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At Juki Automation Systems (jas-smt.com), the $180 million SMT equipment division of Juki Group, sales in Europe and the Americas are up 41% over the past two years, and the parent company forecasts a 13% jump in overall SMT sales this year. None of this comes as surprise to anyone who knows Bob Black. From his trademark mustache to his zeal for selling equipment, the president and CEO of JAS has for 25 years been one of the most recognizable personalities – and successful business leaders – in the surface mount industry. He spoke with Circuits Assembly at Assembly Technology Expo in late September.

CA: How is 2006 shaping up for placement equipment sales, both for Juki and the market as a whole?

BB: 2006 has been a good year for our industry and a very good year for Juki. We have experienced tremendous growth, both in the Americas and worldwide. We shipped our 15,000th machine in February, and already have shipped our 16,000th this summer. In August, our factory shipped 335 machines, its first month over 300. In the Americas, we have moved into a leadership position in units delivered, based on the IPC SMEMA figures last quarter. Our lowest cost of ownership allows customers to maximize earnings, and this has certainly contributed to our tremendous growth. The three-year parts warranty, the highest uptime in the industry, and a history of longevity and quality are all big factors.

CA: What are you doing differently to achieve this growth?

BB: I know it sounds simple, but it's our machines. I and many others in our company can talk your ear off about how good we are, but the best spokesman we have is one of our assemblers running on a customer's floor. This is why we never back away from evaluations or head-to-head comparisons. Our machines sell themselves when put to the test. The quality from our factory is so high, the extra two-years warranty costs us very little, which is why we can offer it. Quality, quite simply, is the main key to our success. Our job is just to get people to try our systems and find out for themselves.

CA: Where a product is built tends to be geocentric; e.g., consumer is the domain of Asia, while bigger boards and specialty products like medical are generally made in North America. How does that play into placement machine development, and how strongly tailored, if at all, will the equipment of tomorrow be to a particular market?

BB: Juki has addressed the need for varying board sizes in different markets. Our machines come in three sizes: M size 10 x 13", L size 14 x 16", and E size 18 x 20" – and in newer models 20 x 24". Each customer can choose the size he needs. Our development committee has members from all markets, and we work together to produce new models that meet the needs of multiple markets. In this way, Juki can ensure we meet the needs of all markets around the world.

CA: Last year you noted Juki's plan to cross-train its engineers on the selective soldering line you were introducing.

BB: We hired two new applications engineers to specialize on selective soldering, so as not to dilute the work of our placement applications engineers, who are quite busy with our current growth. The cross-training of our service engineers has gone quite well, and has enabled us to keep service close to our customers on all products. All of our service engineers will be trained on selective solder by year-end.

CA: Has the selective market grown as quickly as you initially anticipated? What types of issues do users tend to be running into with the machines?

BB: The growth has been quite strong. While the frenzy of the Pb-free deadline has quieted down, we see steady growth ahead for selective soldering for years. Even a small, semiautomatic selective unit can solder the same number of joints as two to three hand-solder assemblers, and do so with programmable process controls. PCBs are also becoming more surface mount, with less through-hole parts. A board with only a few connectors and through-hole parts lends itself perfectly to selective soldering.

CA: Going back to your Zevatech days, what are the top things you learned that have been useful to you now?

BB: When I cofounded Zevatech I was 30. Today I'm fast approaching 55. I think patience is the best thing I've learned, or perhaps it just comes as we grow older. I still feel the excitement and drive I've always had for our business, but I am much more relaxed in moving to achieve our goals.

CA: What can we expect from Juki in the way of new products and technologies?

BB: Juki has had three of the best years in its history. This success has allowed us to invest an unprecedented amount in R&D. We just introduced the KE2070 and KE2080 modular placement systems, with an improvement of more than 20% in speed in comparison to the KE2050 and KE2060. We also introduced the CX-1, a high accuracy machine that can do both semiconductor packaging and SMT assembly. Its ability to handle bare die, flip chips, and stacked or 3-D assembly at a very low cost opens new markets to us. Next year will see the introduction of more models, all reducing the cost per placement. The coming years will be exciting, and we look forward to continuing our growth and success by putting our customers first and bringing them the lowest cost of ownership.