As the new president of Universal Instruments Jeroen L. Schmits has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry. EPP Europe has talked to him about platform flexibility, the lightening head performance and chipshooter domains for high-speed chip placement.
Universal Instruments has now got a new president and is reorganizing its business in Europe. However, the last president was in office just one year. This seems not only to be a new policy and a new executive in the company, but apparently some issues also need to be fixed.
As the new president, I of course have fresh ideas on how the business should be run, so we are localizing across all regions of the globe to put decision-making closer to our customers, and to therefore be more responsive. I was with Universal before moving to head up Vitronics Soltec in 1998, so I bring a solid background in the industry and understand the market and its requirements. A clear opportunity remains for Universal to further expand its role in the global market for board assembly. The current expansion of our area operations, combined with the planned introduction of new equipment models, strengthens the competitiveness of our pick-and-place platforms.
Which business aims does the corporation follow in general, and especially in Europe?
Continued speed increases have supported the growth of our Genesis and AdVantis installed base. The Lightning head performance results in a very competitive cost-per-placement, while maintaining the platform flexibility and component range that is required to obtain high equipment utilization in demanding changeover environments. Lightning extends throughput into chipshooter domains to deliver high-speed chip placement on top of these recognized platform advantages, especially as part of an all-platform-line solution. New equipment models will further support this objective.”
What are your different market shares in the diverse areas of the equipment, with focus on Europe, and what do you expect in the mid-term?
In Europe we are investing in our German operation as a base for Western Europe, while maintaining our Budapest operations to support Central and Eastern Europe. We have also recently appointed Peter Bollinger as director of Europe. Universal has always been a strong brand in Europe, so these investments are designed to increase the speed at which we can do business locally – and our renewed focus on the different European countries is already showing progress in our market position.
Do you think high growth and success can be maintained in this industry, even in Europe?
Yes, growth can be maintained, although there is a constant shift in success factors. Changes in manufacturing environments, product designs and management objectives impact the way we need to segment the market. New opportunities such as module-build, final-assembly automation and further integration into enterprise-IT systems all represent growth opportunities. Constant emphasis on price competitiveness remains an important condition for success as well. Europe is strong in specific sectors like automotive and medical – applications that are pushing the boundaries and demanding new technologies, tools and processes.
In which segments of placement and insertion technologies do you foresee further or even outstanding growth?
The increase in demand for small circuits such as Bluetooth and GPS systems is driving rapid volume increases as these applications spread into more products. To keep up with the demand, manufacturers need maximum productivity with high yields. That’s why high-speed chip placement is an outstanding growth opportunity for us.
As one of the pioneering corporations in platform-based assembly concepts, which importance to you render to this class of production equipment, especially in respect to customers’ value?
We invented the platform concept and turned it into a corporate product philosophy. And now the increases in speed combined with a competitive cost-per-placement has enlarged the market coverage for our platform concept, delivering excellent customer value. Such a design philosophy is in stark contrast with many other equipment architectures where the overall line performance remains too dependent on the match with component mix or board size. Here, operating outside of the ‘sweet spot’ immediately results in a decrease in utilization – and that’s not good customer value.
How has the advent of advanced packaging, flip-chips, BGAs, etc. influenced the placement technology and the solutions?
Technology convergence continues with processes such as chip flip commonplace and package-on-package (PoP) gaining popularity. We are fortunate that our extensive Advanced Semiconductor Assembly (ASA) experience puts us well ahead of the field in this growing segment.
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