FTG: Focus to Expand

Estimated reading time: 17 minutes

Matties:

Bourne: It depends on the timing. We've done a number of acquisitions over my history at FTG. We did one very early on in Canada to combine two circuit board companies into one and really created the basis of what I’d call a new FTG. The more recent ones go back to what I talked about a little while ago; we created this footprint for FTG where we had operations in Canada and the U.S. and then Asia. The new add-ons were all Greenfield operations, so we're building facilities with no revenue and we were organically trying to fill them up. We were making some good progress, but we did realize there are other ways you could fill them up and some of them are faster. Acquisition is obviously one of those things. In both cases our two most recent acquisitions are exactly tied to that, primarily to help or fill up our California sites.

We are acquiring companies. We're buying ultimately the revenue streams, the customers, the contracts, all of the designs and part numbers and we're going to move all of that work to our existing facilities. The first one was cockpit products, and we're moving that to our cockpit product business next door here. That transition is underway. Our most recent one is we acquired Teledyne Printed Circuit Technology. We just closed that acquisition last Friday. I think it is a great business, but again, there is a lot of pressure in this industry, as everyone realizes, and so ultimately we will move that work to our California facility. It's a circuit board business, but it's a circuit board business with a lot of value add-on. Just about every circuit board that's built there and will be built here has some assembly tied to it, so it really ends up helping out both of my businesses because I make the circuit board in my circuit business and I do the assembly in my cockpit product business, even if it's not necessarily a cockpit product.

Matties: The skill set is there. What about the employees in these factories? Are any of them coming along as part of the acquisitions?

Bourne: We're working through that. Some of them will stay with FTG and some of them won't. Geography is a bit of an issue in both cases. The first acquisition is in Fort Worth, Texas. We are keeping the whole engineering team there and a few other people. We probably will not move the engineering team. We will keep it in Fort Worth as a standalone engineering office and then move a few of the other people. At Teledyne, we're just beginning that process. If people want to come to California we know we need to add some people here, but they're in Hudson, New Hampshire, and that's even further away. I'm not sure how many people we'll get. I don't think it's going to be a lot of them to be honest with you, but I think there will be a few.

Matties: Yeah, I was thinking geography alone is the barrier. When you look at bringing people into your factory—you're in China now, you know how important automation is there—how important is automation here for you?

Bourne: It depends on the site and the business. In California, if I just talk circuit boards, this is a very specialty oriented product that we build here. We do a lot of rigid-flex. We do a lot of complex mixed materials, heat sink, thermal management product. We do very high mix, high value and very low volume. Automation doesn't do a lot for us in our California facility. In Toronto it's still aerospace and defense, so we never do high volume, but we do higher volume there. We're actually working hard this year to try to make some progress on automation for that facility. It's something we've talked about and we want to do. We haven't done much of it yet, but we're willing to do it.

Matties: When I look at the question of automation here in America, I think more of not necessarily automation like handlers and such, but it seems to me that fabricators have more of an eye for bringing in new processes that eliminate multiple steps. Would that be the priority in an organization like yours?

Bourne: Actually it’s a bit of both, but that's a very good point. There's new equipment coming out every year where they're combining steps or automating the actual process step of whatever you might be doing, whether it's solder mask or something else. Process controls are so important in this, particularly as board density goes up and customer requirements get tougher and tougher. I guess in that regard we've been doing some automation and some stuff related to that over the last number of years as we improve our capabilities.

I actually also want to do some of the material handling automation in my Toronto plant. As I explained to all the people there in Toronto, today I have 10 process engineers and 120 operators, and tomorrow I want to make it 130 process engineers. I want everyone focused on the process. I don't want people spending their time loading a machine or unloading a machine. I want everyone focused on if the machine is running properly. Is the product coming off the machine in spec? Does it look good before it moves to the next step? I'm doing it for improved quality and improved process control, and we'll see how that goes. We have some initial projects just getting going.

Matties: For you, what's the best part of your job?

Bourne: I guess ultimately I want FTG to be a successful, growing, well-recognized, well-regarded business. If I have a customer that says, "You guys did a great job for me. I really appreciate it," that makes me feel good. If my employees feel like they have a secure job and they can do a good job and feel good when they go home, I like that. If my shareholders can say this is a good decision to invest in FTG, I feel good about that. Ultimately, if I can make FTG successful and just help keep all the pieces working together properly then that makes me happy.

Matties: How involved are you in the sales process? Do you get out and meet customers in the selling process or do you stay back in more of the technical direction?

Bourne: A bit of both. I'm happy to go out and visit customers. I try to do it, but it's tough because we have customers everywhere around the world. We deal with a lot of aerospace companies that all have multiple sites and it's getting to be everywhere, but I like that part of it. I like to get the feedback from them as well. I think on every trip I've ever done, whether it's with a customer or an industry event or a supplier, you learn something. I certainly do like to get out and learn from whoever I'm talking to about what's on their mind or what they've heard about recently to try to bring that back to FTG.

Matties: Let's shift gears a little to 3D printing. That seems to be a big topic in our industry. A lot of people have ideas about how it works, how it doesn't work. What's your thought on 3D printing?

Bourne: I lump 3D printing in as one of the options for additive manufacturing. In terms of machine parts and a lot of application like that, it's in process. To what I said a minute ago, I went to a GE supplier conference last year at GE Aviation, and they had an incredibly impressive presentation on how they were using 3D printing to make some engine parts. I thought it was amazing what they are doing. It was different metals and putting them all together in a 3D printing process. How is that going to work for me in circuit boards and such? I'm not sure, but I do believe it's just one of those additive manufacturing processes, maybe something along the lines of how we'll ultimately make circuit boards in the future. I don't know, but we're keeping an eye on it as one option to move to additive manufacturing.

Matties: Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should be covering?

Bourne: I'm sure there are many, but I can't begin to imagine what they all are. You could keep me going for probably five hours talking about FTG and the different parts of it.

Matties: It's really interesting. I interviewed Gary Ferrari last year and he gave us some good insights about the way that your technical department interfaces with your customers. You're dealing with some really interesting customers in leading edge technology. Your employees must have such a sense of pride knowing that their parts are depended on by so many travelers each day.

Bourne: Absolutely. In some ways it makes it easier to keep our employees motivated and inspired because what we do goes on some pretty exciting products. It's just fun to be a part of.

Matties: Brad, thank you very much.

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