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July, 2016
Yamaha: Technology and Support for Spinnaker Contract Manufacturing
By Michael L. Martel S
pinnaker Contract Manufactur- ing Inc., a growing EMS provider in Tilton, New Hamp-
shire, has faced many challenges over the years and has had to ad- dress them head-on with flexibility and creative solutions. The company has recently seen an upturn in de- mand for quick-turns for both pro- duction and prototypes. To meet this growing demand
effectively, Spinnaker worked with Yamaha build more flexibility into its operation to provide customers with both volume production and quick-turn delivery. Also, the receiv- ing, kitting, assembly, QC and ship- ping teams all needed to be faster and completely accurate. Spinnaker met the need for speed and flexibility at the pick-and-place level, which is often the bottleneck in a high-speed line, by installing modular mounters to aid production.
Added CapacityforLarger Volume “Spinnaker started in 1992 with
through-hole technology and grew into the SMT business in 1998. We are a medium-sized company but since our start, we have seen more than 20-30 percent of steady growth every year,” says Carlos Ferreira, Spinnaker’s SMT manager. “The key component has been the steady increase in vol- ume in a business climate that has seen significant highs and lows. Presently we are seeing 20 to 30 jobs per week with a one-shift operation,
From left: Guy Nickerson, president of Spinnaker, and Carlos Ferreira, SMT manager.
president, describes how his compa- ny added capacity to meet the de- mand for volume and flexibility in the quick-turn requirement of its as- sembly business. “We began with a Yamaha Emerald pick-and-place ma- chine, which was followed by the ac- quisition of a Topaz-X in 2001, and then an Opal-X in 2005. In 2011 we purchased our first YS12, and we
According to Nickerson, the
pick-and-place models chosen by Spinnaker have helped the company build superior products, which in turn has given the company a com- petitive advantage. Spinnaker’s manufacturing en-
gineers found their first pick-and- place machine, the Emerald, to be re- liable and repeatable. As a result,
with most of the PCB assemblies being double-sided. The jobs are a mixture of production, prototype and NPI.” Guy Nickerson, Spinnaker’s
have been purchasing a new machine every year as our business has grown. The Yamaha equipment has played a major role in this growth.”
when the need arose to add capacity, Spinnaker stayed with the Yamaha product line. “Equipment reliability is the most important factor, since it is critical to the survival and growth of a successful business,” Ferreira says. “When we were starting out in SMT in 1998, the decision to pur- chase the Yamaha machine was im- portant because downtime was criti- cal at that stage. We also had to deal with the unexpected.” Ferreira adds that when starting an EMS business, the ability of the machine to adapt to “whatever came through the door” played a large part in the success of Spinnaker. Since they had good re- sults with the Emerald, it made sense to purchase again from the same supplier. This also avoided is- sues of compatibility between the various machines. A number of changes by Yama-
ha in its pick-and-place technology since Spinnaker purchased the Emerald, have helped Spinnaker keep pace with growing demands as well as improve the assembly process. Most notable of these im- provements has been the change from mechanical feeders to electrical feeders. “When we compared the Yama-
ha feeders to what else was available on the market, we found the Yamaha feeders to be the best available,” says Ferreira. “They are easy to handle, as well as to load and operate.” In-
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