Thursday, February 05, 2009

Interview with Martin Ziehbrunner, CEO of the Essemtec AG, Switzerland

The Swiss manufacturer of machines Essemtec is leader in the branch of flexible production systems for the industry. Since 1991, Essemtec develops, fabricates and distributes equipments and machines for all processes of the electronic manufacturing: printer, dispenser, placer and solder systems.

Marketing-Ingenieure.ch talked to Martin Ziehbrunner, chief executive officer of the Essemtec AG.

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Marketing-Ingenieure (M-I): Mister Ziehbrunner, you budgeted in the beginning of 2008 investments of several million Swiss francs for the development of products, marketing and the infrastructure of Essemtec. Which of the objectives have been realized?

Martin Ziehbrunner (MAZ): All objectives could be realized in time. In some fields we could achieve extremely good growth rates. The turnover in the field of printers increased by 28%, in the field of dispensers by 66% and at special solutions for customers by 30%. Our new building was finished in June in time. At this place the departments’ product management and development could be fit together, finally, and today a modern area is at their disposal at which one can work close together. The assembling for the pick & place machines are accommodated in the same building. Here is a new spacious area for the pre-assembling of complete assemblies at disposal. These enable us, to pre-assemble complete units more reasonable, in a still better quality and quicker and, by this, to be able to deliver an incoming order more quickly. A room for inspections for complete-lines (turnkey) is placed in the new building which could be already used for several times for inspections of customers and process trainings in this year.

The objectives of development, aspired by us, could be reached as well. The Essemtec invests

more than 15% of their turnover into the new and further development of products. Consequently, in the year 2008 various new products as, for example the FLX2011 high-flexible pick & place machine, the SP150 and SP200AV semi-automatic printer, as well as the newcomer systems PanteraXV or the semi-automatic placer MLP3200, were introduced into the market. The new modular reflow platform RO-VARIO had been finished too and the first systems had been delivered to customers. At the same time, the functionalities of various platforms had been increased with new software releases, by which our customers can profit from interesting up-grade possibilities. Simultaneous, the first systems in the field of solar/photovoltaic had been introduced into the market with success.

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M-I: For all these tasks you needed double the staff, didn’t you?

MAZ: Not really. This would be a bad sign for our organisation. Natural, a growth as Essemtec has got out of the way causes also a great need to the introduction of processes and sequences. In the years 2006 and also 2007 important points had been set for this, which led in the year 2008 to the situation that the staff had been extended to more than 110 employees but they can work more efficient because of the already introduced processes.

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M-I: What had been the highlights in 2008 for you?

MAZ: In the year 2008 we could accept a lot of recognitions for our performances. Several awards from all parts of the world (SMT China Vision Award, Global Technology Award, SMT Global Award, and so on), a very successful participation at the EPP Benchmark for inline printers (SP900) at the SMT in Nuremberg, plus the final “Entrepreneur of the year” by Ernst + Young gave us a lot of pleasure. The personal highlight for me was, of course, the birth of our son Maurice. We will see if he will be interested in SMT once…!

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M-I: What is the position of Essemtec in the market today in comparison with the beginning of 2008?

MAZ: The completion of our total offer in the field SMT could be continued with the introduction of the named products. Additionally, in 2007 the field “solutions for customers” had been hived off organisational, what enable us the realisation of offers for various special applications in 2008. In 2008 the field photovoltaic develops accurate and offers further chances in the market for the future.

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M-I: Since one year Essemtec appears even more with the label “Swiss made”. What are the reasons?

MAZ: Unfortunately, it turned out that a few, mostly Far Eastern or Chinese competitors try to force into the market with incorrect business practices. Usually a lot is promised on the paper what will not be kept in reality. As we are producing according to very high quality standards and also keep what we promise we looked for a way to visualise this. Fortunately, just these features are still associated with “Swiss made” so that this visualisation was close to us, of course, and was taken very well in the market too.

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M-I: Which objectives do you place for 2009?

MAZ: 2009 would not be a very easy year in the beginning, probably. But we should not forget that the fabrication of electronics all in all is still a strong developing market. By this, we await 2009 very positive, also. We are very well placed by the products and markets and by the offering of the complete process chain, single variations of the market segments can be well compensated. Also 2009 new products will be introduced by us into the market which will meet with well interest in the market probably.