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1 2 Adapting for Success in the PCB Industry Publication Date: 6/10/2008 By Terry Heilman, CEO, Sunstone Circuits, Mulino, OR Like many other industries, the North American printed circuit board (PCB) industry has been unable to maintain immunity from the effects of rapid globalization. Overseas competition contributed to a rapid decline in the number of domestic PCB manufacturing facilities, from an estimated 890 just five years ago to fewer than 400 today. Customers with long lead-time, high-volume products have moved production overseas, where producers offer attractive cost savings. Best New Product Pricing Practices Publication Date: 3/24/2008 By Jerold Bernstein, President, Price Improvement Team LLC, Ballwin, MO One of the most challenging tasks a marketing organization will face involves setting the "right" price for a new product.New product pricing is complex. It is important to use a process that breaks down the task into manageable elements.An effective process will integrate these elements while reducing risk and increasing confidence in the important decisions to be made. Calculating Cost of Ownership for Dispensing Equipment Publication Date: 6/2/2009 By Dan Ashley, Market Specialist, Printed Circuit Board Assembly, Asymtek, Carlsbad, CA It's not news that electronics manufacturers are looking for ways to reduce manufacturing costs. Saving money on the purchase of capital equipment, which is a major component of overall manufacturing costs, seems like a good solution. However, selecting equipment based on the price of the equipment ... Competitive Analysis Supercharges Marketing Publication Date: 11/25/2009 By Jim McMahon, President, Zebra Communications, Simi Valley, CA Better focused positioning, increased market share, more qualified leads and reduced cost of marketing — these are some of the benefits that competitive analysis, when used in PR, can bring to industrial and high-tech companies. Develop the Right Online Strategy for Recovery Publication Date: 10/8/2009 By Susan Orr, Senior Director, Strategic Marketing, ThomasNet, New York, NY It's no secret that the recession has taken a toll on the industrial and manufacturing sectors, but slowly, many companies appear to be emerging from the worst of it. Now, every day, we are hearing evidence of a gradual economic upswing, and your peers are becoming part of a new voice of optimism ... Don't Cry for Me: U.S. Semicon Industry Still Strong Publication Date: 12/10/2007 By A. A. Imberman, PhD, Economics Dept. (Retired), University of Chicago Recession is on the lips of all the doomsday-preachers; so calls have arisen for some sort of protective tariff on competitive imports from China, according to Professors Kenneth F. Scheve of Yale and Matthew J. Slaughter of Dartmouth in an article in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs. But the tremendous rise in our semiconductor exports to China refutes these dire predictions of the demise of American manufacturing. Ending the Manufacturing Recession Publication Date: 2/9/2009 By Dr. Chris Kuehl, Economic Analyst, Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International, Rockford, IL Few of us will miss 2008. It was one of the most tumultuous of economic years. Let's instead focus on the prospects for 2009 and the possible reversal of economic fortune. The key to forecasting for an economist is to plant as many caveats as possible, so that when the prediction doesn't quite pan ... Export Market Expands Even as Dollar Recovers Publication Date: 10/31/2008 By Dr. Chris Kuehl, Economic Analyst, Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, Rockford, IL & Managing Partner, Armada Corporate Intelligence, Kansas City, MO For the past several months the one bright spot for the U.S. economy has been the export sector. New records have been set in exporting every month for over two years now and the U.S. has even managed to make some inroads on its trade deficit. The reason for all this activity has been pretty obvious — a weaker dollar. This weak dollar has meant that virtually all U.S. goods are being sold overseas at a 30 percent discount. This has helped U.S. manufacturers get past high tariff barriers, consumer resistance and competition to build volume in foreign sales... Financing and Market Opportunities Publication Date: 12/11/2008 By Jeffrey Servin & George Stasen, Arcadia Capital Partners, West Chester, PA Surprise: common stocks are risky. But the stock market is necessary for the survival of a free market system. Without a stock market, financing economic growth is problematic. Private companies have three mechanisms for funding growth — reinvest profit, borrow from lenders or sell stock to a limited ... Getting Ready for Europe's New EMC Directive Publication Date: 7/20/2007 By Sam Wisner, Technical Director, Advanced Compliance Solutions (ACS), Buford, GA Manufacturers are bracing themselves for the new EMC Directive that goes into effect July 20, 2007. The current Directive, 89/336/EEC is being repealed and replaced by a more refined Directive 2004/108/EC. All organizations that resell, develop or manufacture electronic devices used in Europe have to comply with the new directive from the European Commission, which is accompanied by an atmosphere of more stringent oversight and potential penalties for noncompliance. I&J Fisnar France: Making it all Work Publication Date: 6/10/2008 Loic le Naou and Helene Aubry confer on a product shipping order. By Walter Salm Cergy-Pontoise, France — What? Translate the entire I&J Fisnar catalog, data sheets and engineering bulletins from English into French? Who on earth would willingly take on a task like that? The answer: Loic le Naou, the president of I&J Fisnar France S.A. Located in a northwestern suburb of Paris, the company provides complete technical and engineering support for its products. The French subsidiary started out in 1990 with just 2 employees; Loic was one of them, and he has been leading the company's French operation ever since. Innovative Designs Help Customer Sputter Better Publication Date: 7/2/2009 By Bill Meredith, VP & General Manager, Sputtering Components Inc., Owatonna, MN To stay ahead of the competition, a major U.S. glass-coating company wanted to increase yield without sacrificing quality. They had ideas about how to improve their coating tool, but needed the large assembly to be designed and built quickly. Their search for a development partner led them to Sputtering Components Inc. (SCI). SCI is a high-volume manufacturer of rotary cathodes and components