the United States in 2015, but we are increasing. We have representatives in most European countries, in Brazil, Mexico, and Canada, but also in Japan, ailand, India, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Matties: It looks like your revenue has grown substantially since that first five million euro. You have over 450 people and 20 business units, correct? Chauvet: I think now we have more than 500 employees. Matties: Fantastic. You been with ICAPE since April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic; that's a tough time to start. Chauvet: It was really tough. I'm French, but I was living in Estonia. I used to work for a con- tract manufacturer, and I knew some people, so we contacted each other, and they said that there was a really nice opportunity in the U.S. I was stuck in Europe, but I was able to travel and move to the U.S. in November. I worked remotely for quite a long time from Europe. Matties: I'm certainly glad we're getting a chance to chat today. Let's start with the sup- ply chain. Obviously, that's the big topic right now. Chauvet: It's a big topic. For two years, we have had many supply chain issues. We had COVID, but every year we have the Chinese New Year and that creates a big impact on PCB manufac- turing. Most Taiwanese and Chinese partner factories closed for over a month, so we need- ed to be sure that the PCBs were shipped be- fore Chinese New Year. It took a while to get it restarted, and when I started working for ICAPE Group, we had transportation issues. Air travel was just impossible during COVID. Even now, the customer doesn't really know when he will get the components, so they are pushing out or pulling in the components, and it creates big, complicated problems for our partner factories and takes more time for us to manage the inventory. We have ships that are blocked, and the docks in the U.S. are full. It seems like we al- ways have a new issue. It's so important to se- cure the supply chain and to put stock in Asia when the PCBs are built. e best plan for us is to stock the PCBs at our warehouse in Indi- anapolis, which we are expanding to allow for more storage. We have a shortage of raw ma- terial, so the lead time went from eight to 16 weeks on some part numbers. My goals have been to form partnerships. We cannot put in stock unless we find solu- tions with the customers, so we discuss the op- tions. We see how we can secure the visibili- ty or not, and just propose different solutions. One solution is consignment. We pushed to get more vendor-managed inventory (VMI), which means they get a forecast, we have some contracts, and we try to keep a certain level of stock inside our warehouse. Matties: Now the work that you do is made-to- order. Chauvet: Right. We only do custom parts. erefore it's more complicated for us and it's why the customer needs to secure this part— they cannot find it off the shelf. We try to store parts here in Indianapolis or secure the raw material so the shop can build the boards when they need to. Currently, there is a lot of alloca- Guillaume Chauvet