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64 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2022 Feature Article by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 Supply chain, distribution, and price infla- tion are headline news topics these days. To better understand how EMS companies do— or could—respond to pricing pressure from input costs, we asked both EMS industry com- pany representatives and EMS equipment manufacturers to comment on how the indus- try can respond to current pressures. Q: How is your company adjusting to the pricing changes you see on your input costs? Are you still absorbing any price increases or passing them along to customers now? What other adjustments are you making? Charlie Capers, vice president and general manager at Zentech, an EMS provider located in Dallas, Texas, shares that, as an EMS pro- vider, "Prices are changing by the hour these days and what you quoted a week ago has prob- ably changed. Since we are the manufacturing extension for our customer, we typically must pass the additional costs along to them. Mar- gins are razor thin these days, so if the PPV is ±1% then we possibly will want to re-quote to capture the additional cost." MEC/Screaming Circuits is based in Mil- waukee, Wisconsin, with Duane Benson lead- ing the marketing out of the company's Port- land, Oregon office. He shares a similar per- spective, saying, "We absorbed prices where we could and for as long as we could. We have had to pass along direct materials cost increases for a while now, but until recently we absorbed most cost increases related to indirect sources. Real-time Strategies to Offset Soaring Expenses