Conducting a Satisfaction Survey during a Pandemic?

The results provided valuable information for our PCBA and Electromechanical Assembly Company.

You might say it was Crazy… but the results were so meaningful. Customer feedback is always important for a company to continuously improve, but how our team performs during less than optimum world conditions is a good test of our company, process controls and employees. We found that our on-time and quality acceptance rates have remained steady and our customer satisfaction excellent.

“We value Altek very much as a supplier and partner and appreciate Altek’s willingness to work with us through any challenges that arise.”

(For additional customer comments see the list at the bottom of this post.)


 

As an employee here at Altek I see what we do here every day and it’s amazing. I work in marketing, so I won’t attempt to take credit for any of the great work done here. However, I do love talking about it. The amount of energy and planning that goes into meeting the customer’s needs is impressive. Our founder, Stephen Altschuler says,”The Customer is King”, and at Altek, they are.

The engineering department may be participating in the design of a new product, providing DFM support or creating custom solutions for obsolete components.

Our staff members in estimating, document control and purchasing make sure your product can be produced in the required time and at the right cost. They identify obsolete parts, BOM inconsistencies, last time buys and quantities that will have a positive impact on your unit cost.

Altek’s Process and Production Engineers work together to create a “digital traveler” profile for your products in the manufacturing process. This ensures your product is built correctly the first time and every time thereafter. Our Director of Continuous Improvement works right alongside them to take waste out of the process and keep costs low.

The manufacturing staff with extensive on hands training and eagle eyes oversee the product build. There are hands on every day overseeing each operation, performing inspection and testing of your product prior to shipment.

And last but certainly not least is Customer Service. They are the team that keep our customers informed, and they monitor your product every step of the way. They make sure your customer experience is positive and the process runs smoothly.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the management team at Altek for its guidance, instilling individual ownership and an openness for creative thinking.

Altek is a finely tuned team that takes pride in their work and a job well done.

Here is what our customers are saying about Altek…

“We value Altek very much as a supplier and partner and appreciate Altek’s willingness to work with us through any challenges that arise.”

“Continue your attention to detail. Altek is above the Bar!! Never a bad question… only the one not asked.”

“Altek is very responsive to customer needs and provides excellent service.”

“I appreciate everything your team does for us!! Thank you!!”

“One of the easiest companies to deal with overall. Keep doing what you’re are doing, you make doing business a pleasure.”

“Thanks for the great service, esp. in these difficult times.”

“Thanks to Laura Brown, Christine Almeida and Michelle Cunha for all their help.”

“Responses are excellent from support/customer service. Altek team does a great job. Appreciate all the support during these times, especially for high priority requirements when we need to support our customers and production needs.”

“Altek has met or beat some expedited deliveries. There have been a few quality issues, but they have been addressed immediately. Mistakes will be made but it’s all about the fix/recovery. Altek team has been very responsive.”

Great team of people work at Altek, always going above and beyond what is expected. Thank you so much :)”

The Altek Team should be very proud of the job they do. I know that our customers appreciate it as much as we appreciate them!

PCBA Supply Chain Check List

OEM’s must focus on safety in production, maintaining schedules, and delivering essential military, industrial and medical equipment to market. How well are your contract manufacturers managing your risk exposure today?

When talking about areas of concern in such a complex industry, it’s sometimes difficult to priorities them in order of importance – so let’s talk about it. Frequently we are talking about DFM, solder joint inspection, testing, parts obsolescence, solder voids, REACh compliance and the SCIP database just name a few. While these are all important topics, one new challenge has certainly risen to the top of the list.

What’s today’s conversation like?
Weak links in your supply chain may be more apparent today and overshadow the “normal” conversations with your contract manufacturers. Today, companies are facing new challenges that have changed the daily conversation. Manufacturers must focus on right sized work forces, CDC guidelines, component availability and critical lead times. We know that these unusual times have exposed weaknesses in some OEM’s supply chain that they didn’t know existed.

How strong is your supply chain?
OEM’s must focus on safety in production, maintaining schedules, and delivering essential military, industrial and medical equipment to market. How well are your contract manufacturers managing your risk exposure today?

Are they:

    • -Maintaining quality acceptance rates and On-Time delivery?
    • -Ensuring the safety of their staff with PPE and rigorous cleaning protocols?
    • -Working with a diverse group of part suppliers to ensure components availability?
    • -Working on advance ordering to support long lead items?
    • -Stocking parts on site to meet schedule needs?
    • -Offering testing options on quick turn prototypes without the investment of costly fixtures?
    • -Maintaining multiple work shifts to maintain production capacity?
    • -Leveraging buying power to maintain fair market pricing?

