Industrial Process News is pleased to feature Speedboard Assembly Services as its Contract Electronics Manufacturer of the Month.
The UK-based CEM was founded in 1983 and is currently owned by Richard Watson and Neil Owen, both of whom were former customers of Speedboard Assembly Services prior to their acquisition of the business. The establishment is based in Winsor Berkshire, where its factory occupies approximately 22,000ft2 of space with a workforce comprising 90 staff members.
Speedboard offers a broad range of manufacturing services, ranging from traditional build-to-print through to full lifecycle; including Design for Manufacture (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), Design for Purchasing (DFP), prototyping, full production, packaging, delivery to end customer, repairs and after sales support.
The company has five SMT lines which, between them, comprise 15 Siemens SiPlace machines. It has a selective soldering line and a dedicated offline prototyping area; with standalone solder paste, pick & place and vapour-phase machines. Inspection and 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 company also offers Kanban stock holding, operating a Quality Management System which is BSI-certified as being compliant with ISO 9001.
Nick Fairhead, Sales and Marketing Director at Speedboard Assembly Services, said the company stands out in the industry for its versatility and flexibility. “Most CEMs have the technical capability and are very similar in that respect,” he mused. “We feel our key differentiator is our focus on customer service and our people. It’s here where we are truly breaking the mould – we are developing the traditional customer supplier model and going way beyond that.”
“We offer a ’configuration to order’ (CTO) service where we customise ‘vanilla’ equipment to meet specific end customer requirements. This gives our customers the benefits of scale of economy, ie. manufacturing large batches, plus the flexibility to define the final specification at the last minute.”
Speedboard serves customers in a variety of high-tech sectors. Its main focus point is the low to medium volume assembly of high technology assemblies, predominately in the industrial, defence, medical, communications and security sectors.
The company has also just signed up to SC21, the supply chain improvement programme developed and managed by the trade organisation ADS, thus enabling Speedboard’s customers to benefit from the high standards demanded by the aerospace sector.
Neil Owen, Speedboard’s Managing Director, commented, “Signing up to SC21 is part of our commitment to achieving high performance in both business and manufacturing excellence, and to becoming a leaner, more efficient and responsive organisation. Becoming a part of SC21 is an essential element of Speedboard transforming from being just a CEM to becoming a manufacturing partner of choice.”
“Our ethos surrounds the notion that ‘we are your shop floor’,” Nick added. “We want to take the relationship beyond normal OEM and CEM, ie. customer and supplier, and really become integrated within our customers’ businesses so we are literally regarded as their shop floor.”
Significant recent investments in capital equipment includes an upgrade to the Siemens Si Place SMT line to give 0201 capability, and purchases of new apparatus such as a 2nd 5 Axis Xray Inspection Machine, a Vapour Phase Reflow Machine and a Selective Soldering line. The investment in this equipment ensures that Speedboard has the correct capacity and capabilities to meet their Sales strategy.
T 01753 746700
sales@speedboard.co.uk
www.speedboard.co.uk