Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Multilayer Takes Aim at Military, Niche Products

Multilayer Technology has been enjoying a good run of late. Located in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas, Multilayer Technology has been in business for almost 25 years. They have seen some very good years and some very tough years, especially the last couple of recession years.

But what I find interesting about them is that, while many companies chose to hunker down and merely weather the storm, Multilayer Technology chose to enhance the firm's technologies and capabilities. Multilayer’s managers worked on becoming an even better company, thus becoming more valuable to their customer base.

They recently achieved AS 9100 certification, on top of their military qualification and ITAR registration. And in an age when companies must be good environmental citizens, Multilayer has earned a number of key environmental and business awards, including the “Best of Irving”award for the second year in a row as well as the “Cleaner Irving”award.

I recently sat down with President Viny Mulani and Director of Sales Johnnie Feathers. It’s interesting to come across people who are serious about what they believe and passionate about what they do. I like these guys; they are open and honest about their business and what they feel is important. They have some very strong beliefs about their company and, most importantly, their customers. I enjoy talking to companies who are customer-oriented and who focus all of their energies on not only meeting their customer needs but exceeding them as well; this is certainly the feeling you get when you talk to anyone from this company.

They have a feeling of responsibility toward their employees as well.

“We like to operate as a family; we have many people who have been here since the beginning and we respect that as we respect them,” says Mulani. “Too many companies take their people for granted and I feel this is a big mistake. If we want people to do their best, to wantto do their best, then we have to let them know how much we appreciate their efforts.”

The company manufactures a wide range of technologies as well as special materials including Teflon, Polyimide, metal-backed and flex and rigid-flex boards. Thanks in part to Multilayer’s military certifications, the defense and aerospace market is a big part of the customer base.

“We find that the more we can offer our customers, the better off we are. We consider ourselves true PCB experts. In fact we consider ourselves our customers’ PCB experts--a role that we take on with a true feeling of responsibility,” says Feathers. “We want our customers to rely on us for printed circuit board technology today and in the future. To do that we must have a complete understanding of what our customers do, what businesses they are in, what products they build, what their customers require of them and what their market conditions are. We need to understand their businesses as well as they do.”

In addition to the military and aerospace markets, Multilayer Technology also serves telecom, medical, security, instrumentation, pipeline and oil, logging, ATE and more.

“The markets we serve are very diverse,” says Mulani. “Just compare the defense and aerospace industry to the down-hole (oil drilling and exploration) market. The requirements for down-hole are much more stringent than those for military. These boards are going into sensors in the actual drill bit, and these sensors have to send back information about what is going on a couple of miles into the earth. There is a  great deal of financial investment here; the last thing companies like Halliburton and Schulberger want to do is pull that drill bit back up if one of those sensors fail.”

Multilayer Technology started in 1986 when Mulani and two partners bought out a failed PCB shop. Although the previous owners had some good equipment, they were not able to do much when it came to technology, as it was basically a single- and double-sided shop.

The customers were gone and business was virtually non-existent. Mulani and his partners started from scratch.

“That shop was only 5,000 square feet, with no place to expand. They were only doing single- and double-sided boards. I was so sure that we needed to grow technologically that I called the new company Multilayer Technology to make sure that there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that we were much more than a single- and double-sided shop,” Mulani says. “I also wanted to work technology in the name so that we would be identified as a true technology company. After a few years, I wanted to grow and the partners didn’t. So I bought them out and moved into our current facility, where we have 25,000 square feet of space.”

In 1987 and 1988, he signed on two new partners: Naren Tarpara, who is now the executive vice president, and Bharat Chodavadia, currently vice president of manufacturing. Together they’ve grown the company into what it is today.

Johnnie Feathers joined Multilayer a few years later. He believes Multilayer’s focus on personnel leads to satisfied employees.

“We want our entire work family to be proud of what they do. Circuit boards are a pretty abstract product; they are these thin green ‘plastic’ looking things that people have a hard time associating as a high-tech product that can make a real difference in the world,” Feathers said. “So we hang photos and posters of the end-products that our boards go into. When employees look at a missile or a medical device that holds a board that they’ve worked on, it makes the product come alive and it gives them a real reason to make sure that they are doing their best to produce the best products on the market.”

It is no secret that the North American market has taken a beating over the past 10 years. Where there were once over 1,000 companies in our market there are only about 350, so it’s always good to talk with a company that has not only survived the hard times but grown through them as well. That’s why I enjoyed my talk with the management at Mulitlayer Technology.

They have had the resiliency to build a company from the ashes of a failed company, the fortitude to make it through the hard times, and the innovation to thrive in the good times.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group. He can be reached at danbbeaulieu@aol.com.