Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1514628
44 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2024 of millions of dollars in investments that are needed can happen. is needs to happen with the legacy companies, in particular. We must continue to work on this with our customers at the right levels, which is not on the supply chain buying side. It is the design conception side. Right. As an industry, we are hurting ourselves with the mentality of just getting a purchase order in the door. Anyone can build anything once. is discussion needs to start in the engi- neering halls with the same people who go out to the supply chain. What drives that? Oftentimes, it seems like the fabricators want that, but the customer is not receptive. You need to be the squeaky wheel. For exam- ple, you can lose a job from a customer, but they go to the next company, and encounter the same problem you already told the cus- tomer about. at's an unfortunate process. Occasionally, you can get the right custom- er's attention, but it's also a recognition that we have a capacity crunch in the United States. At the engineer level, there's a technology gap, and that's well understood in the procurement world. Summit takes a partnership approach with customers, oen working with them dur- ing the design process to improve manufactur- ability and help alleviate previous issues. is benefits both sides, resulting in faster time to market and improved repeatability. We've talked a lot about people, but what about automation? Automation is the right thing to do in the long term, and the U.S. has different problems than Europe with access to people and the cost of that labor. Machines are good at repeating quality. But let's look at inner layers, for exam- ple. Most well-run factories are at a 98% yield without automation. So, should I install an entire system that costs seven figures for a 1% increase in yield? Sean, where is technology headed? In what areas are you looking to grow? We are watching the organic growth in the United States. It's certainly the first time in a while that we see investments being made— TTM in New York, Calumet in Michigan, and SEL's new plant. Northridge and SpaceX also made announcements of new facilities. It's probably the most capital investment toward PCBs the United States has seen for decades, and there's a lot of conviction around that, which needs to be maintained throughout the supply chain, including our customers. We need to truly understand the market environ- ments in which we are working, like Mil/Aero. e complexity we see now in engineered products is not what it used to be, so we must get out of the commoditized pricing world. If we are forced to play down in that commod- itized pricing world, it's simply not enough to feed the industry in a meaningful way. rough all that, I believe, we can get the flywheel going and get the continued investment that's needed. But not all PCB fabricators can afford a large capital investment. Yes, that's true. ere are too many that require large cap recapitalization and are on the edge of going out of business. I'm concerned about capacity in the United States as a result. While we now see companies investing in that capac- ity, much is captive and does not support dif- ficult or complex boards. We need the capac- ity for complexity, and that takes a whole other level of investment. Some believe the U.S. has a lack of capability as well as capacity. What are your thoughts on that? It's a chicken and egg problem. You need the conviction so you can get beyond the purchase order/transactional relationships to more gen- uine relationships with your customers. e customer then understands the challenges of the industry, particularly so that the tens