Manufacturing and Engineering Magazine Volume 420 - September 2015 | Page 16

speedboard.qxp_feature 2 31/07/2015 10:40 Page 14 MANUFACTURING & ENGINEERING SPEEDBOARD FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH Never shying from investments that keep you ahead of manufacturing challenges, the formation of risk-sharing relationships with your customers plus an unwavering Can Do attitude: Speedboard’s three main philosophies result in sustained growth, says Sales & Marketing Director, Nick Fairhead. 4 Established in 1983, Speedboard Assembly Services is a Contract Electronics Manufacture (CEM) with a difference. It specialises in serving customers in a variety of high-tech sectors, including Industrial, Defence, Medical, Communications and Security. It offers a broad range of manufacturing services which range from traditional build-to-print through to full lifecycle, including DFM, prototyping, full production, packaging, delivery to end customer, repairs and after sales support. Granted, several other CEMs offer the same services, but how many closed their year-end books 23% up on the previous year? Speedboard did: £9.2m in FY2014/15 compared to £7.5m the year before. And how many CEMs spent in excess of £250,000 on equipment last year? Speedboard did. And how many CEMs are attracting increasing volumes of work back to the UK from the Far East? Speedboard is: the volume of its reshored work doubled last year, and now accounts for about 10% of turnover. Moreover, Speedboard is achieving growth – from existing and new customers – within a total sales market that grew by only 3.9% last year, according to the latest Plimsoll Report. So what is Speedboard doing differently? 14 The company’s success is largely attributable to the fact that Speedboard is privatelyowned and that two of its directors are former customers. This enables decisions to be made quickly and decisively when it comes to investing in equipment that will enhance board quality. For instance, in 2014, it was recognised that an up-coming and complex assembly project for a valued customer would benefit from Vapour Phase reflow soldering, and the decision was taken to purchase a Vapour Phase oven. Then, earlier this year, it was recognised that a project for another customer warranted investment in a Selective Soldering line (pictured right). The Vapour Phase oven and Selective Soldering machine, which represent a combined cap-ex in the region of £200,000, complement Speedboard’s other equipment. This includes five SMT lines which, between them, The company’s success is largely attributable to the fact that Speedboard is privately-owned and that two of its directors are former customers. MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING MAGAZINE comprise 15 Siemens SiPlace machines. The company also has a dedicated offline prototyping area, with standalone solder paste and pick & place machines, and all the test capabilities you’d expect of a CEM. However, it’s not all about having the right equipment. Customer relations are also at the heart of Speedboard’s success. For instance, Speedboard and its customer Vocality, which specialises in bandwidth optimisation and network interconnectivity solutions, recently established a partnership with virtually unheard of levels of cooperation and openness. Early on in the relationship, Speedboard appraised Vocality’s entire orderreceived-to-goods-shipped lifecycle, identifying how processes could be improved and waste eliminated in order to provide Vocality’s customers with reduced lead-times. Two different Kanban systems were introduced at the CEM’s recommendation plus Speedboard has given Vocality high visibility of its manufac-