On Time Delivery

Many companies are experiencing issues with their supply chains and are re-evaluating their sources, seeking options that will provide quality product, on-time delivery at the lowest overall cost of ownership.
OEM’s need to monitor how well their contract manufacturing partners are performing to their key metrics to make sure they can provide quality product on time, every time.

If your Contract Manufacturer is checking all the boxes you are in good shape. If not, give us a call, we’d love to chat.

Learn what makes our process unique allowing us to consistently deliver on our 98%  quality and on time delivery metric.

A picture (or video) is worth a 1,000 words.    Take a look at our facility.  Learn what makes our process unique allowing us to consistently deliver on our 98%  quality and on time delivery metric.  Hear directly from our team why Altek Electronics is the right choice.

On a special note:  Things do look somewhat different today.  Our filming was complete just before the COVID-19 outbreak.  While we are continuing to produce high quality product for our customers, rest assured that Altek is following all COVID-19 safety protocols to keep everyone’s health and safety our top priority.

View our story!

COVID-19 coronavirus

Uncertainty surrounds the Electronics Industry. How will the coronavirus impact lead times of electronic components? Proper planning will mitigate delivery delays!

3/2/2020

Dear Valued Customer,

Ref:  COVID-19 coronavirus

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the likely negative impact on lead times of electronic components due to the coronavirus, and to outline the steps Altek Electronics is taking to mitigate delivery delays to our customers.

Lead Times of Electronic Components

While there is uncertainty as to exactly how much of an impact the coronavirus will have on lead times of electronic components, a number of reliable industry sources warn there will be a delay on certain components of several weeks or months.  The information is in flux and we’re working with suppliers to stay current.  All known shortages have been communicated with customers, or mitigated by using alternate sources or approved alternate parts.    We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as new information becomes available.

Mitigation of Delivery Delays:

    • Safety Stock: Altek will be building up a safety-stock of finished goods inventory for orders that we ship on a regular basis.  In return, we ask that customers not push out any scheduled delivery within a 4-week window.   It will take several weeks to establish our buffer stock.  We’re hopeful this will mitigate any incidence of absenteeism due to illness.
    • Supply Chain: Altek will work closely with our suppliers and manufacturers to confirm that components orders are shipping on-time, and we will notify customers if we learn of any delays.  If supplies of certain components become constrained, we may need to request approval to use alternate parts.
    • Planning: We encourage customers to review forecasts and consider placing orders at least 3-6 months in advance of the next scheduled order date.

We value our business partnership with you and appreciate the trust you place in us to mitigate impacts to schedules during this coronavirus epidemic.

Regards,

Sabrina Beck, VP/Co-Owner

The 2019 Results Are In!

Altek conducts customer satisfaction surveys throughout the Year.    In addition to the continuous dialogue we have with our customers, we believe it’s important to “officially” check in on how we are doing.  2019 was a great year at Altek and it looks like our customers think so too!

Here are our 2019 customer comments!

Technical Support:

  • • Altek is a valued supplier for “Aerospace Customer”. Altek has always provided technical expertise while meeting all of the schedule and quality requirements.
  • • The staff at Altek is extremely accommodating. Altek has been helpful in all phases of our business–Design to production to service.
  • • Altek adapts quickly to our changes and always provided great feedback.
  • • It has been a pleasure working with Altek. Everyone we interact with is kind and professional. Sabrina communicated wonderfully with us during the quoting process. Brian’s (process engineer) meticulous review of our assembly gave us valuable feedback on our assembly process which translated into an improvement in product quality. Altek takes pride in not only about their process but ours. Thank you Altek…
  • • Working with Altek has been great. Sabrina’s been great in helping with everything and in a timely manner. Rob, the engineer, gave us some great tips before quoting during the design phase. When quoting, the board manufacturer and Altek communicated wonderfully with us. They gave us valuable information to help improve some things that could really have messed the boards up, and helped us try to come to a good place with a complicated board design. It’s always great when a manufacturer who cares about the end user’s design actually working before they manufacture it.

Product Quality:

  • • Everyone in Connecticut agrees… Altek quality and value is unmatched!!!!!
  • • Our partnership with Altek has been a pleasant experience for a few decades.  We look forward to the next decade working together!
  • • Exceeds all expectations on time delivery and quality.
  • • Altek has been nothing but a pleasure to work with over the years. Their attention to detail is second to none!
  • • Excellent service and quality! Pleasure and success doing business for Electronic PCB, Panels and Chassis assemblies.

