Is Productronica modell for a bright future?

In fact, APEX 2000 went off like gangbusters. The energy, the excitement, and the satisfaction about the freshly branded focus of the U.S. electronics assembly industry were palpable for three days in a row. Well-rounded conference and tutorial programs provided innovative input and consensus to the industry. IPC held association meetings, and the U.S. manufacturing cooperative NEMI geared up for a further attempt at roadmapping a synchronized advance of packaging and assembly technologies under the impact of „worldwide“ outsourcing and contract manufacturing, as they used to say.

Steve Hall, SMEMA president and general manager of Ekra America, was one of the key organizers of the secession, leading the vendors of placement, reflow, dispensing, soldering, cleaning, print, test, inspection and measurement equipment out of their traditional show case Nepcon West to their other Californian venue. Hall succinctly expresses the objectives of APEX: „The electronics assembly market had a need for a focused, fair and cost-effective trade show. There is now a trade show that is 100% focused on assembly.“

Focused it is: APEX strictly caters to the capital equipment segment of the industry, and for a reason: lately, that segment of the industry marches to a different drummer. Under the influence of unprecedented consolidation of global manufacturing it is forced to be closer to abundant labor and also closer to its main end-user markets. It means thinner margins and even shorter product cycles. And it requires ever higher flexibility in its product portfolios, and timely adaptability to rapid advances in manufacturing technology. That will in turn require more rigidly focused and internationally oriented industry associations like the IPC to articulate its needs and to interact with its members for the most effective presentation of its achievements and policy requests.

In that regard, APEX appears well on its way. „APEX has the advantage that it provides high-quality leads,“ Leo van de Vall of Philips Electronic Manufacturing Technology, Americas, in Alpharetta, GA, concluded after the show had closed its three-day run. It also has the advantage of efficiency in an age of instant connectedness. „It’s a cost-effective way of meeting customers. We need the people who are interested in buying capital equipment. That way, the engineers and sales people at the booth can spend more quality time with people who matter.“

Technical focus and quality of attendees was the most heard and often repeated comment among exhibitors. Melissa Switek of Siemens Energy and Automation: „They were particularly interested in modular manufacturing that we showed in our booth, and in the hands-on area where we had twomachines that the customerscould manipulate themselves.“ David Zweig of x-ray specialist Glenbrook: „In the first hours of the show we got half the numbers of attendees that we got at Nepcon. That’s a very good beginning.“ Tim Mahan of ATE supplier GenRad: „We are seeing an increase in qualified people at this show. They are more expert and more specific about solutions. APEX gives us the opportunity to be with the pick&place vendors, so we can talk about our software solutions.“

Cutting cost was the other leitmotif of APEX. IPC strictly enforced its long-standing policy of prohibiting all hospitality functions or company-sponsored seminars outside of its official program. A Spartan touch that paid off well, at least at the inaugural event, but might be relaxed as APEX evolves, along with some other puritan constraints. The boothes were more or less as huge as usual, but between them not much space was left, so the aisles were sometimes so packed with folks that no one could easily get by during „office“ hours. It was however a very effective event on a compactly stuffed show floor with less time wasted rushing from one company to the other.

Is there any reconciliation in the offing between the two competing shows? For the foreseeable future, no. At least in 2001 and also in 2002, when APEX will be held in the rather tight quarters of the San Diego Convention Center, there will be two segmented industry events, yet closely spaced and closely timed: APEX will be even earlier, in the middle of January (perhaps a tad too close to the preceding holidays and therefore prone to logistics jams). Nepcon West should be at its traditional spot at the end of February. And not to be forgotten: a show needs a home with a well-established and known infrastructure in place for this purpose and clients. In this light, the Anaheim Convention Center is still a premium venue.

