I have worked as a customer service representative in the PCB assembly industry for 21 years and have seen a great deal of attention and change to improve overall customer service over that time. Key to providing great customer service, no matter what industry you’re in, is always focusing on the customers’ needs first and foremost.
I love attending professional development conferences. I really do. I love the change of scenery for a few days, the networking, the enthusiasm, the free food, (c’mon, I know I can’t be the only one) and last but not least: the knowledge waiting to be learned and implemented. It’s always fascinating to see what other companies are doing to market themselves and gain new customers.
In the world of electronics manufacturing, being busy is a good thing, but what happens when your business becomes too busy? In a perfect world, you'd love to have the capacity to keep up with all of your clients needs (and then some!), but in reality, this isn't always possible. This is especially true when your resources become tied up in small batch orders, while clients with larger orders are in need of a rapid turn-around. How can you possibly keep up with everything? This is where having a partnership with a reliable contract manufacturing partner comes in handy. Here's a closer look at how contracting with a small batch electronics manufacturer can help you get out of a tight spot, and thrive.
If you’re an electronics buyer, some days you may feel like Sarah Connor at the end of The Terminator, the classic 1984 movie. Remember the unstoppable Arnold Schwarzenegger, in all metal form, as he relentlessly chased Sarah through that factory of moving equipment? He simply refused to die!
Everywhere we look it seems society as a whole is focused on price. We constantly see this in television advertising, online pop-up ads, or dreaded telemarketers. The tunnel vision focus on price has blinded customers to what they are actually purchasing.
My wife Donna and I just returned from a 3-week bucket-list kind of trip. We met up with Donna’s parents and took the train from Toronto, Ontario, across Canada to Vancouver, British Columbia. It was a beautiful trip filled with awesome scenery, relaxed visiting, and first class meals.
In 1973, three college friends started working together in a basement.
An X-ray machine in micro-assembly inspection is used to see through the first layers of an integrated circuit to inspect the quality of a ball grid array (BGA). It allows us to see and inspect what we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. More specifically, we could see defects in BGA chips, detect possible counterfeit parts, and inspect our special potted assemblies, along with other applications.
In Part 1 of this discussion we discussed 5 battles that small batch job shops like RBB need to fight if and when they occur. Those situations are:
“We exist to move Heaven and Earth to get our small batch customers, what they need, when they need it.” “Even if it blows up the schedule.” A bit of humor, but we’ve all been there, the customer calls and says that they need “WHAT” by “WHEN”. In today’s LEAN electronic manufacturing environment, short lead times and quick turns are essential to our customers. It’s now up to us to make it happen.