Service and Delivery:

  • • The whole Altek staff is a pleasure to work with. Kudos to Christine for keeping our account in such good shape. She and Altek look out for our best interests.
  • • Not sure what to comment on, the customer service is the best.
  • • Michele Cunha does an excellent job at getting back to me with timely information.
  • • Altek is a best in class top notch supplier. Highly recommend. A pleasure to do business with. A+++ Christine Almeida is AMAZING!!!
  • • I appreciate everyone who supports our account.  I wish more suppliers were more like you.
  • • The Altek team is a pleasure to work with, fair, responsive, reliable, A+++
  • • Excellent customer service and delivery, Valued partner for our PCB services.



Altek Electronics Hosts Soldering Class – November 12, 2019

“Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes.” Peter Senge

Altek University was founded by Altek Electronics to share knowledge and lend technical support to customers to enhance their capabilities. A medical device customer sent the first of two groups for Soldering training to work with “Trainer Dave” for an interactive session. Interested in learning more…

Contact Sabrina Altschuler-Beck @ sabrina.beck@altekelectronics.com

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS- PART 3 OF 3

You have found a CM that can support your Engineering needs. You have reviewed their manufacturing process and quality assurance checks and balances, so let’s get started!

Getting Started

You have found a CM that can support your Engineering needs. You have reviewed their manufacturing process and quality assurance checks and balances, so let’s get started!

Asking for a budgetary quote early in the process is a great idea. This is where you’ll uncover design and component concerns. You’ll need to supply the following to receive a complete assembly quote:

• Bill of Material, preferably in excel format, including at a minimum: manufacturer, manufacturer part number, quantity and reference designators
• Gerber files
• PCB fabrication drawing including PCB material, finish, silkscreen color (one side or two), mask color (one side or two)
• Assembly drawing (if complete)
• Schematic (if complete)
• Environmental compliance requirements (RoHS, REACh, Conflict Minerals, etc.)
• ITAR status (if used in a defense article, is the item subject to ITAR Control?)
• Requirements to program IC’s
• Functional or in-circuit test requirements
• Quantity, delivery or any special considerations

If you are in need of a PCB Layout, here is a list of some of the information the engineer will request:

• Board type and material requirements
• Bill of material
• Mechanical constraints
• Testing Requirements
• Component Placement restrictions
• End use
• Environmental considerations

You can see our specification form https://www.altekelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PCB_Artwork_Request.pdf for guidance.

Most of all schedule a meeting with the CM’s Engineering Team, who can provide support during the development process.

If you are not getting enough support from your current Contract Manufacturer, let us know. We have over 46 years of experience that we can put to work for you.   Link to https://www.altekelectronics.com/engineering

UConn launches $1 million cybersecurity lab to teach students how to fight hackers

Altek’s Chairman and Founder instrumental in making this possible.

UConn officially launched its cybersecurity program on Wednesday, with the opening of a $1 million lab donated by alumni brothers Stephen ’54 and Samuel Altschuler ’50. The curriculum teaches students hacking skills in a controlled environment, so they can use this knowledge to stop real hackers “in the wild.” Read the full Hartford Courant article.

Planning for Success – Part 2 of 3

Understanding how it’s made.

Understanding the process that will be used to manufacture your product can provide insight into the overall quality of your electronic assemblies.

Quality Control

Solder Paste Inspection

All manufacturing processes have opportunities for defects. Ask what type of inspection occurs throughout the process. Does your CM use state-of-the-art equipment, such as solder paste inspection and 3D automated optical inspection? Having paste and optical inspection in the line flags defects before they make it off the line, and helps the CM perfect their process to eliminate defects altogether. Make sure your CM can also provide testing services. Functional and in-circuit test can ensure that your boards will work as intended in their application. A CM with the right engineering resources can design and build custom test fixtures and write code to automate testing and track test results. Is burn-in testing a desirable option for your product? Make sure this is addressed with your CM before your order is placed. A quality CM should ask these questions up-front and make sure they are planned into the job cycle.

Compliance Requirements

RoHS, REACh, ITAR, IPC Class, J-STD – Review your drawings before going to bid and make sure these and other requirements are clearly indicated on the drawings.

Best Practices

Robust Test Department

To maximize ROI, get your Contract Manufacturer involved early in the process. Talk about the following and make sure your CM measures up:
• Engineering expertise
• Quality and On-time delivery metrics
• Six Sigma practices
• Evidence of LEAN and continuous improvement initiatives
• Global Supply Chain Management
• Kanban inventory
• Investment in state-of-the-art capital equipment

If you are a company that has limited resources or are working at capacity, it’s critical to align with a Contract Manufacturer that can provide you with the depth of support you need.

If you are not getting enough support from your current Contract Manufacturer, let us know. We have over 46 years of experience that we can put to work for you.

https://www.altekelectronics.com/engineering

https://www.altekelectronics.com/facilities-list/