Maintaining Velocity from Prototyping through New Product Introductions

By Mark Okazaki, Manager of Vanguard Velocity

The Challenge

To consistently help our customers maintain competitive advantage by supporting the front end of their product lifecycles.  

As our customers’ product lifecycles become shorter and shorter, their competitive advantage becomes briefer and ever more elusive. Driving cost out early and as quickly as possible is critical. They must differentiate themselves early in their product offering, get their product to market quickly to realize competitive advantage, and then immediately free up resources for the next set of products or services.

In addition to managing the front end of their product life cycles, companies must now also focus on RoHS mandates. Complying with RoHS often requires the re-introduction of existing products in order to meet regulatory requirements, process changes or increased functionality. To better support this increased need for front end product support Vanguard EMS, Inc. has recently enhanced its prototype services with a dedicated team focused on the following goals:

• Provide our customers turnkey prototype services with the goal of receiving components quickly and limiting excess inventory.
• Provide customers 24 hour to five day turns upon receiving a complete kit.
• Provide customers complete Design for Manufacturability and Design for Test input to drive cost out of their New Product Introduction (NPI).
• Provide Bill of Material health input to minimize supply chain disturbances.
• Provide RoHS Bill of Material health input to support RoHS mandates.
• Provide a tested product using Flying Probe.
• Utilize leading edge inspection tools through 3D X-Ray and Fiber Optic Cameras.
• Enhance communication through direct contact with our customers’ engineering teams.
• Provide industry-leading assembly quality.

This new team is called Vanguard Velocity.

The Approach

Vanguard EMS took a leadership role in streamlining prototype services by creating a department that functions separately from manufacturing. This was accomplished by dedicating a team which includes an engineer, buyers, scheduler and assemblers.  The qualifications to be accepted on this team are very high; cross functionality, the ability to work as a unified team member, and the skills to place difficult components by hand are required. Vanguard’s best assemblers have been selected for this team.

Vanguard also has a flexible equipment set to support this department. This equipment includes a Philips SMT line, 3D X-Ray, Flying Probe, Fiber Optic Cameras, ISIS infrared short-finding system and BGA re-work and placement stations.

Vanguard’s goal is not to just build a quality prototype quickly, but to focus on driving time/cost out of our customers’ product introductions and manufacturing.  We accomplish this through Design for Manufacturability and Test input as well as Bill of Material health input. This information is provided by the degreed Electrical Engineer supporting this group as well as the Senior Buyer.

Vanguard Velocity’s materials group is fully aware of the unique materials needs common to the engineering of a new product. Our team is focused on driving lead time down and limiting excess inventory on components that are at risk of being designed out of the product. This is very different from the goals of our manufacturing materials team, who are focused on securing/managing the supply chain and driving down the cost of components.

For many of our customers, prototyping products in a lead-free manufacturing process is a critical component of their RoHS transition.  Prototyping gives them the ability to determine the effects of higher heat on their products as well as the ability to revalidate their design based on materials and process changes required by RoHS mandates. Together Vanguard Velocity and Vanguard EMS have the experience and the controlled processes to support your RoHS transition. (Please see our RoHS case study for more details).

Once our customer’s product reaches market acceptance, Vanguard Velocity proactively supports the transition of the product into manufacturing at Vanguard or into our customers’ Low Cost Region (LCR) partner. This transition includes documentation, material, lessons learned, programs, fixtures and stencils. Vanguard Velocity’s job is not complete until your product is up and running smoothly in manufacturing.

The Result

In July 2005, Vanguard EMS announced the full implementation of Vanguard Velocity as its own entity.  Although prototyping historically has been a core offering at Vanguard, the implementation of a dedicated group enhances this strength and provides better, more direct communication with our customers’ engineering teams. Flexibility and design input are the keys to a successful product introduction.  Driving cost out of New Product Introductions was the driving factor in every decision made in designing this streamlined team and Vanguard is now uniquely positioned to help our customers succeed.