Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

March Plasma Systems (Concord, CA) recently established direct operations in Japan. The new March offices are located in the Nordson facility in Tokyo, Japan.

"With a growing customer base in Japan, our new offices in Tokyo allow us to provide our customers with local sales and service support," said Peter Bierhuis, president.

The Japan facilities will be equipped with March plasma treatment systems for customer training, demonstration and applications support. To manage Japanese operations, March appointed Terumitsu Tsuji as business manager, Japan and named Yuji Takai regional sales manager.

Other recent activities include the appointment of new distributors for the semiconductor and printed circuit board (PCB) market segments, and the formation of strategic alliances with key allied equipment partners in the Japanese market.

March Plasma Systems is a provider of gas plasma technology for semiconductor, PCB and webbed material industries.

www.marchplasma.com

Electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider EPIC Technologies (Rochester Hills, MI) has recently added two new surface-mount technology lines to its facility in Juarez, Mexico. The new Siemens lines bring EPIC's Mexico capacity to a total of seven lines. Steve Fraser, general manager of EPIC's Norwalk, OH, facility, said the company specifically uses Siemens machinery because of its quick changeover capability that allows for flexibility and accuracy.

Fraser said, "In addition to the new Siemens lines, we have added another EPM wave solder machine, EPM vapor phase rework station for fine pitch, flip chip and ball grid array (BGA devices) and two vapor phase inline reflow ovens in our Juarez location."

The vapor phase reflow ovens use an inert Teflon solution, which will not leave a residue on the printed circuit boards that go through it. One of the advantages of vapor phase reflow ovens is the lower operating temperatures (lead solder 200^oC and lead free 230^oC). The company will now be poised to handle most lead-free alloys.

EPIC's 70,000 sq. ft. operation in Juarez opened in July 2002 with just over 100 employees. The staff grew to 260 workers last summer, with current employment in Mexico at over 600 people. In addition, the operation has implemented a 24/7 schedule since January to provide additional capacity and flexibility. The success in Juarez has led EPIC's management to conduct a preliminary analysis to expand their Mexican operations, possibly with an additional site in late 2004.

www.epictech.biz

SMT Resource Group LLC (SMTR, Wake Forest, NC), a reseller and integrator of new and refurbished electronics assembly equipment, is celebrating its fifth year of operations.

SMTR has delivered approximately 500 machines to customers worldwide during its first five years. The majority has been sold internationally, especially to Asia, where China is the biggest market, followed closely by Korea. The mix of customers includes local customers and North American companies manufacturing in Asia.

SMTR has increased profits every year, converting them into inventory and leveraging them into financial relationships with banks.

SMTR's Eastern Technical Center with 6,000 sq. ft. is located in Wake Forest, NC, and includes the company's administrative offices. The Central Technical Center in Temple, TX, has 50,000 sq. ft.; the Western Technical Center has 12,000 sq. ft. and is located in Concord, CA. SMTR has over 100 major pieces of equipment in inventory. Additionally, the company has sold 200 machines during the past year.

Eric Berg founded Encore Trading East LLC in December 1998, after a career with GE Capital, Universal Instruments and Texas Instruments. Chris Thornton founded Encore Trading West LLC in early 1999 with the intention of working with Encore Trading East. This resulted in the joint formation of Encore Trading International on April 15, 1999.

Malcolm Montanjees owner of Equipment Services LLC worked with Berg and Thornton at GE Capital and assisted Encore Trading Intl., which lead to formation of SMTR on Jan 1, 2002.

SMTR wants to recognize Dave Heller, who began with Encore Trading on April 15, 1999. Heller has worked in the used equipment business, beginning with Universal Instruments close to 20 years ago after being employed at IBM. He is now the Tech Center Manager for SMTR's Eastern facility.

www.smtresource.com

The second phase of the Kester University Program is commencing May 21 at Kester's DesPlaines, IL, facility. Kester is offering a two-day, hands on training seminar at its headquarters.

