Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1490123
JANUARY 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 69 Johnson: How do we get out of this? Morgan: I want to say "education," but as important as that is, the reality is we're operating within the market. e market seems to be self-regulating, so those who are inefficient will end up being uncompetitive and will lose their business. at's the reality. Goodwin: What's that great presentation slide you always show about change, where people are standing on edge of the cliff ? Morgan: at slide is quite interesting. You've got a guy on a platform saying, "Who wants change?" All the hands go up, but then he asks, "Who wants to change?" Only one hand goes up. e guy presses on: "Who wants to lead the change?" At that point, the audience runs off, and that's the reality. Someone says, "We need to pay more tax," and the answer is always, "Yeah, everybody else but me should pay more tax." at's not going to cut it. We all have to do our part if we want things to change. Sometimes I step back and reflect on how our business has evolved over the years. Back in the '50s, we had every kind of sheet size imagin- able. We had all kinds of stuff going on. We were efficient because there was no other choice in those days. e reality is, in the West, we've continued with a lot of these old practices even though so many new options are available. For example, Western laminators probably have 10 or 20 standard laminate sizes, three or four different widths of glass fabric. You go to Asia, what have you got, Mark? Goodwin: A 50-inch width. Morgan: And two sheet sizes. In Asia, they're efficient from the beginning. We still hold onto the inefficiencies of the old days, and we have yet to fix them. Goodwin: e old U.S. sheet size was 36" x 48". Depending on which way around or which glass width you use to produce your prepreg, you can have 20% more or 20% less square meter output from your treater. Morgan: Even more than 20%, by the way—as much as 30%. It's a massive change, and that leads to a better market. Goodwin: e equipment costs are the same, the processing running costs are the same. It's just more output through better equipment utiliza- tion, so real cost benefit. Morgan: e only reason it's done that way is because in those days, you couldn't buy glass wider than 37 inches. at was it. ere was nothing available. Now, you can easily and reli- ably buy 50-inch. Goodwin: For the United States, we still have to make narrow widths. We do still treat nar- row width fabric because some people will not change the warp direction on their 18" x 24" polyimide panels. is, by the way, is a story that's over 30 years old. We were trying to drive this change in 1990, swapping warp and we around, to maximize machine utilization for us and the glass weav- ers, and that job is still not 100% done. Johnson: is is something that really goes to the OEM designer, doesn't it? Morgan: Yes, but it depends where you are in the chain. Commoditization has occurred in a lot of our sectors over the years, and if you're in a commodity business, you need to be efficient. You need to fix these things. You can get away with this for years when you're specialized, but over time, everything becomes commoditized. Even products that you feel were "specialty" Mark Goodwin