Many voices in the industry continue to plead for one unified show that displays the gamut from materials to tools to capital equipment. But reconciliation might be tough going, says Philips‘ van de Vall: „There are fundamentally different organizations – one wants to make money, the other is a non-profit organization.“ Yet, not all is lost: „I would hope that the differences can be bridged. What we want to prevent is that an organization uses their monopoly to the detriment of the exhibitors.“ By the way: exhibitors from Europe will not be too spoiled by American show organizers‘ calculations, be it profit or non-profit. For example, a square meter (sorry guys, thats what we use in Europe, not square feet) at SMT in Nuremberg or Productronica is at least DM100 less.

At least for the next two years, a number of exhibitors like Asymtek will have to participate in two venues. „We have signed up for Nepcon West as well. It’s a traditional show, and people are used to it,“ says PR manager Roberta Foster Smith. „The companies we work with are there.“ A similar double strategy is followed by Teradyne: „We will bring test equipment to Nepcon, and optical inspection equipment to APEX,“ explains PR lady Charla Gabert. „Circuit board test is still what people want to see at Nepcon West.“

Less sanguine about the future double track to his customers is Leigh Gesick, marketing and sales director at Amtek: „Solder paste is closely related to the machines, and we have to be where the machines are. For us, traffic at Nepcon West was more qualified. I would like to see this go back to one show. It’s very costly to do two shows. One of the groups will have to bite the bullet.“

That may take a while. If there is a merger of shows, it might be between two of IPC’s own: APEX and the IPC Printed Circuits Expo, which presently occupies the April time slot, again at Long Beach, California. They would be a good fit. „That is something that we will have to look at,“ says Dennis McGuirk, president of IPC since January. A strong strategist with a previous military career, McGuirk has set his eyes on the world leaderof electronics manufacturing events: „It would be good if we had a Productronica-type show in the U.S. I would be very happy if we could accomplish an IPC show like Productronica.“ This bird’s eye view may not have taken into account that this Munich-based super-dupper monster show is a biannual. And for a lot of its visitors it is a Tour de France, or say a trip full of pain, because you will never have fullfilled your daily workload, missing too many you want to see – and at the end of the day you ask yourself, why the hell are your feet blistering? Sheer size is not the solution.

Could the admiringing view from the U.S. mean a fresh challenge for the Munich Trade Fair Company? Especially, should they follow the rhythm of innovation in the electronics industry, picking-up yearly pace? So far, that is not in sight, states Jens Uwe Fuhrmann of German organization VDMA Productronic, which takes care of the equipment side of the electronics manufacturing business: „I’m of the opinion that Productronica is not effected by this at all, because it addresses the European markets, while APEX will appeal to the American market. Most Productronica exhibitors (and visitors alike) are glad that it takes place only every second year.“

Anyway, at least for the near future – if no February surprise emerges – the format of APEX seems to be stable after it went off so well the first time around. After 2002, however, all bets are open if APEX, as intensely rumored, moves to the vast wasteland of Las Vegas, where there is no dearth ofexhibition space and exhibi-tionist entertainment. Next year, though, APEX will be constrained in terms of booth and floor space, as it was this year. There will be 15% more floor space available at San Diego. But, says IPC VP marketing & communications, Kim Sterling, this will not translate into 15% more exhibitors. Even if there are a good many who want in. Foremost on the mind of IPC, Sterling says, is to enlarge the spaces of current exhibitors that got only a skimpy 10 x 10 feet booth this time. This way, the tight focus on capital equipment might be comfortably maintained as well.

So, in an ironic way, APEX’s space constraints can guarantee the renewal and a blossoming of good ol‘ Nepcon West as well: Since almost nobody (maybe except the now forged Agilent for example) can get into APEX anymore, they will have to get a new lease on life in Anaheim. Werner Schulz / Gerhard B. Wolski

EPP 155

More than 21% of the attendees at APEX have originated outside of the U.S. More than 1,200 were international visitors, from over 50 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Germany had the highest European representation with 127 attendees, while from U.K. came 124. Japan sent most visitors from Asia, accounting for 140.