Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1476200
AUGUST 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 13 Ryder: at exact situation happened to us with our largest customer in the late '90s. ey came in and tried to tell us how to price things based on how they price things as a CM. It's such a different world; it just doesn't fit. ey tried several different board shops, ultimately firing the guy who was in charge of that pro- gram, and came back to us. Barry Matties: What is the attitude of buyers when you are talking price increases these days? Ryder: Right now, there's actually reasonable acceptance, because if you just go to the gas sta- tion or the supermarket, you're not surprised that everything you look at is now more expen- sive. Even if the price of, say, laminate wasn't higher, the price of delivering it to us would be higher. ere's not much pushback. Matties: We've talked in the past about the shi of the just-in-time ( JIT) orders and that quick- turn work is gone, for the most part; that must have a real effect. Ryder: Yes. It has been a significant issue for us. e demand for quick-turns is greatly reduced, and much of that is driven by cost. e other issue, which we're all aware of, is component shortages. ere's no point in paying for a three-day turn on a 10-layer if you aren't going to have components for two months. So, def- initely, our opportunity for the higher-dollar orders has been diminished just by the lower demand for the quick-turn. Matties: Are the prices fluid, Dave? Are they adjusting monthly, or did you just make an adjustment? Ryder: No. e last time that we made a sig- nificant adjustment was in January, and we've tried to just weather the storm since then. My philosophy is that aer we get to a point where there are enough additional increases and they look like they will stick, then we'll go back and adjust across the board. But we're not jumping in and adding a dime here or a nickel there. Matties: Dan, what do you see as the trend? Are others more dynamic or are they fixed price once they've made this initial adjustment? Beaulieu: It's incremental. You have several kinds of programs. First, there are the large ones, such as the defense aerospace programs. Dave is more in the incremental, quick-turn end of the business. But the guys who are doing the military programs must set their prices. ey've got to fight about it with the company, and they keep it. But with the guys who are doing incremental pricing, I see fluid- ity in those things based on month-to-month increases in cost. It's not like, "Okay, this pro- gram with 150 part numbers," that's a one kind of a customer, and you do it across the board. But when you have a customer who's placing two jobs a month, I'm seeing that be pretty fluid. Matties: It looks like there's still plenty of work out there. What do you see? Do you think that's going to continue or will there be a slowdown? Ryder: I'd love to be optimistic and say it's going to continue forever, but unfortunately, if you're following the news at all, it's pretty uncertain. It's hard to say. Matties: On the consumer side, we have to spend money for food and gas at an inflated The last time that we made a significant adjustment was in January, and we've tried to just weather the storm since then.