Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1479191
SEPTEMBER 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 29 want those over in another country; we want them here. That's the militar y, aerospace, medical, automotive, and internet infrastruc- ture that can be done here. But I'll ask fabrica- tors, "What's the issue for you?" ey say it's not so much about margins, but about yields. If they had higher yields, they would make more money. e problem is, though, how do you improve yields from 90 to 95%? at could be significant. Much of it relates to workforce develop- ment, training, certification, equipment, instrumentation, and so forth. I've seen sev- eral fabricators that haven't made upgrades in their equipment, some of them for many years, and you can't go from 3-mil lines and spaces to 1- mil lines and spaces with an entry you had 20 years ago—it's just not going to help you. If the investment can enhance the yields, then we have the opportunity to do more. But the other thing is that with the approximately 180 fabricator buildings in the country, maybe 90 of those have fewer than 50 employees. If a large OEM walks in and says, "I like your work and what you do here. I need 10,000 pieces a week," how will you help them? It will take up all your capacity. Your space is lim- ited. at's why, in my ought Leaders paper, I suggested that doubling capacity would include hiring more workers. at can help us bring the industry back to what we had several years ago. California and help wanted signs are out all over in manufacturing places, not just in the circuit board industry. We're not look- ing necessarily for PhDs or electrical engineers with master's degrees. We're try- ing to attract those who can do the job, want to be part of the CAD/CAM or drill operator teams; someone who can handle the chem- istry and run the lines. IPC is working very hard on workforce development by reaching out to students at the college and high school levels, getting them excited about electronics and what it can do. IPC has done a great job. We need more of that. Maybe all the fabricators and assemblers in California can combine efforts to share a com- mon message, such as, "Here's what this indus- try can really do, it's a great career for you. You can advance. It's exciting. What we do makes things that change and improve people's lives." Rebuilding Margins Matties: We're already on thin margins and that's a barrier for capital investment. How do we help those margins? Carano: As we know, there was a shi to off- shore technology about 20 years ago and it hasn't really come back. Most don't realize that almost $20 billion of the circuit board value that gets reported, though, is in things like iPads, mobile phones, smartphones, and other things that we wouldn't make here anyway. We've never really made cellphone boards here. However, this has evolved electronics overall. ere's a melding between semicon- ductor and circuit boards, a convergence in the United States and Canada. ere are opportu- nities for focusing on higher margin processes because those are protected. We wouldn't