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Recollection: Thoughts on the EMS Industry
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Brian Throneberry
When I reflect on the last 25 years of the EMS Industry, what comes to mind are the internal and external events that have shaped this business as well as my career. I think of the one individual who had a profound influence on my career, Bruce Ramsey. Bruce taught me and a lot of people in the EMS business to treat others in this business as you would want to be treated; i.e., fairness was at the top of his list not only with employees but with the customer as well. He taught me to market and sell this business to customers. Bruce had a saying "You bid jobs to win; you build jobs to make money." This saying was more about how you market your company to customers than it was about pricing.
The fun thing about this business is seeing the first technologies that have shaped our lives. I can remember seeing the first PC-1 board before it was announced to the public. When Teledyne won the PC Jr. Program in 1983, it set the standard for the quest for the sub-$1000.00 PC. However, that threshold was only met in the last six years where the PC would go on to become a household appliance. It was a novelty to see surface mount products in 1984 such as a wrist watch alarm for diabetic children. Not until 1990 did surface mount hit the mainstream as the de facto technology for PCBA assembly. I remember building a search engine PCBA in the 1980's that was a predecessor to today's internet search engines. I saw many firsts in the 1980s in the electronics industry, such as the first touch screen panel, first universal power supply, the first TV gaming modules, the first video-on-demand system, and the reduction from the 8 inch and 5 inch disk drives to the first 3.5 inch disk drive. Business was ripe for start-ups such as Dell, Cisco, and Compaq. The decade of the 90's was more about globalization of the EMS Industry and the OEMs selling their manufacturing capacity to the EMS providers. The EMS Industry was a decade ahead of the now controversial "outsourcing trend" that other companies in different markets are using today.
Reflecting back on some of the firsts, I remember when the IPC held their first meeting for the EMS Industry. I was representing Avex at the time. The other attendees were from Group Technologies, Solectron and SCI, four companies who kept a suspicious eye on one other. From that meeting, the IPC has gone on to have a profound effect on the industry in training, standardization, access to investment capital, lobbying for beneficial government laws for the industry, and marketing the EMS Industry for legitimacy. It will be hard to see what other challenges the IPC will face in the future, but I have all the confidence that they will be up to it.
The one thing that I miss today in the EMS Industry is the bravado that certain individuals gave to the industry, which created a certain espirit de corps. I miss the persona of Olin King, Roger Main, Bill Morean, Michael Marks, Winston Chen, Bonnie Fena, and Roger Mayer. These individuals shaped this industry into what it has become today. The passion they put into their companies made every company in this industry better because you wanted to beat them at their own game. I am sure employees who were close to these individuals could tell hours of intriguing stories on how they won certain jobs and how they manage their companies. I have my own stories about going up against these individual in head-to-head marketing. It was always the sweetest pleasure to win business from one of these companies when they personally were involved in the sale.
When I was asked about writing my thoughts on the EMS Industry, I went back through all of my old business cards. I have a large collection of them and would put them up against anyone. Going back through those cards was like going through one's senior yearbook. You remember a lot of people, and some you don't, and wonder where some of them are today. You recognize that a lot of them are no longer here with us and those are the ones who are truly missed. They have left a legacy that all of us benefit from today.
This recollection is excerpted from the upcoming book, "From Vacuum Tubes to Nanotubes: An Amazing Half Century The Emergence of Electronic Circuit Technology 1957-2007," published by IPC Association Connecting Electronics Industries. The book will be released in conjunction with the IPC's 50th Anniversary, which will be celebrated at APEX 2007 February 18 22 in Los Angeles.