Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/582861
82 The PCB Magazine • October 2015 Kenney: The demands that they ask us for to- day, quite frankly, are no different than they were a few years ago. They asked for good new products, and one of the things that we hadn't done well in the North American space is talk about and bring to light the new innovations that MacDermid did have. We were just high- lighting them in other geographies around the world. As an illustration, we had lots of new via-fill products and acid copper products sell- ing very well in Asia, but no customers in North America even knew we had them. We went through this reinvention or re-education of the customer base here, saying, "Even though you haven't seen MacDermid doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything." We started this year-long process of, "Let me re-educate you on what our product line looks like today." The second half, getting the business, was addressing this customer view: "Well, we haven't seen a MacDermid service guy in two or three years. Your product might be good, but we need someone who's going to be there." We worked really hard on making sure we had at least the right kind of people close by. Not someone in every backyard like we wanted to have, but someone close enough that was an expert, where we could get someone in with- in a one-day response time. Quite frankly, the Waterbury team has been excellent in lending resources, where in the past our North Amer- ica team couldn't have gotten much access to them. But now, if we had a big opportunity in North America, it was proportionate around the world. Most of these guys will spend 85% of their time in Asia, but at least there was some time available for us in North America, and it's made a big difference. Customers have told me personally that they've seen a shift in MacDer- mid's strategic approach to their business in North America in the last two years, and that's tangible. Cullen: It's a North American question. You asked, "What are the customers asking for?" They want to have access to the really success- ful products that we've deployed elsewhere around the world. It's really important in North America to bring them tried and true, excellent products. In North America it's different than in Asia, where it's all about volume, up-time, yield, and constant service. In North America, we're able to provide a lot more benefit for the fabricators who need to have that circuit board delivered in eight hours, or they have to be able to bring up a dormant chemistry immediately with 100% assured quality. That's certainly dif- ferent from the rest of the world. This is where Steve has done a great job to recognize that need, communicate it back to our global inno- vation and service people, and bring to the cus- tomer exactly that response. Matties: When you go out on a technical call, what sort of issues are you dealing with? Kenney: Most times when our technical group goes in to troubleshoot a problem, it's typically a PCB fabricator who's trying to build some- thing they haven't built before. There are only ~300 board shops left here. Most of them are fairly sophisticated; they know how to build a fairly complicated circuit board. Quite frankly, they do a good job self-servicing. We get in- volved when all of a sudden they're getting that first job where they've got blind or buried vias, or they've got stacked vias somewhere, or Entrance to macDermid's research center in Waterbury. CyCLE TIME REDUCTION FOR DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL CUSTOMERS FeATure inTervieW