Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1447212
44 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2022 together?" at's the glue that keeps those rela- tionships strong. It's why you have customers who have been around for decades, and people who could trust you in the tough times. Matties: It wasn't so long ago, though, that vis- ibility was intentionally guarded. e commu- nication was limited, and companies weren't sharing their future. O'Neil: at's right. We would get buy sig- nals like, "We'll tell you two weeks before it needs to be on our doorstep." And sure, we can work on a razor's edge with no safety net, when everything's super lean and super-effi- cient, and we're all squeezing every penny out of the carrying costs. at's all well and good until there's a massive supply chain disruption, which basically breaks all those systems apart, and it's not hard to see where they fell apart. It's just hard to react effectively and quickly enough. How do you instantaneously drive up those inputs, your safety stock, and your inven- tory? All those things need to be increased almost immediately. And, even if you're rely- ing on data (which I think was deeply flawed in the beginning, because it didn't look like there was a problem), you'd hit refresh, and in five minutes it went from unlimited supply to zero. No one had reliable data. Matties: As we emerge from this and things get back to whatever is our new equilibrium, the cooperation and communication aspect of what we're doing now I expect will stick and be adopted in a stronger fashion because there's too much success with it, even in these chal- lenging times. O'Neil: People are making money and grow- ing. I appreciate the optimism, but I think we'll manage to unlearn the lesson. Players will put profit margin pressures higher up on the pre- mium decision-making matrix and try to take all wastes and costs out. And we'll repeat it. You look at how we might be able to get out of it, the amount of information that's out there now. You look at block chain vs. supply chain, and whether there was actual, reliable data. Something on the chain that said, "Look, there is one component here and it is being consumed here," and it isn't just a compila- tion of spreadsheets coming from nowhere. at would create an auditable chain of where everything is and be something that you could rely and plan on. at's a future state, but I think it's one that will probably happen faster than I expect, by people way younger and smarter than I am. Johnson: Joe, in this market, is it a good time for M&A? O'Neil: A growth market is a good time for M&A; there are opportunities. It's a simple equation for consolidation of SG&A expenses and facility costs, so that's another big benefit. is inventory problem has caused some cash crunches, so there are probably some opportu- nistic opportunities with M&A as well. I think customers having pushed a lot of orders into backlog is nice from a M&A visibility stand- point. en there are the challenges and uncertain- ties. is supply chain caused a lot of hiccups. On every earnings call, the OEM or EMS pro- vider will cite, "is percent is down due to supply chain issues." ose are surprises and anomalies that make that M&A effort a little bit harder, but I think they're within bounds. ey can be overcome. It's not a 50% impact to "Remember when we had that big problem and we figured it out together?" That's the glue that keeps those relationships strong.