EMSNOW

Here is a fascinating account of the history of this EMS company with facilities in Lithuania, Turkey, and China. Sergey Zorin, Director and founder of DANNIE.CC has guided this business from a group of design engineers to its present full scope of manufacturing services in these geographies. He explains the strategy as the company has evolved according to customer requirements. It’s a unique story, yet very indicative of the innovative nature of the EMS industry.

With this interview, EMSNOW launches a new video series, “Virtual On Tour,” to elevate the EMS industry through in-depth interviews with industry executives. This first in the series spotlights North American high reliability ‘mission critical manufacturer’ Zentech, through this insightful conversation with Michael Seltzer, Chief Commercial Officer. The discussion covers Zentech’s unique differentiators, Michael’s thoughtful analysis of industry trends, including nearshoring, material shortages, the race for talent, automation, the importance of supplier relationships, changing EMS/OEM dynamics, Zentech’s growth strategy and much more. Listen to how one seasoned EMS expert describes how his company prioritizes culture and people to make manufacturing cool again.

The Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA) has had quite a productive year. David Schild, Executive Director of the PCBAA discusses the accomplishments of this very young consortium of companies that support the domestic production of PCBs and the materials they are made from. Eric asks him about the growth of the association, policy achievements, and recent announcements of public/private partnerships. David tells Eric what is on the agenda for 2024 and how they intend to manage through the political turmoil of an election year. It’s a very important discussion about major initiatives that will impact the entire electronics industry for the next decade at least.

Eric catches up with Misha Govshteyn, CEO, Macrofab to learn the latest news about this innovative platform for sourcing electronics manufacturing services. The discussion begins with an overview of the Macrofab model focused on North American manufacturing though a software based platform enabling flexibility and scalability for all sizes of OEMs. Misha explains over 50% of his company’s recent growth is a result of the acceleration of the re-shoring trend to a regional approach bringing manufacturing closer to customers. He notes that pre-pandemic, the re-shoring discussion was mostly theoretical, but that is not the case now. Mexico is increasingly the answer for companies exiting China

It’s an insightful discussion of trends that will have a substantial impact on the EMS industry.

Eric discusses a software implementation case study with Luminovo’s Founder and Managing Director Sebastian Schaal and Wayne Clancy, Executive VP at Trilogy-Net. Wayne considered 9 different vendors for quoting software for his Canadian EMS company before deciding on Luminovo’s solution. He describes his experience selecting, implementing and then launching this new capability for his EMS business, which has dramatically improved his quoting process and delighted his customers.

Roberto Gatti, CEO of Delvitech SA explains Delvitech’s unique optical inspection technology, which uses AI and a high precision camera system to detect defects. This patented optical head is a powerful technology that acquires precise 3D data with crystal clear images for a wide range of packages and components. Customers can use this system even when there is no ‘golden board’ available to train the software. Delvitech is a Swiss-based company that came on the scene five years ago, and this in-depth discussion of the unique characteristics of this new approach to AOI is well worth a listen.

Michael Ford, Sr. Director of Emerging Industry Strategy at Aegis Software, is an industry thought leader, and this conversation tackles some important issues about what people want in their MES system. He says that people want MES that is simple to use but has the internal capabilities to manage the very complicated electronics manufacturing process efficiently. Aegis will be exhibiting at Productronica, to discuss with customers their recent developments in the area of composability, the use of AI in these systems, the impact of MES on sustainability initiatives, and much more. It’s an important analysis and well worth your time.

Koh Young Europe’s Michael Zahn describes his company’s plans for Productronica 2023 and updates Eric on the progress of the Smart Factory in Europe. The two discuss both the SMT side of Koh Young’s European business and the semiconductor packaging side, which is getting a lot of attention because of efforts to bring these activities back to Europe. They discuss the trends in these technologies and the place of test/inspection in improving quality and reliability for increasingly demanding applications.

Excess inventory is a challenge for the industry right now. Master distributor Waldom Electronics works with distributors to repurpose this excess, which will help EMS and the entire ecosystem. Andjela Pasi, EMEA Director of Sales and Marketing, explains exactly how Waldom receives excess inventory from distributors to ensure the highest quality and integrity of the components, and also to prevent this excess from ending up in landfills. They discuss the sustainability aspect of these efforts, which increasingly matters to companies addressing environmental concerns. This is a detailed glimpse into how distributors add value to the channel through material management.