Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/806706
70 SMT Magazine • April 2017 By Stephen Las Marias I-CONNET007 In an earlier interview, VirTex CEO Brad Heath discussed with SMT Magazine his com- pany's activities, how they stay ahead of their competition and the new technologies and trends that are having a significant impact in the electronics assembly industry. In the second part of this interview, we are joined by Upinder Singh, Vice President and General Manager at VirTex MTI, to discuss their company's military and aerospace business, and how they are ad- dressing their customers' requirements Stephen Las Marias: What is the percentage breakdown of VirTex's aerospace/defense electron- ics business, automotive, medical electronics, and industrial electronics? Brad Heath: Our major market segment is in- dustrial, which is focused on several strategic di- visions; our second largest segment is military; then automotive, communications and medical. Las Marias: Can you please tell our readers what two primary challenges the aerospace and defense industries present to an Electronics Manufacturing Service provider (EMS) and what does VirTex do differently to address these challenges? Upinder Singh: This depends on the customer- related technologies. The most significant chal- lenge is the design and QFNs, BGAs and micro- BGAs. Our customers, the Original Equipment Manufacturers(OEMS) require this level of talent in-house to make continuous improvements, product advancements, and design changes, while in parallel, they are fighting an aggres - sive timeline. This is one of our differentiators, how we enable our OEM customers to transition from existing technologies to new innovations, ensuring design for manufacture and commer- cialization throughout their production lifecy- cle, at speed. VirTex addresses these challenges by intro- ducing a top-of-the-line supply chain. We have developed an award-winning supply chain soft- ware solution that is tried and tested that we have been utilizing for several years. Our soft- ware solution provides complete transparen- cy, traceability and visibility over our supply chain to bring parts, some often on an expedit- ed schedule as per our customers' needs, togeth- er at the same time, to meet even the most pro- gressive production schedules. Our team of in- INTERVIEW