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Axis Picks up Performance Award
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Axis Electronics has been awarded a silver performance award by Lockheed Martin UK INSYS (LMUK INSYS) as part of its preferred supplier programme.
LMUK INSYS, a leading UK systems integrator and supplier of high technology systems and services to defence and civil government customers, launched the preferred supplier programme in 2007. The programme combines measurement of delivery and quality performance, responsiveness, and supplier quality management systems to provide an overall score for supplier performance.
Paul Bird, LMUK INSYS supply chain director said; “Axis Electronics has been working towards some really high standards and I am pleased that we are able to recognise the effort they are putting in. Our aim is for all our suppliers to deliver top-quality parts and services on time, all the time and are working to develop perfect programme performance. Axis Electronics has made a solid start on this journey and has been rewarded with one of our first annual awards.
Phil Inness, Managing Director, Axis Electronics commented: “This is a tremendous accolade for Axis and a testament to the diligence and commitment of our team to deliver the best quality service and product possible.”
In Photo (left to right) :-
Stephen Ball, Managing Director, LMUK INSYS
Paul Bird, Supply Chain Director, LMUK INSYS
Nikki Hillson, Sales Manager, Axis Electronics
Chris Jukes, Quality and Customer Service Manager, Axis Electronics |
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On Yer Bike!
Axis Electronics completes 500 mile Extra Mile Four Nations Challenge
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| A relieved Axis team at the finish post in Dinan, Belgium: L/R: Phil Inness, Andy Cunningham, Chris Jukes and Craig Banks |
500 miles of cycling, over three days, through Belgium, France, Germany and Luxemburg, an exhausted but exhilarated Axis Electronics team from Bedford completed this year’s Extra Mile Four Nations Challenge.
The team raised £3,000 for their chosen charity, Keech Cottage Children’s Hospice and other local charities.
Commenting, Phil Inness Managing Director of Axis Electronics said: “It was a very challenging three days, far more very steep hills that we expected! But sharing the experience with colleagues, cycling through stunning scenery and the knowledge that so much money has been raised for local charities, made it all worth while.”
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Axis Expands SMT Capacity
Axis Electronics has just invested close to £400K on MYDATA MY12 and MY9 SMT placement machines.
Matt Turner Process Engineering Manager has been tasked with getting the best from this kit, and he admits it is all very exciting.
“The new Surface Mount Machines give us an advantage in terms of technology and run rates” he enthuses. “They can electrically test components and place up to twenty-one thousand components an hour. They use a ‘Hydra mechanism’ - eight separate heads placing eight components at a time.”
For customers this will mean greater confidence with respect to placement accuracy and, as a result, a more reliable product. It may even eventually wipe out the need for manual checking entirely.
When a new reel of components is installed, the machine will be programmed to check the first two or three components and, assuming they are all as they should be, it will then continue placing them all until the reel is exhausted.
Matt says, “Eliminating potential errors is so important, especially, strange as it may sound, in the smaller volume orders. If you’re producing a thousand boards for a customer and two don’t work they aren’t happy but they understand. If you’re only making one board for someone and that doesn’t work the whole job’s been messed up. It’s going to help us get more products right first time so it’s got to be worth the investment.”
Matt has also begun a training regime teaching Axis production engineers to programme their own cell based Surface Mount Machines, which will help short circuit the process and bring them closer to their own products. He also hopes it will give each one a better understanding when they are writing their documentation and give them an enhanced sense of ownership of the product.
“It’s all about using the available technology to it’s utmost - understanding it fully so you can turn all the functionality it’s got to good use,” he says. “We all have software programmes on our computers which can do amazing things but we never learn to use more than ten per cent of their capabilities. We are determined with the new machines we’re bringing in at Axis we will know them inside out and make sure we squeeze every ounce of advantage out of them.” |
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Technology Roadshows Introduced
Axis Electronics is set to announce a whole new raft of added value business services for customers. Championed by Materials Manager, Chris Nye, Axis will launch the first of a series of Technology Roadshows in July 2007.
“It all started with Design for Procurement,” says Chris, “whereby we wanted to help our customers right from the drawing board. The idea is to work directly with their designers to help them through the minefield of parts selection where there are so many potential pitfalls. Obviously, we can help out with some general design rules for PCBs on achieving better yields, designing in assurance and designing out cost - but it goes much further than that.”