Kester recognizes the many changes required to effectively implement lead-free assembly reliably without reduction in production output and has created a program to assist customers wishing to go lead free. Courses are offered to train personnel in lead-free surface-mount technology, wave soldering and rework. The courses bring practical knowledge and experience to the user, enabling the fulfillment of a company's training requirements and the rapid implementation of lead-free assembly.

Kester University also offers consulting services to companies wishing to troubleshoot specific soldering assembly issues with lead-free or traditional tin-lead soldering. These services include solderability analysis, x-ray analysis, micro-sectioning, line audits, soldering process implementation and optimization.

Before beginning any project, Kester's engineers assess a company's specific issues and recommend a detailed action plan. At the project's completion, the company is supplied with a complete engineering report.

www.kester.com

According to IPC (Northbrook, IL), the North American Interconnect Manufacturing Services (IMS)/ Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Industry book-to-bill ratio for March rose to 1.12, up slightly from February.

The ratio is calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the average index numbers for sales billed during the same period. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which indicates probable near-term growth.

Shipments in March 2004 increased 41.1% year-on year, while orders booked increased 47.2%. Compared to 2003, shipments of PCBs are up 32.6% year-to-date, with bookings up 42.8 %.

The shipment index was up 15.3% sequentially to 151.5. However, the booking index decreased 2% from 164.1 in February. A shipment index of 117.0, for example, indicates that shipments are 17% higher than average shipments for the same time period in 1992.

According to IPC, participating companies report that their shipments increased 32.9% year-on-year and that their orders booked increased 37.1%.

Year-to-date, current survey participants report shipments up 30.2% and bookings up 41.1% over the same period in 2003.

The monthly statistics are based on data provided by PCB manufacturers that participate in IPC's monthly program. These companies reportedly represent approximately 60% of the U.S. IMS industry.

www.ipc.org

Technology Forecasters Inc. (TFI, Alameda, CA) has release version 9.0 of the Global Pricing Workshop, which gives reliable prices for electronics manufacturing and design services in nearly 20 countries. Subtitles, "A Guide to the Global Outsourcing Landscape," the updated workshop and accompanying workbook draw on detailed pricing data elicited on a confidential basis from dozens of large, mid-size and small contract manufacturers (CMs), as well as original design manufacturers (ODMs).

TFI senior consultant Charlie Barnhart--who served as a n executive at CMs for more than 20 years, most recently at Sanmina-SCI--managed the research team and scrutinized more than 60 case studies covering all industries and regions.

"Electronic companies that outsource some or all of their products' manufacturing need to focus on total cost of ownership and compare these numbers with estimates that are based on sound financial principles," said Barnhart. "Actual costs versus those presented in contract manufacturer's quotes would surprise most customers."

Barnhart warns, for example, that in the largest cost category--materials--considerable variation among electronic manufacturers exists as to how they account for charges for items such as incoming freight, planned attrition, packaging and other expendable supplies, which can add as much as several percentage points to the overall cost of goods.

"Complicating the matter further, other materials-related costs such as supply-chain management and cost of procurement are sometimes accrued in SG&A, then allocated back into the operational overhead, thus making it very difficult to determine and understand the actual cost of labor," said Barnhart.

The new version of the workshop introduces more categories of design and manufacturing services, explains cost-model differences between CMs and ODMs and compares total pricing data for additional countries including India, Vietnam and Russia. Workshop participants also learn how relatively constant capital costs, hidden regional costs and levels of risk sway total cost of ownership in surprising direction--given the nature of the product and market.

Normally, the workshop is customized for individual electronic-product companies and CMs and held at each company's facility. On June 9, a special presentation of the workshop will be given to members of TFI's Quarterly Forum for Electronics Manufacturers Outsourcing and Supply Chain. The workshop will be held in Red Bank, NJ--the day following the Quarterly Forum hosted in nearby Holmdel by Lucent Technologies.

To schedule the workshop at your facility, or to attend the June 9 workshop, contact TFI president Pamela Gordon: (510) 601-9107; email: pgordon@techforecasters.com.

www.techforecasters.com