These true-story examples of the dedication and capabilities of Team Spinnaker help you better understand our commitment to exceeding our customers’ expectations.
The customer, a U.S. Defense contractor, suddenly received a request for an assembly used in the field by U.S. soldiers stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These assemblies required 5,000 Specialized RF Filters to be built and delivered within 30 days, and with full functional testing performed. The high mix and complexity of the filter had typically required much of the work to be performed by hand. The lack of notice and short lead time also served as another obstacle for this Defense Priority 1 assignment. Spinnaker’s team rose to the challenge!
Solution:
- Spinnaker identified the best fit raw material suppliers to build on a short turn through our Supply Chain Management system.
- Engineering automated the assembly to deliver the quick turn and necessary cost containment.
- Spinnaker developed custom test fixtures for full functional testing.
Execution:
- Within 3 days turn, Spinnaker had identified the correct suppliers so that material would arrive with sufficient time to meet the deadline. Our longstanding relationships with our suppliers gives us preferential service that we pass along to you.
- Our production engineers knew that our Surface Mount Technology (SMT) machines were the solution to quick turn requirements and an excellent resource for reducing costs, thus, we designed panels for SMT placement and created a competitive advantage. We were able to place all SMT parts within hours of material receipt.
- We then designed assembly fixtures to automate as much of the assembly as possible and used our quality checkpoints to ensure a successful build.
- The operation of every part we produced was critical to our customer and the soldiers in the field. Standard to our offering, our process led us towards zero defect, and our fully exercised test confirmed our process – Spinnaker designed and built a test fixture for the assemblies and tested every unit.
Spinnaker is happy to report a 100% on-time shipment and zero-defect product.
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Our customer could not absorb the changing demand of their market in a timely fashion. With the risk of stocking excess inventory and building defective products, we offered to leverage our buying power using our Supply Chain Management system and take over the manufacturing of more than 130 different assemblies. They accepted!
Solution:
Outsourcing all electronic manufacturing to Spinnaker would allow our customer to be able to react instantly, leveraging the flexibility Spinnaker provides.
- Spinnaker captured and documented more than 130 different box build assemblies. Spinnaker was tasked to build the PCBs, cable assemblies, and final assemblies with programmable configurations. Each product would also need to be tested with minimal customer assistance.
- Spinnaker added 10 staff members to our team.
- Spinnaker managed more than 700 different line items of material with metrics that included lead time and price.
- Spinnaker stocked material and shortened lead times on many of the 700 line items.
- Spinnaker designed test fixtures and tests for each job in compliance with strict guidelines.
Execution:
- Spinnaker automated Bill Of Material (BOM) configurations to auto import each BOM into the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system.
- We moved to a paperless manufacturing environment. Every workstation has a computer that centralizes all documents and job specific communications.
- We hired, we trained, we tested and re-trained. We are committed to our employees’ success and invest in their training.
- We identified new raw material suppliers.
- We priced out BOMs with similar material and passed along these savings.
- With our custom MRP program:
- We reduced lead times
- We drove inventory out
- We reduced costs
The end result for our customer was less inventory, quicker cycle times, greater profitability with our competitive advantage, superior delivery and unprecedented quality.
Speak with us today about how we can do the same for you!
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