Consistent Quick-Turn Radio Boards

admin on June 5, 2023

Establishing a new company and launching a new product requires a Quick-Turn PCB Assembly shop that delivers ON TIME, EVERY TIME.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

InLogis, Inc. designs and manufactures Distributed antenna systems (DAS) for enhanced indoor cellular & public safety radio reception, including amplifiers & kits, annunciators & fiber-optic links.

PROBLEM

It was early 2016. Owner/Founder Doug Talley of InLogis, Inc. had just sold his previous company of 15 years, which had designed and produced SiriusXM Radio commercial products. Just like its predecessor, InLogis needed to design and produce various radio products- but this time Doug needed to break into a completely new sector. InLogis’s primary product was intended to provide fire-code compliance on certain commercial buildings, by enabling fire-departments to utilize critical data in emergency situations. For instance, emergency responders could access InLogis devices to pinpoint which room and level of a building that a specific smoke alarm was triggered. The speed to market and ability to produce product within a compressed timeline was critical for InLogis’s growth because once a new building was built and fitted with a competitor’s product, the opportunity for a sale simply disappeared.

ACTION

Tracer’s founder Tyler Toth, had worked with Doug’s previous company before Tracer itself was founded. Doug knew that Tracer’s initial focus was on Quick-Turn and prototype level work and would naturally be a great supplier to support InLogis in achieving its time-critical push to market.

SOLUTION

In this particular case, Tracer simply WAS the solution. Tracer executed its primary competency: SMT Assembly in 10 days or less. Tracer assembled Rev. A, Rev. B, Rev. C, and continued to support 5-10 day turns as InLogis’s needs moved into low-volume production batches (two sister PCBAs in quantities of 50 EA at a time).

RESULTS

Fast forward to 2023 and Tracer has completed a total of 74 Quick Turn jobs for InLogis, ranging anywhere from 5-10 day assembly turns. Of those 74 Quick Turn jobs, Tracer has been late only 3 times. In those cases, boards were always delivered only 1 day late and most importantly Tracer ALWAYS COMMUNICATED delays effectively, before the customer had to ask.

  • 8 year partnership
  • 74 Quick Turn Jobs completed
    • 42 builds on a 5 day turn
    • 32 builds on a 10 day turn
  • 7,500 PCBAs produced
  • On time Delivery: 95.9%
  • 3,996,000 total components placed
  • Consigned component kits always audited within 24 hours
  • 77 unique components on average build
  • 0 RMAs

Today, InLogis, Inc. continues to serve its customers competitively. Costs are kept low through utilization of Tracer’s Quick-Turn services, allowing InLogis to maintain a Just-In-Time inventory/delivery method. Periodic design changes in order to add features or reduce component sourcing risk are dealt with seamlessly by Tracer’s dynamic engineering and Quick-Turn process.

CONCLUSION

High quality Quick-Turn PCBA service and a tendency for overcommunication has been encoded into Tracer’s DNA from its very creation-and it is thanks to customers like InLogis, Inc. who require so much of their PCB Assembly supplier.