Circuits Assembly - June 2008 - (Page 25)

Inovar The production lines feature DEK (shown) and MPM printers and Juki (shown) placement machines. The EMS model works best when customers have internal problems, says VP of sales Jed Jones. The average number of changeovers is 2.5 per shift, Bjorklund says, with roughly a 45-min. average changeover time. Annualized inventory turns are a little under eight, which is probably consistent with their peer group, but according to Jones, is lower than the company’s goals. The company, founded in 1998, has grown from $10 million in annual sales in 2001 to about $35 million today. (It also commands another $10 million in revenues from an internally designed and built GPS-like device, branded under the name WaySmart.) As part of an investment group, Kirby acquired the company in 2001. He now owns the majority share, as his investment partners recently cashed out. In 2003 he brought in Jones, a 20-year veteran of the distribution side, to manage sales and operations. Jones brought an aggressive growth strategy, which called for Inovar to reach $100 million in five years. He since has retooled that expectation, but the company has achieved solid year-over-year growth, with its biggest markets industrial (39%), military/aerospace (23%), medical (17%), and after-market auto (14%). The target customer outsources $2 million to $10 million worth of EMS work a year. “EMS customers,” he says with a smile, “pay for that 10% of the time when [problems] happen, and they need help getting product and making numbers.” For the past 10 months, L3 Communications SystemsWest has been an Inovar customer. “When making the outsourcing decision,” says Bill Percival, director of supply chain management, “we ask, Is the CEM the right fit? And is there a reason the CEM wants the business that goes beyond making the sale? “My experience with Inovar has been stellar. They were looking to learn from us. That meant to me they were committed.” Despite its seeming remoteness, Inovar today employs circuitsassembly.com One of the company’s 270 EMS employees touches up a board. 350 workers, 270 in its EMS operations, including 28 engineers. Nearby Utah State, with its 23,000 students and heavy emphasis on sciences, offers access to plenty of engineering talent. Layoffs at Micron, MSL and Future Electronics through the years have provided Inovar with ample talented prospects as well. Last year, Inovar merged with IWI to form inThinc (inthinc.com), broadening its product line to include a handful of OEM-branded black box devices for vehicle crash prevention and fleet accountability. When it comes time to outsource electronics manufacturing, Logan, UT, probably isn’t the first place one looks. But if the annual volumes are under $10 million, give or take, a certain small but steadily growing EMS firm should be on the radar. n Mike Buetow is editor in chief of CirCuits Assembly; mbuetow@upmediagroup.com. Circuits Assembly JUNE 2008 25 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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