Manufacturing and Engineering Magazine Volume 420 - September 2015 | Page 17

speedboard.qxp_feature 2 31/07/2015 10:40 Page 15

MANUFACTURING & ENGINEERING SPEEDBOARD

turing costs, on a product-by-product basis,
and labour costs against both build and test
activities. This gives Vocality better control
over its pricing strategy.
Both CEM and customer have their
respective business objectives, but the mutual levels of trust enable them to focus on the

development
of their core capabilities. Or, to put it another
way, Vocality is trusting Speedboard to
be its virtual shop floor (and keep its
processes efficient and reduce costs) and

Speedboard is trusting Vocality to grow its
business by developing and selling products. A true win-win.
The relationship is producing great
results. Also, since the pioneering relationship with Vocality was established, several
other customers are now benefiting from the
same model. Furthermore,
Speedboard
anticipates
that by the end of its
next financial year
(June 2016) more
than 80% of its
income will come
through risk-sharing,
virtual-shop-floor
type arrangements.
Indeed, the company
firmly believes that
today’s ‘standard’ outsourcing arrangements
– along with the ‘traditional’ manufacturing processes
employed by most CEMs - will increasingly
struggle to support customers in serving their
markets.
Indeed, consider the two properties a
product must possess in order to penetrate
and hold a market. They are: high quality and
good value-for-money. Also, the way in which
the product is delivered to the customer must

Another of Speedboard’s
beliefs is continuous
quality improvement – in
terms of both product
build and delivery
be prompt and professional. It therefore
stands to reason that if the manufacture of
the product is to be outsourced, the CEM’s
services must meet the same requirements.
In this respect, Speedboard is getting it right
on all counts.
Another of Speedboard’s beliefs is continuous quality improvement – in terms of both
product build and delivery – and earlier this
year it signed up to SC21; the supply chain
improvement programme developed and
managed by the trade organisation ADS for
companies operating in the aerospace,
defence, security and space sectors. Far from
representing a move to focus on just those
sectors served by ADS, Speedboard is
embracing SC21 to demonstrate and apply its
capabilities in all industries where efficiency
will give its customers a competitive edge.

www.speedboard.co.uk

MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

15