Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1447212
26 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2022 Stepinski: e first one to two years will be a little challenging. You can reduce your capital purchases and invest a little bit of this, or you could finance some of your capital equipment if you're not doing it now, so you don't have a spike in cost for the short term. is is a proven approach in many other industries. But what's missing is the general education of how to do this. While there are many resources online, people need to take the time. I've heard from many companies that implemented AI or Industry 4.0 that it's impor- tant the stakeholders in the organization com- mit themselves to spending a couple hours a week reading, listening, or watching some- thing to learn how the rest of the world does it. Matties: Regarding direct labor cost, I'm understanding that if a metric is revenue out- put per employee, then productivity will go up because of yields, throughput, and so on. What is the right measure for someone today to say we want to reduce our labor cost by whatever the X happens to be for them, without neces- sarily getting rid of people? Because like I said, they don't see where they can bring in an auto- mated line especially in a brownfield site. Stepinski: I think this is an old idea where you say, "I'm going to automate the factory, so I don't need any labor in a brownfield. Alex built a brand-new automated factory; boy, we wish we had that because we wouldn't need so much labor." at's not the way to look at it. ere are challenges as boards get more complex and there is a tendency for human error the higher the complexity gets in PCB manufacturing. No matter who you have, they will make errors. Some make less than others, but as you add steps to build the boards, it gets more complex. You're fighting this all the time. It's getting more difficult to find direct labor. In the near term, you say, "Hey, I really need to upgrade all the equipment in my shop. I can't afford to do it, so the first step is to make things as efficient as possible to free up capital so I can go and do it in a systematic way over the next few years." You need to have a strategy, which should be to refresh the equipment kit so that you are not so dependent on your experienced operators, more dependent on your systems and pro- cesses, and you develop a body of knowledge on how to manage that pro- cess. Once things are documented, you can tolerate higher rates of turnover in these situations. You're not going to have trouble finding direct labor to work in your sloppy place because it won't be sloppy aer all this is done. I've been hearing the same excuses for many years, now that I was doing these past projects, and anyone who started this when I built my first factory at Whelan, they'd be finishing up right now, and be very happy. And they wouldn't have spent very much money at all. Upskilling the workforce is the key, the ones who can provide the most value right away, making sure all the stakehold- ers are knowledgeable on how to do this, and not trying to hire a supplier or hire a company to do it all for you. at's very expensive. Matties: e takeaway is to become a process- oriented company that relies on systems rather than people.