Contract Electronics Manufacturer (CEM) Speedboard Assembly Services has closed its 2015-16 financial year with a turnover of £11.10m, up circa 20% on FY 2014-15. Moreover, FY 2014-15 was a record growth year for Speedboard, closing at £9.23m and up 24% on the previous year [£7.45m]. Together, these growth figures represent an increase in turnover of 49% over a two-year period.
Nick Fairhead, Speedboard’s Sales & Marketing Director, comments. “We’re delighted with this achievement, reflecting as it does how we’re outperforming most other CEMs.”
The reasons for Speedboard’s continued growth include new business wins and increased levels of work from existing customers, some of which have moved away from dual-sourcing arrangements to make Speedboard their ‘virtual shop floor’. Fairhead adds: “Our customers are placing ever greater levels of trust in us and we’re doing more and more final assembly, packaging and, in some cases, shipping products directly to end-customers.”
Fairhead goes on to say the CEM is also constantly identifying where cost-savings can be made and where value can be added to Speedboard’s services. “For instance, and reinforcing our virtual shop floor model, we’re becoming far more involved in New Product Introductions (NPIs) and working with designers to feed our Design for Manufacture and Design for Test expertise into the product development lifecycle early on. By doing so, significant cost savings can be realised and aggressive time- and volume-to-market goals can be set and met.”
Indeed, in November 2015, Speedboard was presented with an Outstanding Customer Service award (left) in recognition of the level of support the CEM provided to its customer motion capture specialist Vicon Motion Systems leading up to and during the launch of a range of high-tech cameras earlier that year. Speedboard employed its bespoke NPI assembly model, rising to both technical and logistical challenges. When presenting the award, Imogen Moorhouse, Vicon’s CEO, commented: “The level of support provided during the introduction of our Vantage range was incredible. We could not have asked for more.”
In Good Hands
In order to ensure Speedboard’s growth was achieved in a controlled fashion, the CEM put in place a new company infrastructure. It included strengthening the senior management team with the appointment of an Operations Director and a Supply Chain Director, as well as the formation of dedicated multi-disciplined Customer Support Teams; each of which has a Senior Account Manager, an Account Manager, a Production Engineer and a Buyer. Each team is responsible for supporting a number of customers, and the allocation of customers to a team is based on a variety of factors such as product complexity, assembly complexity and whether or not box-build (final assembly) is required.
“These changes have enabled us to provide higher levels of customer service in markets where end-customers expect greater flexibility and shorter lead times, expectations that place huge demands on the supply chain,” continues Fairhead. “Speedboard has got it just right though. Proactive support through close collaborations, efficient supply chain management and the ability to react quickly to our customers’ requirements.”
Speedboard was established in 1983, and serves customers in a variety of high-tech sectors, including Industrial, Defence, Medical, Communications and Security. The company offers a broad range of manufacturing services, ranging from traditional build-to-print through to full lifecycle; including DFM, prototyping, full production, packaging, delivery to end customer, repairs and after sales support.
It has five SMT lines (which between them comprise 15 Siemens SiPlace machines), a selective soldering line (pictured above) and a vapour-phase oven; enabling Speedboard to tackle increasingly complex PCBAs (such as double-sided, mixed technology boards) and boards with areas of widely varying thermal mass. Test capabilities include Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI), X-ray, BGA Scope, Boundary-scan, In-Circuit Test (ICT – both flying probe and bed-of-nails), Functional Test and Soak Testing. The CEM offers Kanban stock holding and operates a Quality Management System which is BSI-certified as being compliant with ISO 9001: 2015.
Speedboard enjoys exceptionally high customer retention, with an average engagement period of almost nine years and its longest standing customer has now been with the CEM for almost 23 years.
Speedboard’s Directors (left to right): Karen Heath (Supply Chain Director), Nick Fairhead (Sales & Marketing Director), Neil Owen (Managing Director and co-owner), Martin Bullimore (Operations Director) and Richard Watson (Financial Director and co-owner). For further information on Speedboard Assembly Services please visit: www.speedboard.co.uk
