Kevin Decker-Weiss, Sales Director, CircuitByte GmbH

Was your business able to recover fully or partially from the global pandemic during 2021? Do you still have employees working from home?
At the beginning our sales fell slightly due to the pandemic, but it did not cause much disruption to our company. Most of our customer's factories seem to be in full or semi operation.

With this pandemic, an online sales and support system had quickly been established. This is time- and cost-effective for both the customer and the sales company, and I think we have turned to this being a new normal. And now, sales activities seem to be ramping back up and better than expected. I have high expectations for future sales. On the other hand, since the spread of infection causes great socio-economic loss, we have adopted working from home by rotation.

Has your company been affected by the inventory shortages of semiconductors and electronic components in 2021? Are you able to hire enough qualified employees?
The number of parts that are difficult to obtain has increased since the summer of 2021, however we have procured compatible parts.

Since this was the first time for the person in charge to have such an experience, he also paid attention to price issues, the number of orders and the number of stocks.

All employees were paid their full salary without dismissing them. We also used national subsidies.

What are your expectations for the electronics assembly industry in 2022?
The future is Smart factories, etc. We believe that the overall shift to automation and robotization will become more active in the future, new technologies will be born and the industrial world will be developed through efforts to secure personnel at work sites, reducing labor costs, and stabilize quality.

Have you or will you travel again to customer sites or industry conferences in 2022?
Customer visits are also very important to get a deeper understanding of the customer's situation. There is communication of intention that cannot be felt only by the video and audio on the Internet, and it makes a big difference in building human relationships. At our company, domestic customer visits have been increasing little by little since the summer. Overseas, I think it will stay at about 1/3 of what it was before the pandemic. This may still require caution as the situation varies from country to country as the pandemic is still in a fluid condition.