Circuits Assembly - June 2008 - (Page 24)

Inovar Out of the Garage Mike Buetow How a northern Utah-based EMS firm is turning Cache Valley into Cash Valley. What they see inside the bigger plant is four SMT lines, including three production lines. (A fifth line is on order.) The names are familiar: printers from DEK (Horizon and ELA) and MPM (Ultraprint 1500), Juki KE and FX-1 SMT placement and Universal 6360B for PTH, Heller reflow ovens, YesTech F1 hen Blake Kirby first invested in Inovar and YTV-2000 AOI, Juki selective solder. Test (SPEA some 10 years ago, he “didn’t even know flying probe, Teradyne 1880 ICT, Photon Dynamics what contract manufacturing was.” Now 2-D x-ray) is set up at the end of the production lines, president and COO of the EMS firm, Kirby recalls instead of in its own room or space, when he first saw the company, it which improves communication, says was housed in a garage. The space vice president of operations Jim Bjorkwas so small that the first SMT line lund. 3-D post-print inspection is being the company purchased cleared the added. Inovar uses aqueous cleaning walls by a scant 4". (Austin American Technology and It’s a hard story to swallow today. Aqueous Technologies). Logan, UT-based Inovar (inovar-inc. The company currently has about com) has grown enough to necessi11,000 SKUs in production. Typical tate a recently completed 40,000 sq. production runs are 40 to 15,000 pieces ft. expansion, bringing the plant size a week. By that measure, the handful to a robust 65,000 sq. ft. of rework stations present suggests a Surrounded by snow-capped company that builds things right the mountains, Logan is set in the idyllic first time. Prototypes, meanwhile, are Cache Valley, about 85 miles north On president Blake limited to existing customers. “That of Salt Lake City and 25 miles south Kirby's watch, EMS sales may change, but right now it’s a differof the Idaho border. The location is have grown $25 million entiator for our long-term customers,” a draw for its scenery, high standard since 2001. says vice president of sales and marketof living (twice in recent years it was ing Jed Jones. named the safest metropolitan area in the US), Inventory is managed just off the production and the presence of Utah State University. floor, and features a Remstar vertical carousel: a floorAlso drawing visitors to the area is Inoto-ceiling component-stocking portal. Inovar also var, which specializes in industrial, military and uses some basic Lean practices, including a Kanban medical electronics. Among those who come: system for supply, and vendor-managed inventory. companies like L3 and Edge Products (its top two About two-thirds of its components are purchased customers), Varian Medical, General Dynamics, through distribution. Juniper and QSI. W 24 Circuits Assembly JUNE 2008 circuitsassembly.com http://circuitsassembly.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Circuits Assembly - June 2008

Circuits Assembly - June 2008 Contents Letters Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Screen Printing Better Manufacturing China Goes ‘Upmarket’ Out of the Garage Improving Production Line Performance Manufacturing Steps Onto the Enterprise IT Stage Measuring and Controlling Wave Height and Dwell Time Wave Soldering Tech Tips Test and Inspection Process Doctor Pb-Free Lessons Learned Getting Lean Eastern Advances Semicon West Product Preview Product Spotlight Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - June 2008

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