Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1476200
18 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2022 tional, I think you would have a pretty upset customer. Matties: At the end of the day, they will blame you, right? Ryder: Absolutely. at's the case. Unfor- tunately, in a lot of situations, the buyer who's strictly a buyer doesn't have any technical background or knowledge about this. You hit a dead end when you're trying to talk to them about some of these issues. Matties: e approach is different whether you're dealing with a buyer or an engineer on the quoting process. Whereas a buyer may want it in 45 minutes, an engineer will want a more detailed quote that could take six or eight hours, and the exchange of questions and such. Beaulieu: Because they're interested in the product, not the price. Ryder: at's exactly right. Although, there are exceptions to everything like that. Sometimes you'll get an engineer who's certain his design is beyond reproach. Normally they're not, but there are different views from every customer we deal with. On the prototype side of things, they're doing a prototype to make sure that when they hit production, that it's really the design they want. ey should put a little more emphasis on the front end of this, the proto- type stage. Matties: Are you looking at streamlining the quoting process with soware? Are there mar- ket opportunities for fabricators to upgrade their soware? Ryder: It's a hard question to answer because, frankly, there aren't more than maybe a couple of companies that design soware for fabrica- tors. ere wouldn't be a lot of room in there or eight-hour quote vs. a 45-minute quote? Is that urgency gone now? Ryder: I think the truth is, if it's a buyer vs. an engineer getting the quote, the buyer wants it in 45 minutes because they're just process- ing orders. e engineer has complete under- standing of what you're doing, and usually the engineer is thankful that you are taking that approach. Matties: Are you seeing a trend where there are fewer purchasing agents vs. engineers in the quoting process? Ryder: Honestly, that depends on the customer, so I don't have a definitive answer because it's all over the place. Every company is differ- ent in how it does things. We have some cus- tomers where it's the owner who calls; he may not be the designer, but he's the guy who calls because he thinks he's a master negotiator, that kind of thing. Matties: I guess there are two sides to this: One is negotiations, and the other is making sure the technology is being built correctly. It seems like the latter would be more important. Ryder: Well, it certainly would be, because if you build something that isn't going to be func-