Successful transfer of PCB assemblies for The Telos Alliance® – The Grass is Greener at Valtronic

The decision to switch from one Contract Manufacturer (CM) to another is not made lightly as it takes extra effort on both the CM and customer’s part to ensure that production is not slowed. Companies switch CM’s for a variety of reasons some of which are quality, delivery and capacity. Plenty can go awry but with proper planning and execution the grass can be much greener.

Working on one of largest transfers in our 30 year history we thought we would share some insights in how we worked diligently with our customer, the Telos Alliance® to transfer several PCB assemblies to Valtronic.

The Telos Alliance® came to Valtronic as they were aware of our quality due to our concentration in medical device manufacturing. They produce audio and video soundboards for a variety of applications.  Due to the  acquisitions they had grown to using a dozen contract manufacturers.  The Telos Alliance® wanted to consolidate suppliers while improving on time delivery, quality and price.  They were truly seeking a long term partner with whom they could work as they grow.  With a high mix and lower volume portfolio and need for quality they were a perfect fit for Valtronic.

21 PCBA projects as well as three box builds

The first order of business was to transfer 21 PCBA projects to Valtronic as well as three box builds. We ramped up all of these over the course of six months. Items that needed addressing were the development of standard documentation, Bill of Material (BOM) review, additional test requirements and process uniformity.

To address these items Valtronic completed the following:

  • BOM – identifying long lead times parts and obsolete parts
  • Development of documentation package
  • Process validation for initial build
  • Test station development
  • First article inspection to facilitate quality assurance

Full BOM, Supply Chain, process streamlining, testing, PCB layout, engineering support and improved delivery times

Valtronic held weekly meetings with the customer to ensure we were meeting their expectations and to address issues identified during the week. In just six months Valtronic updated the BOM and aggregated the supply chain, streamlined the processes, improved testing, provided PCB layout and engineering support and improved on delivery times. We are looking forward to continued success and growing partnership in 2019 with new products on the horizon.