Despite the crisis, we keep production deadlines of five to ten days for standard printed circuit boards

We have already written about the situation with materials for the production of standard printed circuit boards on this blog. Today, we look at the whole story once again – through the lens of numbers, delivery times, and economic prospects.

“The situation on the market for materials and their supplies is currently incredibly difficult. The lead time for basic materials used to produce standard printed circuit boards, such as prepregs or cores, was normally fourteen days.

From February this year, however, we have been seeing a constant deterioration. At first, the lead time increased to four to five weeks. A month later, it was six to seven weeks for prepregs and thirteen weeks for basic materials. In May, we were informed that suppliers were forced to extend the delivery time to eleven weeks for prepregs and twenty to twenty-one weeks for basic materials.

Our standard practice was to order material and have it in stock within fourteen days. This has basically changed to five months. It is now common for delivery dates to be confirmed for November. However, because we responded in March by increasing our minimum stock levels, we have been able to cover the extended lead times without major delays,” says Radim Vitek, Production Manager at Gatema PCB.

The availability of materials is particularly important for standard printed circuit boards, where reliable delivery times are an essential part of production planning. Maintaining sufficient stocks allows us to continue manufacturing standard printed circuit boards even when suppliers are facing significant delays.

How did you react to the situation?

By quickly making stock resources. In this case, it was not a normal purchase, but more or less an investment. If you want to increase storage capacity by 350%, you simply need to have the funds for it. We know that smaller companies can’t afford this – and that’s why they postpone delivery times to customers until they receive the material. That didn’t happen to us. For our standard printed circuit boards, we can meet deadlines of five to ten days.

Your hallmark is the speed and express production of small prototype orders. Has this focus proved advantageous for standard printed circuit boards during the current crisis?

Keeping up speed in times when you are waiting for material or parts for many weeks is quite a difficult commitment. But we still didn’t have to step aside. Focusing on smaller orders helped us. So far, we haven’t had to move the deadlines significantly. It’s a little different for non-standard printed circuit boards, where we are one of the few companies that can handle it technologically today. We had to postpone some deadlines for them, but clients in this case usually reckon with time consuming factor.

How hard is it to turn down clients who would cover your production for a few months in advance?

You have to put emotions aside and decide according to reason. Clients come who want from us large batches of “hundreds of different pieces”, not just prototypes of printed circuit boards. But it is more important for us to help traditional customers. For us, it would be a great order, which would be enough for a month, and we would not have to do anything, but in this case, we would have to limit all existing customers, and we do not want that.

There is so much work to choose from. But first and foremost, we want to be the same, reliable partner for our existing customers. In addition, large orders have the problem of vacuuming up stockpile material more quickly.

What is missing today? Materials or components?

The problem starts with the basic materials. There are shortages of plastics, copper, resins, and fibres. That’s where it all starts. Two factories in China that were able to produce 600,000 square meters a month suddenly became unavailable after they burned down, and there is no immediate substitute for their production capacity.

We try to negotiate intensively with our existing suppliers, but even they are not able to supply us with enough basic materials. We are also looking for various alternatives and actively trying to manage the situation. The situation is serious for us as well. We have always kept enough stock for at least a month; today, we maintain stocks for four to five months. It’s a big fight for every board, including standard printed circuit boards, and for every order we have to consider whether we can accept it or not.

Do you already see the end of the crisis?

We estimate that the situation could improve by the end of this year.

How has the crisis affected your prices?

Of course, the increase in the price of basic materials has already manifested itself in our country. If suppliers raise price with each invoice, you need to respond in some way. But we try to keep traditional customers and what we do for them. In order to be able to do it just as well and during the same period of time. We once decided that we wanted to be the most reliable supplier of standard printed circuit boards.

Our commitment to always stick to the best materials is related to it. It is not that, as a result of the situation, we start choosing cheaper or worse alternatives. There is no way to choose non-certified no-name material. They are more available on the market, but so far the situation is still solvable, so we reject this option. We still do what we’ve always done. We meet deadlines and we can make quality printed circuit boards. Today we are in a situation where it is not a question of whether someone is more expensive or cheaper, but if anyone can make it at all.

Who are your typical new customers?

Last year we were helped by foreign customers, this year the Czech ones are holding us. They grow steadily. There is one major effect. The missing material is most noticeable for the cheapest standard printed circuit boards. Therefore, customers are much more likely to consider whether not to make one more sophisticated instead of a few simple. Each of the customers is trying to move forward. We see a change in the fact that customers are looking for new orders and new jobs.

What about the rigid-flex and flex technology that you added to your standard offering earlier this year?

The growth is relatively fast. We produce them on a weekly basis and receive inquiries from many other companies. We are also prepared for higher volumes of orders, because despite the usual gradual increase in new technologies, the current shortage of materials, including plastics and polyimides, can significantly accelerate this onset. However, standard printed circuit boards will remain in demand , because the availability of materials is particularly important for standard printed circuit boards.