Inside Spirit Circuits

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Randall: From the quality side of it, I think that there's no longer any point of discussion, it's just taken as a given. Typically, everything is specified around the IPC standards and our default is IPC Class 2, albeit we are able to provide class 3 product as well. The way the business is structured with the volume being offshore and the ability to do quick-turn prototypes here is a real plus for us. The pure brokers don't always have the agility to do that.

Matties: They don't have the control or the knowledge.

Randall: There are obviously small shops available that will provide that service but I think the fact that we've got ownership of that and can start with a part here, provide the samples, prove the technology and keep ownership of that when it goes offshore is hugely attractive to customers.

Matties: Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think a buyer of circuit boards should be aware of these days?

Randall: That's a very good question. I don't think we find quite so many issues now when we're in receipt of Gerber. In the past you would find some pretty challenging, if not impossible, requirements when you loaded the Gerber up and were doing your DRCs or your MRCs. Certainly that has improved, but so also has the knowledge from a buyer's point of view that PCBs are not an off-the-shelf part. These are all bespoke items.

We have a lot of customer visits here and we take people around like we've just done now. The response is often, "Wow, we did not know there are 20–30 processes to get to that point." It's not like buying a capacitor or buying a resistor from a distributor, and there's a greater appreciation of that now. I think times have moved on and buyers are pretty switched on now. As I said when we were talking before, IPC is the default. Everything tends to get specified around IPC, and that takes care of most things, to be honest.

Matties: The rest really becomes culture and fit, right? You’ve got to do business with who you can do business with.

Randall: Obviously we like to think we know our customers quite well. Certainly our key customers we know very well and we know what is important to them, what ticks the right boxes, and we do different things for different customers. A lot of that is just the way in which we engage and communicate with them. The product itself, remains pretty much the same. It's not so much about the product, it is more about the customer experience, the whole part of dealing with the customer from the point of enquiry to the point of getting their boards. Getting the small things right, that they get the product in the right packaging, in the right weight of packaging and so on. It's important to focus on the finer details right.

Matties: Martin, I appreciate your tour today and your time. Thank you so much.

Randall: You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.

• < Previous Page