-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueComing to Terms With AI
In this issue, we examine the profound effect artificial intelligence and machine learning are having on manufacturing and business processes. We follow technology, innovation, and money as automation becomes the new key indicator of growth in our industry.
Box Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Partnership and Collaboration
June 28, 2022 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Dan Beaulieu and Nolan Johnson recently had a conversation with Christopher Kalmus of Aurora Circuits and Brigitte Lawrence of Brigitflex. Joining them was Jeff Brandman of Aismalibar North America. The group discussed the value of partnerships, noting how it has helped them win and keep business. They also describe a recent project for an OEM manufacturer in the automotive industry that served as a case study for this discussion.
Nolan Johnson: What does partnership mean in your working relationship?
Christopher Kalmus: It means working together, trying to solve a problem that’s of value to all of us.
Brigitte Lawrence: When a customer comes to us, needs something produced, and we don’t have everything at our fingertips, we can work together with others to help the customer. We can work together to accomplish it in the timeframe, money frame, and everything else to get it out to the assembler or our customer.
Johnson: Is this a tactical or a strategic kind of relationship?
Lawrence: Neither. It’s a friendship. In this type of situation, we’re not competing. We are working together underneath an umbrella to keep everything friendly and competitive free. We each have our own niche, we know where it’s at, and we don’t cross each other.
Johnson: So, by having complementary areas of specialty, you can work together, making those component pieces larger than the individual parts?
Lawrence: It’s larger than the industry when we put it together.
Dan Beaulieu: The way I see it, you have some operations that Chris can’t do, and he has some that you can’t do.
Kalmus: That’s right Dan. These are unusual times. We’re dealing with an industry that’s basically been devastated over the last two decades. You go back three decades, and the U.S./North America produced maybe 50–60% of all the circuit boards in the world. It was a highly resilient industry; it could take some body blows and still be okay. I’ve seen a lot of different estimates that we now produce probably less than 4% of the world’s production, while China currently is probably producing more than 50%.
Beaulieu: Some sources say over 80%.
Kalmus: Our industry is so stretched that it’s not even possible for everybody to have everything that they want, to do everything that they want. Partnerships, from materials to final assembly, help fill the void.
Lawrence: We must work together. We must trust each other. We must use each other’s machinery. Sometimes we are not allowed to collaborate, but we do it when we can. We do what we can to keep things here and work together as a team, keeping things here in the States. It’s not just building the product. It’s keeping the machinery running and keeping our factories running. It’s what it takes to build the product.
Kalmus: Circuit board innovations have always relied on people who have ideas, who know how to do things, and can extrapolate to other ways of doing things. To me, that’s probably the bigger part of our partnership. Brigitte and Chuck (Lawrence) are two unique people in the printed circuit board world, with their knowledge and what they’re capable of doing. We’ve always been innovative, going all the way back to Kalmus and Associates in the 1950s and 1960s.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the June 2022 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Micross, Sital Announce Global Manufacturing & Distribution Partnership
05/07/2024 | Micross Components, Inc.Micross Components, Inc., a leading global provider of mission-critical microelectronic components and services for high-reliability aerospace, defense, space and industrial applications, is pleased to announce our exclusive partnership with Sital Technology (sitaltech.com), the leader in MIL-STD-1553 IP cores, specializing in integrated FPGA solutions.
Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments Dip 5% in Q1 2024
05/07/2024 | SEMIWorldwide silicon wafer shipments decreased 5.4% quarter-over-quarter to 2,834 million square inches in the first quarter of 2024, a 13.2% drop from the 3,265 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
Nolan’s Notes: Coming to Terms With AI
05/07/2024 | Nolan Johnson -- Column: Nolan's NotesHow fast do things move in the world of data analytics? Here’s an example. We’ve been planning this issue on artificial intelligence for the past few months, and, in fact, I had already written this column about a month ago. Then I went to IPC APEX EXPO and upended it all. I originally had compared AI to drag racing in that (CPU) horsepower and new (data) vehicles have steadily delivered higher performance competition. That seemed pretty accurate given how generative AI models dominated the popular media with amazing results—and sometimes spectacular crashes.
May Issue of SMT007 Magazine: Coming to Terms With AI
05/06/2024 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamIn the May 2024 issue of SMT007 Magazine, we examine the profound effect artificial intelligence and machine learning are having on manufacturing and business processes. We follow technology, innovation, and money as automation becomes the new key indicator of growth in our industry.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
05/03/2024 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007This week’s most important news is strategic—and telling. When one puts together the IPC industry reports, we simply have to include the recent conversation with Shawn DuBravac and Tom Kastner. On the design side, check out the latest “On The Line With…” podcast featuring Brad Griffin from Cadence Design Systems, discussing SI and PI in the realm of intelligent system design.