Investing in New Technologies

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Manufacturing is undergoing what we now consider as the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 is an era where we see new technologies and techniques transforming the systems and processes of our factories. Automation, IoT, analytics, and robotics, to name a few, are among the advances and strategies that electronics assemblers must embrace to improve their manufacturing performance, lower labor costs and create smarter factories.

Electronics manufacturers are beginning to consider investing in new systems to take their processes to the next level. In our recent survey on the topic of new technology, the top reasons cited by manufacturers to invest in new technologies are to increase efficiency, improve yield, reduce cycle time, and the advance capability of the process.

Source: I-Connect007 Research

Adopting new technologies involves a heavy capital investment, but surprisingly, the majority of the respondents in our recent survey considered the capabilities of these systems as the most important factor when buying new equipment for their factories.

Source: I-Connect007 Research

Respondents indicate they are more interested in quality, and whether the systems meet their needs, including one who commented, "I do not want to pay for features I do not need. Price is the second factor in determining what I buy."

One of the questions we asked in the survey is about technology they wanted to see at upcoming shows. Test and inspection equipment tops the list, followed by automation systems, and solder materials/equipment.