Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1505694
AUGUST 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 33 Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories' 162K-square-foot, $100M manufacturing facility in Moscow, Idaho. apart from other manufacturing facil- ities are the work environment and how we treat our employees. We are a 100% employee-owned company. You invested about $100 million to set up this facility. What's the ROI expectation? Hendrickson: It's two to three years. In addition to the dollars, are you factoring in the innovation that comes out of this? That's a soft return that could accelerate. Do you think more companies will start keep- ing in mind that zero waste is a big factor? Hendrickson: I definitely think they will. With all the supply chain challenges in reshoring or near-shoring, it seems like $100 million is not a bad investment if you have capital available. Hendrickson: It's not. We were able to think differently, challenging how things are being done today. Greenfield for us was the advan- tage. If we were trying to retrofit an existing facility, we would not have been able to do a lot of the things that we've done here. Looking at older brownfield sites, does it may make sense for them to expand by setting up a greenfield site? Even though the upfront cost may be greater, they could be dollars ahead in the long run. It seems like there's an investment community that's willing to invest, especially in a zero- discharge facility. What are your feelings about that? Hendrickson: Oh, definitely. I think this is what future board factories should look like. e process flow can be streamlined, reduc- ing cycle time, the employees' work environ- ment is clean and bright, and the impact to the local community, in terms of resources being consumed, are great advantages in the green- field development. Very good. Thank you for everything. This has been great. Hendrickson: ank you for visiting our facility, Barry. We appreciate it. PCB007 Centralized dosing stations.