Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1507822
SEPTEMBER 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 55 early in the process, aligned with them, and bound them to the project by integrating them into the decision loop of all the features that we'd want to build into the line. It was that trifecta approach—the customer, the chemical supplier, and us—with a clean sheet of paper working to identify potential problems and innovations. As our conversation contin- ued, I asked John about this collaborative approach. Hendrickson: Mike and his expertise were instrumental for us—especially because, at the beginning of the project, our knowledge on the process was very limited. Mike and his team helped us understand some of the things we should and shouldn't do. He pointed us in some directions based on his experience. Relying on them—and our other key suppliers' expertise— to select the right equipment and help train our team gives us an advantage. We would meet at least once a week. Brask: Yes, the weekly meetings were key for us to keep the project on track. If an issue came up, it was flagged within a week. The high velocity of visits to our factory was very helpful. The amount of time SEL spent getting their employees inte- grated into the equipment before it even hit their floor was impressive. Their team would come to our factory; they were involved in the assem- bly of the hoists, the teardown, and the packag- ing for shipping. They were involved when that equipment got to their door, they helped set the machine in place, and—with the early training— they were 99% there. When it came to flip the power on, they were ready to go. Hendrickson: Our goal was to go down to visit IPS at least once a month with our engineers/ operators. I think one of the great things is, when we brought some of our equipment maintenance team, Mike put them to work teach- ing them how to plastic weld and everything else. By the time they left, they're like, "Hey, I know how to plastic weld." I think it was part of the key to our success bringing up the factory. We hired the main core of our operators about a year ago and had them sitting next to our engineers; we had them paired up together on the pro- cesses. Not only did we take several of our operators to our equipment suppliers we also went to other board shops, so they could understand what these processes look like and what their day-to-day would potentially look like in the future. I asked John if he had any final thoughts to share on this whole process. Hendrickson: Make sure you don't start with what you think a supplier's catalogue is. Really dig down and understand what they're doing and where they want to go. With some of our other supplier partners, we ended up going with equipment that wasn't necessarily the thing they were trying to sell; it was their "go- forward" equipment. Instead of buying some- thing that in a year or two they'd want to be moving away from, we jumped ahead. Building up that partnership and having that communi- cation and those tight feedback loops is critical. The following pages include interviews we conducted with some of SEL's other key sup- pliers. These companies talk about the equip- ment they sold and the partnerships they formed with SEL in the process. It's a process that can be duplicated, and that makes the content even more valuable. PCB007 Mike Brask (left), and John Hendrickson (right).