FEATURE CONTRACT MANUFACTURING BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF TRUST
An efficient Customise-to-Order process - that incorporates the principles of Kanban - and a refreshing partnership approach to outsourcing manufacturing produces great results, says Nick Fairhead, Sales & Marketing Manager of Speedboard Assembly Services
Customise-to-Order (CTO) model. It is employed for about 25 of Vocality’s products that have shared baseboards. Rather than build and hold several of each product variant, the baseboards are held in Kanban. Then, when Vocality receives an order from any of its customers, it is Speedboard’s responsibility to progress the build from PCBA to the required finished product variant and deliver within an agreed five-day timeframe.
W
hilst following Design for Manufacture (DfM) guidelines ensures that what
was designed gets built to spec, these days it is necessary to go one step further, and enhance the manufacturing processes to keep lead-times to a minimum and keep costs low; ‘Design for Business’, if you will. Recently, Contract Electronics Manufacturer
(CEM) Speedboard and Vocality, which specialises in bandwidth optimisation and network interconnectivity solutions, established an innovative partnership, one with virtually unheard of levels of cooperation and openness. Vocality’s markets include aerospace, defence, security, maritime, broadcasting and the emergency services. Competition is fierce in all, and Vocality is keen to serve its customers with not only cost-competitive products but also to be able to deliver those products within just a few days of order. Speedboard is Vocality’s sole
CEM (previously it had been one of four) and is, for all intents and purposes, acting as Vocality’s shop floor. Whilst some may consider this at odds with the saying about never putting all
10 JULY/AUGUST 2015 | ELECTRONICS
Figure 1: One of Vocality’s
products with a common baseboard. Once manufactured, the baseboard is held in Kanban in readiness for a Customise-to-Order instruction
your eggs in one basket, an extremely efficient and mutually beneficial relationship has formed through doing so. The enhanced relationship stemmed from Speedboard recommending how Vocality’s DfM practices should change; including the introduction of a new multi-level part numbering system and a detailed change note system.
“Both
organisations have their respective business objectives, but the mutual levels of trust enable them to focus on the development of their respective core capabilities ...”
THE KABAN SYSTEM The CEM also appraised the entire order- received-to-goods-shipped lifecycle, identifying how processes could be improved and waste eliminated in order to provide Vocality’s customers with reduced lead-times. Based on the appraisal, two Kanban systems were introduced. The first is a traditional system, applied to about 20 of Vocality’s products that don’t have variants. Parameters include Batch Size, Batch Quantity, Bin Quantity and Min/Max trigger levels. Products are
manufactured, held in stock and available for delivery on a Next Day
Call Off basis. The second Kanban system is more of a
STRONGER TOGETHER This level of efficiency was only possible as a result of establishing mutual trust and a far more Open Book policy than exists in a traditional outsourcing business model. For instance, the CEM has provided its customer with fully detailed manufacturing costs, on a product-by-product basis, plus cited labour costs against both build and test activities. In return, Vocality has underwritten buffer stocks of all top level components. With sight of these costs it is almost as if Vocality were an OEM with its own shop floor. This gives the company tight control over its pricing strategy and, upon receipt of a customer enquiry, Vocality can give an accurate indication of the delivery date. Similarly, Vocality provides Speedboard
with forecast orders and potential product changes, enabling the two to adjust the numbers of products and boards held in Kanban; and therefore guarantee a fast turnaround on standard and customised products without holding excessive stock. Vocality’s trust in Speedboard has given the
CEM the confidence to invest in more components and finished stock than would otherwise be the case; as it is in Vocality’s best interest if Speedboard is geared to tackle larger peaks in demand.
Both organisations have their respective
business objectives, but the mutual levels of trust enable them to focus on the development of their respective core capabilities. Or, to put it another way, Vocality is trusting Speedboard to be its virtual shop floor, and keep its processes efficient and reduce costs, and Speedboard is trusting Vocality to grow its business by developing and selling products.
Speedboard Assembly Services
www.speedboard.co.uk 01753 746700
/ ELECTRONICS
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