In this podcast, Eric and Dieter discuss the EMS Executive meeting held in London and hosted by IPC's Sanjay Huprikar and Philippe Leonard, where Dieter presented his data about the UK EMS industry. The two discuss the purpose and context of the meeting and several of the themes, including workforce development, the greater 'silicon to systems' value chain in the UK, the importance of educating people about what this industry is all about, business conditions post-Brexit, the critical need for everyone to get engaged, and much more.

EMSNOW Thanks Tour Sponsors:  

CalcuQuote, – global leader in quoting and supply chain software for electronics manufacturers
Mycronic – global supplier of high flexibility production equipment TrustedParts.com  – genuine electronic components from only authorized sources

Eric and Dieter make their way south through England to Bedford to visit AsteelFlash and then to Luton where they met with the team from Jaltek. They share their reflections about these companies, the stories they heard about the products they are building for customers, and the incredible level of engineering required to make these complex products a reality. They discuss the similarities and differences between AsteelFlash, part of a much larger global organization, and Jaltek, a family-owned business that is very strong in aerospace and defense.

EMSNOW Thanks Tour Sponsors:  

CalcuQuote, – global leader in quoting and supply chain software for electronics manufacturers
Mycronic – global supplier of high flexibility production equipment TrustedParts.com  – genuine electronic components from only authorized sources

Francisco Almada Lobo, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Critical Manufacturing briefs Eric on his company’s journey developing its MES system to make Industry 4.0 a reality for manufacturers of complex electronics. The key is integration and execution, he says, and his team’s deep expertise. His unique MES solution has a low-code, very flexible interface that enables customers to configure and integrate their systems to achieve the promised data-driven smart factory of the future. Critical Manufacturing has been recognized as a Leader in 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Manufacturing Execution Systems for the third consecutive time, and they have just released V10 of their MES.

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Dieter Weiss comments on the size of the UK EMS industry and its place within the overall EU market. He and Eric then discuss their day's visits at Tioga Ltd in Derby and Escatec Mechatronic Ltd in Lutterworth. The detailed discussion covers the type of SMT equipment used for their particular customer mix, the history and corporate structure and what that means, and much more. 

EMSNOW/in4ma OnTour has begun! Eric Miscoll and Dieter Weiss arrived in the U.K over the weekend, and visited InCap UK in Newcastle-under-Lyme. They share their thoughts about the reasons for going on the tour, what they learned at their first visit and much more. It's a lively conversation, and sets the stage for this information-packed series of podcasts from two industry experts.

This year’s tour includes site visits with 17+ EMS companies in seven European countries, attendance at the IPC EMS Seminar meeting in London, and attendance at the in4ma EMS-Forum in Munich.The tour includes visits with EMS companies in the countries of Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

EMSNOW thanks tour sponsors:  

CalcuQuote, - global leader in quoting and supply chain software for electronics manufacturers
Mycronic – global supplier of high flexibility production equipment
TrustedParts.com  - genuine electronic components from only authorized sources

Eric and Dieter discuss their upcoming trip to visit 18+ EMS companies across Europe. They will attend two EMS events where Dieter will present his research; they will travel to eight different countries. This is the 3rd trip for the duo, and the numbers keep increasing. Dieter also tells Eric more about his event in Munich for the EMS industry.

They always learn new things from some of the leading companies in this exciting and ever-evolving industry, so be on the lookout for exclusive EMSNOW reports in the coming weeks.

EMSNOW/in4ma On Tour 2023 is sponsored by Calcuquote (www.calcuquote.com) , Mycronic (www.mycronic.com) and TrustedParts (www.trustedparts.com).

Eric learns more about Waldom Electronics’ unique business model as the ‘distributors’ distributor’. Chris Fetner, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships explains how Waldom’s relationships with over 2500 distributors around the globe enable the company to develop programs to bring new efficiencies to the component channel that benefit the EMS customer. Eric learns about one such program – Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ) Reduction Program – that’s getting a lot of attention.

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Eric catches up with Jeffrey Schlarbaum, Spartronics’ new CEO for an update on this dynamic US-based EMS. They discuss what drew Jeffrey to the company and industry, Spartronics’ history manufacturing in Vietnam, how Spartronics’ strategy is evolving under his watch including how they are approaching automation, the overall outlook for the industry and much more.

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Eric discusses SEL’s decision to begin manufacturing PCBs in the U.S. instead of outsourcing this task. They discuss the thinking behind the decision, how PCBs fit into their overall product offering, and what it means for their business. Jessi Hall is Sr. Director of Vertical Integration and John Hendrickson is Engineering Director, and they go deep into their journey, the experience of doing this during the component shortages, lessons learned and much more. SEL designed this highly automated and environmentally friendly process for manufacturing printed circuit boards in Moscow, Idaho that is focused on the health and safety of the community. The facility features zero-discharge water recycling and air filtration technology.

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Eric discusses Indium’s Durafuse LT solder with Claire Hotvedt, Senior Product Development Specialist, Indium. LT stands for low temperature and Claire explains why low temperature solder is the right technology for many of today’s challenges in electronics manufacturing, including sustainability, surprisingly. She describes an initiative with Heller Industries that looked into how lowering the reflow oven temperature impacted carbon emissions. Sustainability is very tightly linked to good manufacturing processes, she says. It’s an eye-opening discussion of the wider implications of using this recently developed low temperature solder.

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