Recently, I had the opportunity to present as a panelist at Definity Partners’ event, “Leveraging Technology to Achieve Business Success.” The event centered on using technology to solve your company’s most challenging business issues. Definity Partners is a consulting firm focused on empowering frontline leaders to run their business and driving sustainable and continuous improvements. One of their areas of expertise is ERP systems, which was the focus for their interactive panel discussion. The companies involved in the discussion were at three different stages in the ERP selection process, and each had their own unique business challenges, which gave attendees a broader viewpoint and a better idea of what to expect on their own ERP selection path.
Recurring small batch electronic assemblies. That's what RBB does, day in and day out. Each of those days filled with a variety of unique jobs, assemblies, customers and suppliers. While it's fun to blog about the ways RBB uses online marketing, the expos we're attending, or the difference between large and small batch contract manufacturers... I found myself very curious about the nitty-gritty details regarding the actual assembly of our circuit boards.
When trying to decide what I was going to blog about this week, I decided to move away from the marketing themed blogs. As I've said before, I love all things tech and marketing related. However, this past week was very enlightening for me both personally and professionally. I volunteer with an organization called Net Impact, which is: “a global association formed to mobilize a new generation to use their careers to drive transformational change in their workplaces and the world.” The mission of Net Impact Boston is to connect like-minded professionals who aim to use business as a force for environmental & social impact by providing events, dialogue, and resources for companies and individuals.
Recently, my wife and I joined 14 others from our church on a mission trip to Guatemala. While there were many uplifting spiritual rewards for both the givers and receivers of this grace, in this post I’d like to share several key business lessons that emerged as well.
RBB’s 6S Program
Everyone at RBB feels a responsibility for keeping our facility and everything (and everyone!) in it in good working order. We look for every possible way to ensure that the custom electronic boards that leave our facility are pristine, and have been built efficiently and exactly to our customer’s specifications. To do that, we need clean areas so we can focus on the job at hand. We need a well-maintained facility and a dedication to keeping personal spaces as neat as possible.
Once in a while, a customer comes to us with a PCB assembly job where they already have parts on hand wanting to know if we can incorporate these existing parts into their job. The parts may have been purchased because a bulk order was needed to get the one or two pieces for a prototype or maybe the customer used to produce the boards in-house and has a remaining inventory of components. Regardless of the reason, most times, we can incorporate these into the job without issue.
As you’ve learned in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, much of the actual work in getting your custom electronics job processed is completed well before it ever goes into production. In this final part of the series, we’ll walk through what to expect during the first production run and the follow up process, and how the relationship is maintained after the receipt of the first order.
In our Part 1 of this series, we discussed the needs assessment and quote preparation stages of the order flow and how important they are to a successful project. The process continues as we enter into the launch phase, which starts once an order is received for a new PCB assembly.