Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1538540
You've emphasized the necessity of fostering strong strategic partnerships with your suppliers, mentioning Sigma Mecer for better recovery, IPS on the gold tank heat exchange, and Electra Polymers, a new ink supplier for your solder mask inkjet. How do you foster these strategic partnerships? Hendrickson: A big part of our work is simply visit- ing our partners to see firsthand how they operate and understand their business practices, working environments, and challenges. That level of insight is incredibly valuable. We recently spent a week vis- iting several suppliers in Europe, where we shared our plans and goals and even discussed potential modifications to the equipment we've requested. We're committed to maintaining close, collabora- tive relationships, even though many of these sup- pliers are geographically distant. We meet with sev- eral of them weekly to stay connected and aligned, and that commitment to communication is key to strengthening our partnerships and driving success. Hall: Our engineers have done an exceptional job working with our various suppliers to really under- stand how the entire system works. What they've learned has driven some of our suppliers to change their practices, and that is very important to us. We want to work with folks who are willing to listen to and work with us. 32 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2025 In our first interview, we discussed IPS and your team's visit to the IPS factory in Cedar City, Utah. It became a joint team on that final finisher line. Mike Brask, president of IPS, highlighted the suc- cess of the partnership. Hendrickson: That's on the ENIG line. Remember, we'd never built boards before, and we were bringing everything in-house: new process, equipment, and chemistry. Now we're fine-tuning. IPS is currently helping us with additional heat exchangers to cool the gold baths and extra vibration to improve deposit quality. The trick is aligning equipment and chemistry on a line this large. The volume of solution and the basket mass are far beyond industry norms. Without a strong partner, you'd be debugging alone, and the total cost of ownership would be sky-high. Hendrickson: Exactly. We ask a lot from our part- ners, sometimes things they've never done before. Good relationships make the difference between "learning the hard way" and getting it right the first time. IPS is a great example of a strong partner. G o o d re l at i o n s h i p s m a ke t h e d i f fe re n c e b et we e n " l e a r n i n g t h e h a rd way " a n d g et t i n g i t r i g ht t h e f i rst t i m e. " "