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December, 2017


Evaluating EMS Providers from Two Angles: Supply


Chain and Engineering Continued from previous page


equipment for health care providers and pharmacies, James Norwood was seeking more from a contract manufacturer than cost, quality and delivery by selecting Pennatronics. As director of manufacturing


supply chain at Aesynt, Norwood sought top-notch technical skills and equipment, as well as flexibility. Although Aesynt designs all the PCBs and provides the specifica- tions, the contract manufacturer pur- chases all the parts, assembles, tests, and ships the completed products. According to Norwood, Aesynt


turned to Pennatronics in part due to the strong technical background of its employees. The company is also now ISO 13485 medical device-certified, an interna- tional standard that sets out requirements for quality man- agement systems specific to the medical device industry. “They have helped us to


improve quality with their input on design manufactura- bility,” says Norwood. “On the delivery side, we have a com- plete Kanban system with our contract manufacturer,” adds Norwood. “They keep a supply of PCBs for us, and ship it to us as soon as we release product so it’s virtually a just-in-time process.”


Optimizing Engineering Design Another vital perspective for any


manufacturer considering working with a contract manufacturer is that of engineering. In that regard, quality is often the focus, with cost and deliv- ery still important concerns. To achieve this, the contract


manufacturer’s engineering capabili- ty must be superior, which often can require various testing procedures to ensure product quality. For the best results, the contractor must also have the ability to collaborate to improve design and manufacturabili- ty. As such, choosing the right con- tract manufacturer will involve an important process of initial evalua- tion, followed by ongoing evaluation and collaboration over time. Take, for instance, the experi-


ence of Bacharach, a designer, manu- facturer and servicer of gas detec- tion, monitoring and analysis instru- mentation for the HVAC and refrig- eration industries. The OEM deals with a number of specialty gases that are used to calibrate its instruments, as well as a variety of sensors used in those assemblies. “We originally used to do all of


our PCB assemblies in-house, but it got to be quite expensive maintain- ing the SMT equipment and keeping everything up to date for the amount of


production line failures due to sup- pliers that had taken shortcuts in testing.” According to Lange, Bacharach


first vetted any potential contract manufacturers to include only those that were ISO 9001-certified and possessed the correct production and testing equipment, capable of the necessary throughput. “We started by outsourcing one


or two PCBs for quotation to get familiar with the various companies and narrowed the field down to a few vendors,” says Lange. Due to the focus on quality,


Lange says that part of the criteria to win more business included expertise


Pennatronics delivers quick-turn SMT and through-hole PCBs and subassemblies.


in a combination of manual, auto- mated and functional testing. The functional testing involves evaluat- ing voltage, temperature calibration and other functional measures of fin- ished product. In this regard, Bacharach was


able to work closely with one contract manufacturer to achieve its quality goals and improve both design and production. “By doing the engineering up front, hand-in-hand with Penna - tronics, we reduced the amount of time and cost that it took to make each product, sometimes very signifi- cantly,” says Lange. As an example, he points out


that one of the instruments previous- ly required a manual testing proce- dure that also involved calibration and programming. “After we worked with their engineers to establish an automated test fixture, we reduced our throughput time from roughly 20 minutes an instrument to two min- utes, which has resulted in very sub- stantial savings,” says Lange. According to Lange, collaboration with the contract manufacturer con- tinues to improve over time. “Previously before outsourcing our printed circuit boards, we held a list of several hundred parts internally,” says Lange. “Now our contract manufactur-


throughput we had,” says


Bacharach engineer Rich Lange. Bacharach chose to outsource


about 80 of these PCB assemblies, which ranged from 50 to 10,000 in volume annually, to a reliable elec- tronics contract manufacturer that could meet its rigorous quality and testing standards. “We wanted a working board


that was 100 percent tested and fully functional, so when we shipped it out the door it would work,” says Lange. “In the past, we experienced some


er buys the components, handles inventory, and takes care of the build for us so we can control one part through them,” he concludes. “With their help, we’re improving design while streamlining purchasing, logis- tics and production.” While manufacturers all have


their own criteria for deciding which contract manufacturer is best for their application, choosing one that is ready and willing to collaborate can only improve the product and process. Contact: Pennatronics Corp., 75


Technology Drive, California, PA 15419 % 724-938-1800 fax: 724-938- 1809 E-mail: info@pennatronics.com Web: www.pennatronics.com r


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