Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1456062
78 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2022 ing. An OEM purchase does little for the indus- try as it removes capacity and options. So, where does this leave the consumer? Only time can really answer that question. But in the short term, the expected result is more confusion. Rolling up shops looks sim- ple to investors. In fact, it is an easy "picture to paint." In reality, it is very difficult to com- bine PCB shops without impacting customers. e reason is a unique part of the business that does not have a "column" in a financial analysis. No two shops have the same process technol- ogy. In areas like California and Chicago, many of the shops are spinoffs from other shops, so there is some commonality. However, as the time between the spinoff increases, these com- mon elements begin to disappear. Since most of the spinoffs happened 10 to 20 years ago, the similarities are greatly reduced. For the shops that are not a spinoff, there is virtually no com- monality. In a traditional roll up, the com- mon functions are (immediately) combined to reduce overhead costs and smaller acquisitions are absorbed into the larger to fill excess capac- ity. Fab shops that have survived to this point do not have excess capacity. is is particularly true of the higher technology processes such as laser drilling, laser direct imaging, via filling, reverse pulse plating, and so on. If the shops in a roll up are le more indepen- dent and the holes in their pro- cesses are filled (which requires investment), the disruption to the customer is minimized. If there is an immediate move to "fix them," the results are usu- ally not good. Every fab shop has its own "secret sauce," and that secret is oen confined to a few key individuals. ("Mom- ma's spaghetti can't be made with store-bought sauce.") e OEM acquisition has its own difficulties. It would be rare for the OEM to need 100% of the capacity of the shop they acquired. erefore, the acquisition strategy likely includes a plan to continue to satisfy existing customers and use that revenue to pay for the acquisition. Rarely does the OEM con- sider the continued investments that must be made to service the technology advances of the general market. e probable result is that they will gravitate to a wholly captive situation to reduce the investment. is will have the effect of displacing customers who must seek other suppliers. One solution to the market disruption is to look for stable solutions that have been in the marketplace for enough years to allow the cus- tomers to evaluate their performance. e pre- dominant model that has emerged over the past 20 years is the PCB trading partner. is model has shown very significant growth in the post pandemic recovery. ere are a variety of reasons why this model offers viable solutions. Technology Explosion e technology for the PCB must evolve to remain compatible with the increasing demand for speed, performance, and lower cost. is is a struggle for a general-purpose shop due to the massive equipment and process costs that are part of each increase in technology. As a result, there is a strong trend for fab shops to special-