Assembly Planbook - June 2008 - (Page 41)

“Over the past six years, the real thrust of our business has been new products,” says Jim Diederich, vice president of marketing for Assembly and Test Worldwide (Dayton, OH). “Manufacturers aren’t coming to us to increase production of something they’ve been building for 10 years. They are producing something new to address the marketplace in a new way.” To help their customers maintain a competitive advantage, systems integrators follow a host of standard operating procedures designed to keep secrets under wraps. For example, assemblers routinely ask integrators to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). “We have to do that just to quote on a project,” says Diederich. An NDA can have as few as four pages or as many as 15. The document stipulates what equipment the integrator is building. It also outlines what constitutes the customer’s intellectual property and what represents the integrator’s intellectual property. An NDA prevents systems integrators from revealing such information as the customer’s identity, the nature of the assembly, design specifications, production rates, target costs and proprietary processes. Everyone Assemblers routinely ask systems integrators to sign nondisclosure agreements. Photo courtesy Merritech involved in the project, from the shop floor to the back office, typically needs to sign the document. Complying with an NDA may seem like no big deal, but for systems integrators, it can be a challenge. For one thing, automated assembly systems require many products, such as feeder bowls, To prevent visitors from seeing proprietary equipment, some integrators maintain separate, secure rooms in which to build particularly sensitive assembly systems. Photo courtesy Merritech grippers and cylinders, that the integrator doesn’t make in-house, explains Bob Ensminger, president of Arthur G. Russell Co. (Bristol, CT). “It’s just not realistic for all these small vendors to sign onto some restrictive agreement,” he says. It can be a tightrope. Integrators have to reveal enough detail about the project to accurately specify subsystems and get good quotes, yet they can’t disclose so much that they spill the beans about the product to the outside world. In the end, integrators often end up having suppliers sign NDAs, too. Most NDAs expire once the product reaches the marketplace, but some are enforced for 3 to 10 years after a project is completed. Others insist that the integrator never reveal the customer’s name. Another common security practice among integrators is to limit access to a project only to those personnel with a need to know. Electronic design files are protected by passwords, while identifying information is redacted from paper drawings and contracts. To prevent visitors from seeing proprietary equipment, integrators may set up portable walls or screens around www.assemblymag.com June 2008 / ASSE M B LY 41 http://www.assemblymag.com

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Assembly Planbook - June 2008 Contents Editorial Bonding Lines Quality in Assembly Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Fastening or Bonding? Loose Lips Sink Assembly Systems DFMA Cuts Downstream Costs Robots Lend a Hand Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - June 2008

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