For over 25 years, we’ve set ourselves apart by providing more than just parts to our clients. By working closely with our customers, we built a reputation of offering solutions that go beyond a gerber file, CAD drawing, or stackup.
Providing true solutions requires trust. At Flex Interconnect Technologies, we believe trust to be the foundation of our successful business relationships. And we believe that in-person visits are critical to building that trust.
Why We Visit Our Clients
It is true that we don’t need to see a client in person in order to quote a new circuit design for them. They can simply send us their CAD and Gerber files, along with their bill of materials, target date, and quantity requirements, enabling us to promptly put together a quote. Upon the client’s approval of the quote, we will proceed with manufacturing their designs.
However, that kind of transactional relationship overlooks critical information that helps us better serve our clients. It neglects vital details that provide insights into how we can go beyond manufacturing to support our client’s underlying business goals.
Education
Many design engineers are far more knowledgeable about designing for rigid circuits than flexible circuits. When it comes time to incorporate flexible or rigid-flexible circuits into their products, their designs are often fine, but not always optimal.
Meeting with our clients in person provides a valuable chance to evaluate their expertise in flex and rigid-flex circuit design. This enables us to offer education on the latest capabilities, materials, and optimal practices in flex circuit design and manufacturing. Ultimately, it allows our clients to fully leverage the benefits of utilizing flexible circuits.
Applications Engineering
Since day one, we’ve offered applications engineering to all of our clients, for all of their projects and circuit designs. Our goal is to deliver a product that will work as intended, under real-world conditions, for years to come. However, when our information is limited to a file package, we often lack sufficient insight into the end product and its intended usage to offer valuable input in applications engineering.
Face-to-face visits allow us to not only better understand the individual circuit they’ve shared with us, but the broader assembly and project goals and requirements. By meeting with our clients, we gain insights into the project lifecycle, understanding the distinctions between prototyping and production requirements. Furthermore, we can learn about the broader assembly, and how its requirements may impact circuit design and performance.
Organizational Goals
Every company we work with has different goals and expectations for their product development. As an example, while “quick turn” might mean four weeks for one client, it might mean four days for another.
For Flex Interconnect Technologies to provide maximum value to our clients, it’s important for us to understand their broader organizational goals. These may include:
- Required certifications and regulations
- Expected timelines
- Billing preferences
- Quality Assurance preferences
- Requirement differences between prototyping and production
- Broader sourcing strategies
- Downstream dependencies and assembly strategies
Why We Invite Our Clients to Visit Us
Just as there are benefits to going to visit our clients, we equally recognize the valuable benefits that our clients gain from visiting us.
Understanding Our Processes and Capabilities
Every manufacturer does things a little bit differently, and we are no exception. At Flex Interconnect Technologies, lean manufacturing principles influence almost every area of our factory. The way we do things has been thoughtfully applied to help us drive efficiency and quality throughout the shop.
For example, when clients visit our facilities, they gain a deeper understanding of the specific benefits our processes bring to their business. They can see firsthand how our standard panel sizes expedite job completion on the production floor. Additionally, in our imaging department, they observe the adjustments we’ve made to our processes, resulting in significant error reduction and enhanced yield rates.
Meeting Our Team
Our success over the past 25 years would not be possible without our team, many of whom have been with us from the beginning. In fact, over 20% of our employees have been with us for 20 years or more!
Because we cross-train our employees, they’re incredibly knowledgeable about our processes and capabilities. We empower them to offer suggestions to improve our quality and efficiency. They understand what goes into fabricating and assembling flexible circuit solutions from design all the way to the shipping dock.
Telling our clients about our great team is one thing but having them come in and meet the team is something else entirely. We want our clients to meet the team manufacturing their circuit designs and find that this level of openness and transparency helps foster greater trust between our clients and ourselves.
The Power of “What if…”
Whether at their location or ours, one of the best things that comes out of in-person meetings is the power of the “What if…” statement. When we’re all in the room together, discussing goals, upcoming project plans, or capabilities, great things tend to happen.
- What if we swapped out that rigid area for a loose-leaf flex design?
- What if we affixed LEDs–or even a camera–right at the end of that flex circuit?
- What if we changed the geometry of the circuit slightly in order to get more units-per-panel, reducing overall manufacturing costs?
- What if we used a new material for better thermal management?
When we’re together, in the same room, it only takes a few minutes to answer these types of questions. There’s a tangible synergy that comes from having these conversations with our clients, in an environment that allows us to better share ideas and energy between us.
While meeting with our clients on a monthly or quarterly basis may not always be practical, we remain committed to advocating for in-person meetings whenever they prove beneficial and necessary.
If you’re interested in flexible circuits and want to explore the power of “what if…”, Flex Interconnect Technologies Homepage | Flex Interconnect Technologies (fit4flex.com) contact us today Contact us information and location | Flex Interconnect (fit4flex.com) to take the first step.