Trevor Galbraith and Keith Bryant hosted a dynamic live Global SMT TV video interview program, engaging industry professionals as they unveil groundbreaking new products and innovative processes. With expert insights and in-depth discussions, they keep viewers informed on the latest advancements shaping the industry.
The excerpt below highlights Mike Gunderson talking about PCBs, tariffs and opportunities with Board Shark. Board Shark is a 10-year-old company, provides circuit board procurement services to contract manufacturers, leveraging its relationships with factories in Taiwan, China, and the U.S. to match customer requirements with the best manufacturing capabilities for quality, reliability, and price.
The company specializes in understanding customer needs, managing risk, and serving as an extension of customers' procurement teams. Board Shark's ability to split orders across multiple suppliers helps mitigate the impacts of uncertain trade policies, such as tariffs.
Keith Bryant:
Hi, this is Keith Bryant, Live at APEX, and I'm here with Mike Gunderson from Board Shark. Welcome, Mike.
Mike Gunderson:
Thank you very much, Keith. I appreciate it.
Keith Bryant:
Board Shark, interesting name. Tell us about the business.
Mike Gunderson:
It is. Board Shark's been around for about 10 years or so, and where they've developed or where they came from is some larger companies that are more, let's say, value-added brokers. But what they wanted to do is become more of that flexible, small, nimble company to be able to help companies help customers as needed. So when it comes to acquiring circuit boards, there's a lot of variations, a lot of variables. Board Shark's nimbleness and their variety of suppliers, mostly in Taiwan but also in China and the U.S. as well, has really allowed us to become a good flexible one-stop shop for many of our customers, I would say most of those customers being contract manufacturers.
Keith Bryant:
Okay. So you have advantages over an OEM because a lot of people just use one board supplier for all of their boards, and there's a sweet spot for every manufacturer. There's a sweet spot in a lot of things.
Mike Gunderson:
Exactly.
Keith Bryant:
You're able to pick that sweet spot and basically match the type of product needed to the best people to make it for quality and reliability and price.
Mike Gunderson:
You know what? You hit the nail on the head.
There's a lot of manufacturers out there, but what we find is that most manufacturers, and I use that term sweet spot all the time, because if you stay within a factory sweet spot, then it does two things. Number one, it guarantees that it's going to be a good quality product, and number two, it's going to be on time because you don't have a factory trying to go outside of what they do well. And so what we do is when a customer needs some circuit boards, we take a look at what is the volume? What is the technology? Is it flex? Is it rigid flex? Is it a fifty-layer board? Is it a two-layer board? And we take a look at the technology, the volume, how much do they need, and then how fast do they need it? Do they need it in four days? Do they need it in four weeks? What is it?
And so based upon that, we have five different factories in Taiwan. Some quick turn, some volume. We have eight factories in China; same thing there. A few quick turns, but we try to stay out of China with quick turns because we could get it out the door on time. But with flights and everything, it's kind of up in the air. A customer wants it fast, you don't want to build it in four days and have it take eight days to get here. And then in the U.S. we have our, of course, ITAR, and then 24, 48 hour turns sometimes. That's really what we take a look at.
I would say most of our boards come from Taiwan at this point, which is kind of flipped mostly because of speed and also tariffs. Tariffs are an unknown right now. You don't know what it's going to be. Some companies are looking at Vietnam. Some companies are looking at Malaysia. Some companies are looking at, of course, China. But now we get involved with all the BRICS stuff. And if the BRICS gets hit with a 100% tariff and those boards are on their way, the customers might have to pay a 100% tariff on boards that they ordered a month ago, and now it hits the US shores. So there's a lot of unknowns going on right now.
Keith Bryant:
Yeah, it's got to be a little bit stressful for some of your guys in procurement.
Mike Gunderson:
And us too. Yes.
Keith Bryant:
As you say, there are a lot of unknowns out there, but we can just keep rolling forward. But no, I hear what you're saying about Taiwan. I've been chatting to a couple of people earlier today, and also Thailand is growing for bare printed circuit board manufacturers a lot. And again, that's because it's better than China. It has a skilled workforce, it has materials, it has all the other things. So I guess you guys pretty much have a team looking at where the next big spot's going to be.
Mike Gunderson:
We've looked at Vietnam. Vietnam's pricing is actually higher than Taiwan right now. Everybody wants to get out of China, but nobody wants to pay any extra to do it. So that's the challenge that we have.
