Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1545206
JUNE 2026 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 27 outperform many of our competitors in speed, fault coverage, and zero defects. We provide a very clear ROI that most of our American customers are looking for. That combination of test excellence, ROI, and partnership with them has really allowed us to succeed here in America. You have possibly two customers to convince: the contract manufacturer and the OEM. When we consider current supply chain dynamics that might be affecting your parts, test service cus- tomers, and the assembly components required by the OEM, how do you keep your service local, smooth, and effective? Warren: We look at that as a dual trust. Sometimes the CM will come to us and say, "Hey, we have this board," and we know this board because we've already been working with the OEM. That dual relationship has been critical for us, particularly in high-volume, very specific, and complex products. But it's important that we support them. We just opened the Santa Clara office to provide local parts and service support for the West Coast, where we have a very large presence. We also have offices in Tyler, Texas, and in Phoenix. We spread our people and the parts around. We have a tight working connection with Italy as well. We're able to support customers locally, and when we can't, we're on the phone with Italy. Andrea, we've seen the supply chain in all condi- tions over the years, from running very smoothly, very diverse and duplicated, to becoming overly optimized into a particular global region. What challenges does SPEA face in supporting custom- ers on a global level? How do you manage such a network? Furnari: We invest in new technology. We are a technology company, and we can design equipment that does not exist on the market. Our customers are looking for something very enhanced in terms of technology and features. For us, the priority is to lead the way in technology and shape the future of market demands. We have about 65% of the company devoted to R&D, while the remaining resources are in manufacturing. We have the power to design and continuously improve our products. That is a significant amount of company resourc- es devoted to research and development, for sure. Was there a lesson that SPEA learned in its 50-year history that set up that sort of R&D heavy expectation? Furnari: That's exactly the point. In 50 years, we've seen different steps and market situations that led us to invest in new technology and expand into new markets. In 1996, we decided to invest in semiconductors by creating a new automatic tester to enter the semiconductor market. This was very strategic; we created electronics to check the power consumption of the battery in a Swatch, and Philips Semiconductors, which manu- factured those chips, became the first semicon- ductor customer. Thanks to this development, we established our presence in that sector. Another lesson we learned is about new technol- ogy. Around 1995, the testing technology was lim- ited to the classic ICT (in-circuit test) machine with a bed-of-nails. That's when we decided to invest in new automation and build the world's first flying probe machine. We created our own technology to test at very high speed. We used the linear motor technology, which was very new at the time, and had been used in several semiconductor ma- chines. Of course, today all our equipment relies on the linear motor technology, a breakthrough that was very disruptive at that time. Dustin Warren