PCB master

Growing needs of people guarantee the printed circuit boards will continue to be in production

26th January 2021

Mr. František Vlk is not really a typical business “shark”. He speaks calmly and carefully select select his words, is grateful for your questions and there is a 10 year old mobile phone on the table in front of him that he uses. And even in spite of that – or perhaps that's why – he has managed to built a company in Boskovice that employs around 200 people and has obtained a top class reputation for the production of printed circuit boards all over Europe. “Last year was tough but we managed to survive way above our expectations but it is too early to celebrating because the crisis that is going to hit this business is still ahead of us. The overall consumption is still suppressed by the coronavirus and especially the more expensive items are less in demand. People are still waiting, anticipating what's going to happen next. The companies have started to arm for the post-Covid period which results in developing and then ordering more complicated and complex boards. It is more interesting types of goods for us with higher added value” as he adds at the beginning of our interview.

The Year 2020 in PCB industry: fewer classic circuit boards, companies invested in development

11th January 2021

The year 2020 will become part of history alongside the legendary years of 1968, 1989 or 2001, the years that have changed the rules in the world. A dramatic change is also happening at this time - the culture of work is shifting, people's habits are changing as well as global logistics, economic parameters, social conventions, technological possibilities. The development in many areas has managed to accelerate even more. After all, consider this, would you be able to imagine a similar pandemic 10 or 20 years ago? Without the possibility of home office, video conferences, high speed Internet, advanced automation or artificial intelligence, the course of such pandemic would be dramatically different. This was also one of the topics we discussed with Mr. Frantisek Vlk, Mr. Zdenek Capal and Mr. Ondrej Horky. The three gentlemen that are steering the wheel of Gatema PCB a.s., a top European producer of printed circuit boards that only in this year has managed to transform into a holding structure, to finish the acquisition of a well-known German company Kubatronik, to open up an Austrian branch office Katema Tec and to strengthen substantially its activities in Poland. This is not a bad result for a year which has been mostly negative for majority of people.

Industry 4.0 does not mean people will be replaced with machines

4th January 2021

If a printed circuit boards manufacturer claims his key and unfair competitive advantage is production speed, then make sure he is going to be the first one to begin implementing automation and digitalization of all its activities within its own internal processes. Because what is most costly is human error. That is just a pure fact that 10 out of 10 production companies will confirm. But the fact is that even in spite of this highly expected arrival of the 4.0 industry it does not mean that human labor will not be needed any longer. “People will not be replaced by machines, they will only be transferred to positions where their creativity will be at better use form us. We see this on a daily basis.” as Ondrej Horky, a Commercial manager for Gatema PCB a.s. adds. Gatema PCB a.s. company belongs to one of the fastest producers of printed circuit boards within the European scale.