One of the things that we're really trying to work with customers on is to split their orders, because when you switch a board shop, there could be some hiccups. And if let's say you're buying 1,000 boards a month and those are all coming from China, let's send 100 of those to our factory in Taiwan. And that way what you have is you have that faucet turned on a little bit. So if something happens and all of a sudden there's a 50%, 100% tariff out of China, then we already have that faucet turned on in Taiwan, and we can flip that over internally and not have the customer have to deal with it, have to worry about it. Now, the price will go up from China, but if there's a hefty tariff on it, then it may or may not go up.
Keith Bryant:
And also, as you say, you have other issues within the manufacturing options as well. But no, a lot of people now are looking exactly the same way that you described it. If not for a complete second source, they at least have somebody in their back pocket if they need them.
Mike Gunderson:
Yes. Yes. And that's a big advantage I think that Board Shark has because even though the company's only been around for 10 years, let's say, but there's about a 20-plus year relationship that the owners of our company have with the owners of some of these Taiwanese companies. So when COVID hit, for example, some companies just could not get into Taiwan, because what happened is when China got shut off, the demand over in Taiwan raised drastically. And so a lot of Taiwanese companies were not taking any new customers. So if you already had an in, then you were good to go. And our customers had that in through Board Shark.
Keith Bryant:
Yeah. And obviously a lot of the companies that you're dealing with, they have a procurement team, but they're buying a whole wide range of stuff.
Mike Gunderson:
Oh, yeah.
Keith Bryant:
You guys are really honed in and specialized in what you do.
Mike Gunderson:
Some of our customers say that we are a good extension of their procurement team, because we truly take a look and do a lot of the things that, let's say, larger procurement teams do, but they might have one or two people in purchasing trying to do a lot of stuff. So we really do a good job of understanding what their requirements are. And also too, risk mitigation. That's a big thing that we're looking at now is risk mitigation. So we can do all of that and we do it anyway with customers. But now it seems like more companies are kind of flipping it over the fence to us and say, "Here, take care of me. I just don't want to go a line down."
Keith Bryant:
Well, for them it's a sensible attitude. And for you, it's also good because at the end of the day, it's what you specialize in. The more work you have, then the better you can be for looking after everybody to an extent.
Mike Gunderson:
Exactly. Exactly. And the other thing it does too is by the volume that we send to these different factories. We're spending millions of dollars a month sometimes, and so it gives us priority. So now we always say, "You become the big fish even though you might be a small company in our whole scope of things."
Keith Bryant:
And if tariffs are going to kick in and things aren't going to get messed up again, then that's always a great strength to have is it's better to be the biggest customer than the smallest one.
Mike Gunderson:
Oh, definitely. Definitely. So yeah, who knows what's going on with tariffs? I mean, it could go away tomorrow. It could be triple what we see tomorrow. So until things settle out, which who knows? Tariffs have been going on for, what, three or four years now. So I guess we'll see is my best saying. I guess we'll see.
Keith Bryant:
Well, I will wish you good luck with the challenging times, and thank you for coming in and sharing with us.
Mike Gunderson:
I appreciate it. Thanks for your time, Keith.
Keith Bryant:
That's Keith Bryant from Live at APEX.
The Global SMT TV YouTube channel focuses on all aspects of electronics manufacturing including PCB, SMT and PCBA assembly and Advanced Packaging. PCBAs are manufactured by OEMs or outsourced to CEMs or ODMs. Advanced Packages are assembled by OEMs and OSATs, although some CEMs are now starting to add cleanroom facilities.
Advanced Packaging topics include BGAs, Flip Chips, MEMs, multi-chip modules, 3D ICs, 2.5D ICs, heterogeneous integration, fan-out wafer-level packaging, system-in-package, quilt packaging, etc.
Equipment topics include stencil printing, SPI and AOI inspection, pick and place mounters, reflow ovens, x-ray and ICT testers.
Materials science topics include solders, Electrically Conductive Adhesives (ECAs), Encapsulants, Underfills, Conformal Coatings, Cleaning Chemistries and other forms of Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs).
Global SMT TV is a division of Trafalgar Publications Ltd. SUBSCRIBE HERE >
A skilled communicator and influencer, Keith Bryant has been the “face” of DAGE for many years, building the brand, in addition to achieving demanding sales targets. He has developed a strong, stable and well-trained distribution network that continues to deliver strategic growth while maintaining high margins. Additionally, Keith has masterminded a major rebranding exercise and multiple product launches including a low-cost platform. Well known throughout the industry and respected for his achievements for more than 25 years, Keith has a close working relationship with many technology partners and media groups. Connect with Keith here.