Respondents from the IPC's PCB survey look to HDI for the future.
IPC conducted a survey of presidents from printed circuit board manufacturing companies at the April Printed Circuits Expo®, APEX and Designers Summit in Las Vegas, polling leaders of 30 different companies attending the PCB Executive Management Meeting.
An overwhelming number of respondents look to high density interconnect (HDI) technologies as a major focus in the near future. More than 63 percent said that HDI will drive the industry in the next five to 10 years; the next two choices, embedded passives and printed electronics, weren't even close at just 13.3 percent. A small majority, 53.3 percent, have already begun manufacturing HDI products, and 76.7 percent of the companies surveyed will be investing in the technology in the coming year.
Significant numbers of companies are also investing in embedded passives (30 percent) and liquid polymers (23.3 percent). In addition, companies are also investing in a wide range of process technologies. Seventy-three percent are putting resources into via fill technology, 53.3 percent in both copper fill and laser direct imaging, and another 50 percent in planarization. Direct legend printing (43.3 percent) and build-up technology (30 percent) also look to receive sizable investments.
Partnering up
The survey was designed to get a sense of what was on these business leaders' minds, their strategies for the coming year, and how they plan to adapt to the ever-changing global market.
Nearly all the executives responded that they believed PCB production is dwindling in North America. Ninety percent said that the North American PCB industry is still shrinking in number of companies and capacity, while only 10 percent felt it was stable. As such, more companies have turned to partnerships with foreign companies. More than 46 percent are working with foreign companies to increase product to sell, while only 23.3 percent are working with other domestic companies to do the same. Still, certain design competencies remain in-house; 83 percent of respondents said they do not outsource computer-aided manufacturing operations to other countries like India, China, and other parts of Asia or Eastern Europe.
On the whole, the companies surveyed were small- to mid-sized; 30 percent had under $10 million on revenue, and another 36.7 percent had between $10 and $40 million. Two-thirds of these companies are privately held. They continue to develop business locally through existing relationships and dedicated sales staff. Over 83 percent of respondents said that most of their customers were concentrated within a 250-mile radius of their plant; of these customers, 30 percent were the military market and 23.3 percent industrial. Fifty percent of companies said that most of their sales were generated through inside sales; 26.7 credited direct outside sales; and 23.3 percent use independent sales firms. Only one respondent of the 30 said they made over 10 percent of sales via web marketing, and nearly 93 percent said they spend than less than five percent of sales on any kind of marketing.
Customer's choice
One comparison of note was the question of how companies try to compete versus how they think customers decide to buy. The largest number of companies, 46.7 percent, said they compete on technology; 30 percent said price. But regarding what they believe about customers' primary decision factor, the numbers were reversed: 46.7 percent of them said customers buy on price, and 33.3 percent said technology. Value-added services also play a role in these decisions, but to a lesser degree: 23.3 percent of companies say they try to compete through services like engineering, design, and assembly, but only 20 percent believe such services are key to customer decisions.
The executives also stated that they typically plan to reinvest more of their revenues in new equipment than used, an average of 6.2 percent of sales versus 3.3 percent. Perhaps reflecting the emphasis on technology as a competitive advantage, 43.3 percent said that it is also a primary decision factor in their purchasing, although value-added services outscored price in this measure, 30 percent to 26.7 percent. Half of them said they planned to invest more in their business during 2008 than 2007, and another 53 percent said they focus on pre-tax profitability as their overall measurement of business.
