Site:

Wong's Circuits (PTH), Ltd., (WC)
Wong's Ind. Centre, G/F-3/f, 180A Wai Yip St., Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2357-8111; Fax: (852) 2343-7799; e-mail: wongspth@hk.super.net

Participants:

M. Hasukawa, General Manager
W. Y. Yip, Assistant General Manager
Adam Chung, Senior Sales Engineer, Marketing Department

Mission and Strategy

• WC is a PCB manufacturer. It keeps a balance between four business areas: about 35% in personal computers, 10% in office automation, 40% in telecommunications, and 15% in automotive devices, aiming for a balance between these of about 25% each.
• In Hong Kong, 85-90% of production is 4- to 16-layer boards. Double-sided boards are 10 to 15%. In China, 60-70% of production is for double-sided boards, with 30-40% being 4- to 6-layer boards. The expansion in China will lead to 8-layer board production. The hope is to increase high-end customers by 50% by supplying companies like Apple, IBM, and NEC.
• About 45% of sales are in North America, 10% in Europe, 15% in Japan, 10% in Hong Kong, and 20% in Singapore and Malaysia.
• High-volume scale requires 30,000-40,000 units (30 or 40 m²) per month.
• Changing customer needs require increased materials variety; increased performance through automation; reduced consumption of water, energy, and chemicals through recycling; and flexibility. Sales can increase 20 or 30% per year using existing employees with unit automation.
• New technologies include high-layer-count panels of 18-24 layers; rigid-flex multilayer PCBs, thin PCMCIA cards with alternative finishes and ultrafine-line microcircuits for the computer industry. This results from new investments and R&D efforts at new materials evaluation, new process implementation, and new equipment installation.

Key Elements of Presentation

• Wong's Circuits sales were $90 million in 1995, up from $56.1 million in 1991. With expansion in China, the forecast for 1996 was $110 million, and $160 million for 1997 after the Hong Kong expansion.
• Wong's began producing single-sided boards in 1962, but Wong's Circuits (PTH), Ltd., was actually established in 1975. In March 1997, the Hong Kong site was scheduled to move to Junk Bay Industrial Estate, a new industrial park for high-tech manufacturing. The factory area would increase from 156,000 ft² to 337,500 ft² in Hong Kong at a cost of $35 million, with $38 million of new equipment.
• In 1990, Wong's Circuits (Huizhou), Ltd., was established in China. In March 1996, that factory was expanded from 97,500 to 150,500 ft².

Key Elements of Tour

• WC produces 5,500 (2.6 ft²/panel) panels (14,300 ft²) in Hong Kong, and 2,800 (2.3 ft² panel) panels (6,440 ft²) in China. Output will double after expansion to 5,000 panels per week in China and 11,000 panels in Hong Kong.
• An Excellon drill press is run by a CNC unit, loaded from a CAM station. The drill runs at a speed of 10,000 rpm to 0.35 mm. That has stabilized for computer boards in order to minimize costs. Engineers think it will work to 0.25 mm in mass production.

Core Competencies

• WC has the capability of producing in volume, 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 14-, and 16-layer PCBs. Ten-layer board production is well advanced, and 14-layer boards are being produced in mass quantities. WC can build very thin panels for PCMCIA cards for notebook computers that have a minimum thickness of 0.35 mm.
• Some employees have over 20 years of service.

Conclusions

• WC is aggressively investing in high-end product manufacturing and automation.
• Quality levels are improving through training and automation.
• Prices are becoming global.