Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1517668
16 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2024 everybody charges a lot because of the supply- demand disparity. Will that change? Let's keep in mind that we originally outsourced all this business because it was dirty and smelled bad, and the manufacturing jobs were seen as repet- itive and low paying. If we move to a war foot- ing, it's a different story regarding incentives, but we are not there today. Going forward, a sustainable business model for bare board fabrication companies must be very green and interesting enough for people to want to get involved. Today, many people are more than happy to work from home in soware jobs, or on the IT side. at has been a huge shi. But not every- thing can be solved through IT. It won't fix a broken pipe, and no programming exists with- out hardware. What's missing is getting things done in the physical domain. e U.S. is lack- ing the trades to do it, and we don't have the engineers who want to go into that space. A partial solution toward getting enough people into that space is to make operations more effi- cient so that you need a smaller staff. at needs to happen, but right now we are not looking enough in that direction, and just focusing on education/apprenticeship is not enough when the teachers only know the old methods. A U.S. factory must be a totally different busi- ness model than in Asia. Taiwan Semiconduc- tor (TSMC) pushed back the completion of its 3 nm semiconductor fab in Arizona by a cou- ple of years because they couldn't find people in the U.S. who could operate the same way as their low-cost labor model in Taiwan. ey are now asking for subsidies just to meet that tar- get. Sound familiar? We need a more sustain- able business model here. We won't be sustain- able without smart investments that push us in the right direction for productivity. Matties: When people hear "sustainable," they immediately think green, but you're say- ing it's a balance with business sustainability. Exactly. You generally don't just do things in business because they are environmentally green unless they are legally mandated, or perhaps you see it as a competitive advantage that you can market to improve your recruit- ment chances and make more traditional com- petitors look less desirable. e greenest PCB shop is a closed one, but now, with the latest tech, there is a way to have economical PCB fabs while also dropping the environmental impact to a negligible level. Matties: In an interview with a rather large fabricator here in the U.S., I asked whether they would bring in a zero liquid discharge system. They said their production demand was so high that they didn't have the time or desire to shut down for installation. Isn't there a misperception about what it means to bring in a ZLD system? We can get the ROI down to six months for larger Asian fabricators now and to a few years in the States without shutting down. at's worth a look. Matties: How do you raise this side of the argument, so it has a higher priority for fabricators? I am doing a lot of communication over the next two quarters, particularly through trade shows and webinars, showing that ZLD is now a good investment. We have devised sev- eral ways to do the changeover and installation without a complete shutdown. For about half the total investment, you can achieve 100% rinse water recycling and just batch treat your concentrates. If you double the investment, you go to zero liquid discharge. It's a two-step approach. Matties: So, there just needs to be more conversation around this? Yes, there needs to be a lot of education. e current market is very crystallized around the old solutions; everyone is doing something that someone else is doing and has been doing for years. e latest information on ZLD or other green technology is not widely adver-