for the physical vapor deposition (PVD) industry. Based in Owatonna, Minnesota, the company produces tools used for sputtering — the process by which ultra thin layers of material are deposited onto a substrate. Applications for PVD thin films range from microelectronics and optical assemblies to food packaging and window... Internships & Apprenticeships Win-Win Manufacturers Publication Date: 7/22/2008 By Jim Warren, Director of Education, Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, Rockford, IL Manufacturers in the U.S., regardless of size, specialty or location, are reporting a dire shortage of skilled workers such as welders, fabricators, laser operators, electricians, press brake operators and machinists. A survey of FMA members conducted in 2007 revealed the biggest challenge they face is the dwindling supply of skilled workers, cited by some 40 percent of those polled, far surpassing other concerns. The annual talent shortage survey by Manpower, Inc. of the 10 most difficult jobs to fill corroborates the FMA finding. The poll states that engineers, machinists, and skilled trade workers are the three positions most challenging to fill in 2008. It's Not "Just a Circuit Breaker" Publication Date: 10/23/2009 By Michael Manning, VP of Engineering, Automation Systems Interconnect, Inc., Mechanicsburg, PA Most design engineers think of a circuit breaker as a low cost commodity component that usually doesn't get much attention when designing a new piece of equipment or system. In fact, on many occasions I have heard someone say, "It doesn't matter; I just need a circuit breaker." The fact of the matter ... Measuring Your Website's Return on Investment Publication Date: 9/24/2007 By Linda Rigano, Director of Strategic Alliances, ThomasNet For today's industrial business, a website is no longer just a place to post company information. Online, your website is the first point of contact for a potential customer. With research showing that nine out of ten industrial purchasers start their buying process not by picking up the phone or consulting a supplier's catalog but by searching the Internet, your website could easily be the most critical tool in your marketing arsenal. Aim it accurately at the right targets, with your online marketing efforts, and a wellcrafted website can be the vital link to a world of new customers and business opportunities. Shoot blindly and chances are good that your competitors will reap the bounty. And thanks to the anonymity of the Internet, you'll never even know it. So how do you know if your website is engaging your targets or just shooting for the moon? The key lies in an astonishingly simple concept: measurement. OPINION: Getting Our Technology Back on Track Publication Date: 8/21/2007 By Tim Davis, General Manager, GPAX, Inc., Reynoldsburg, OH Price, Value, Availability, Quality — these are the words we hear whenever the discussion turns to our next planned purchase. We only think in passing how those important ingredients are balanced and how they make a profound impact on where these goods are made. The Americas and much of Europe ... Overcoming Risk in the Service Supply Chain Publication Date: 10/1/2008 By Mike Landry, Founder and CTO, Servigistics, Atlanta, GA According to the 2008 Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey, which asked more than 1,000 CFOs about their expectations for the economy, optimism among chief financial officers reached its lowest point since the optimism index launched over six years ago. Add rising fuel prices, increasing unemployment and significant cuts in consumer spending, and it's no wonder that CFOs are pessimistic about current economic conditions. Doing business under current conditions is risky business. One of the areas evoking the most concern over risk management is in the supply chain. Significant supply chain disruptions can reduce a company's revenue, cut into market share, inflate costs, tap out the budget and threaten production and distribution, according to property insurer FM Global in a report on risk management in a global economy. A companion study of more than 600 financial executives found that supply chain risk, more than anything else, had the greatest potential to disrupt their top revenue drivers.   Patent Holder Beware: Quanta's Impact on Licensing Publication Date: 4/27/2009 By Michael F. Hurley, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, New York, NY Patents count among any company's most valuable business assets in today's global economy. However, many global business players contend that patent holders too often attempt to use their rights to stifle innovation and competition, and the U.S. Supreme Court seems increasingly inclined to side with ... Pre-Owned SMT Feeders: Cost-Effective Options Publication Date: 6/10/2008 By Melissa Bergeron, Manufacturing and Feeder Division Manager, Lewis and Clark, Inc., Nashua, NH Obtaining the correct types and quantity of feeders with pre-owned SMT equipment is just not in the cards. Invariably, buyers almost always end up with feeders they don't need or shortages of the ones they do need. To make up for the shortages the only option that had been available was to purchase feeders from the OEM. The result: end-users often have found themselves stockpiling feeders with no foreseeable requirement. After all, what's the likelihood of purchasing a pre-owned system and ending up with exactly the feeders needed in the correct quantities? Probably better than winning the lottery, but still not in your favor. Resellers soon realized feeders really had their own sub-market and considerable activity began to take place with the buying, selling and trading of pre-owned feeders. Rewarding Environmental Excellence Publication Date: 6/14/2007 By Daniel Fiorino, PhD, Director, EPA's Performance Track Program Reduced costs, public recognition, and a growing range of regulatory and administrative incentives are just some of the benefits that electronics manufacturers may receive by joining the National Environmental Performance Track, a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since June 2000, Performance Track has been forging a new pathway for environmental protection, one that complements regulatory approaches with new tools and strategies that recognize and drive environmental excellence. EPA designed the program to help move the curve in environmental performance — to encourage businesses to do more than the minimum, with the expectation that, working together, government and industry will continuously raise the bar that defines an environmental leader.