Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/564614
September 2015 • SMT Magazine 33 Matties: You're 30+ years into this business; what are some of the most surprising things that you've seen in those 30 years? Patel: What's surprising in this industry is that things are changing faster than we can accept the changes. More and more complex products are coming onto the market very fast because of the component situations we have and fabrica- tors must be accommodating to the component placements from the transporting and reliabil- ity point of it. Some of the things we don't have enough data yet to prove that the new process- es can be relied upon. People want speed ver- sus high-reliability, and we don't have enough data to prove both ways or at what point we can switch and make the transition into the newer technology or newer processes that can allow you to get a more reliable product. That's where it's changing. I think that in the last six to seven years, that was the biggest change we were experiencing. Every single day it is changing faster than before. By the time we change over to something, a new change is coming in. We don't have enough time to do analyses and figure out if this is what we expected. And why are we going for the new technology? Because sometimes we hold onto the old technology to satisfy ourselves and what do we lose? What happens during that time? We lose business because we didn't have the capability. You're chasing your tail here. Who comes first, the chicken or the egg? Yes, we'd love to have new technology coming in but at the same time the risk associated with the reliability is just too high. That is the big - gest challenge fabricators are facing right now. That's the bottom line. Matties: i would think that the other influence on that situation is everybody wants the product for a lower price, which takes money out of your r&D and capital equipment investment funds. Patel: Yes, I was at an IPC conference recent- ly and being one of the smallest manufactur- ers in the team, one of my biggest challenges came up: How does a small fabricator survive when they don't have enough resources to go out and do enough research and data collec- tion to prove why a new technology or process is adequate for their shop? We don't have the interview bIG strAteGIes FOr suCCess continues eic building.