Experts from Axis will help designers choose the best components to do a given job, with reference not just to specification and cost but also to durability and the predicted lifespan.
Chris says, “We want to help them find new technologies with short lead times to make their products cheaper, and to make sure they are using components which will still be around next month and next year rather than ones which will become obsolete in a few weeks time.” The Design for Procurement idea has partly been inspired by the RoHS directive.
Chris continues, “This is compromising many customers build standards and they often don’t have the knowledge at first hand. We can help them by warning them in advance what makes sense to use and which new products are coming in to replace obsolete parts. We hope very much this will help us to stand out from our competitors by doing this legwork for them.”
It can also help Axis to be involved at the design stage if it means the company can avoid receiving an unnecessarily complicated design request or one comprising parts which are difficult to source or which have a limited life. Taking this to its natural conclusion will be the Bill of Materials Health Check, which Axis also hopes to be offering to customers shortly. Axis will take the inventory of materials the customer intends to incorporate and run it through a specialised database to identify “difficult” components and even ones which could be replaced with a better or cheaper one.
“What’s more,” Chris goes on, “once the information regarding a particular design is in the system we will do periodic “refreshes” to ensure our assessment stays up to date. That way we can alert customers to small changes they might need to make to their design as potential problems arise and we, and they, stay ahead of the game. It’s all part of adding value. Fire fighting is going to happen every day in every business but this is our way of helping our customers keep those fires to a minimum.”
Managing Director, Phil Inness, says, “We want to be innovative in our approach to adding value for customers and that we can provide readymade solutions to some of their problems. If we can make their lives easier, and our own in the process, then we are in a win-win situation and must be doing something right.” |
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Cellular Manufacturing - One Year On - A Personal Review
In July 2006 Axis underwent a complete restructuring of the production process, replacing the traditional batch and queue manufacturing approach, with the introduction of cellular manufacturing via three self sufficient teams each dealing with their own specific contracts.
Managing Director, Phil Inness instituted the scheme and stated, “We were faced with a time of rapid growth and knew we would have to be totally focused on the needs of the customer, making sure everyone got the specialist attention needed.
We set up the three cells, red, blue and green, and allocated particular customers and types of job to each. Each cell has its own production staff, buyers, production engineers, customer contact and so on. Each specialises in particular types of work. This means better communication, better sharing of workloads, and greater awareness of each particular customers needs.”
The results have been remarkable with significant improvements in flexibility and the ability to cope with a greater workload whilst maintaining good delivery performance and first rate quality.
Howard Phillips Red Cell Line Manager states, “It’s made the business more agile and that improvement is being reflected in increased confidence from our customers who are moving more of their work our way. They find they can get hold of the right person when they need to talk to us and that we can respond to their needs far more effectively.”
When the system was first set up, there were those who questioned how the resources would be spread between the cells and whether they would compete too vigorously with each other. In fact, experience has shown that each cell is planning ahead more efficiently to ensure they do not have a conflict with either of the others.
People have showed a lot of discipline in sticking to it and not falling back on old practices. There’s a lot of multi-skilling involved and that’s good for people’s individual development. It’s good for each customer to have a point of contact within the cell which works for them and it gives the cell members a sense of belonging and shared purpose. After a year everyone has really started to gel”
“One thing customers hate is uncertainty, now when we give them a date for when their product will be ready, we, and more importantly they, can be far more confident that those outcomes will be as we predicted.”
Remarkably, in this case getting more work done more quickly does not mean having more managers.
“We still have the same management team in place, setting direction, making sure we are best in class for their specialised area and supporting the line managers who have day to day responsibility for deliveries, quality and costs. Where we have taken on more staff is on the shop floor because we are doing more work.”
“The cell structure system is not a finished entirely yet but is still work in progress. What it has done internally is that it has opened up opportunities for advancement for our people. Several people have been given greater responsibility because they have been able to see the way forward more clearly within the cell structure than they could ever have done before.” |
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Axis team get on their bikes for charity
If you see a blur whiz past you somewhere in the region of Bedford Heights in the next few weeks it may just be you have witnessed an Axis staff member in training for the challenge of a lifetime.
A team from Axis electronics is getting on their bikes to cycle five hundred miles across four countries in three days. They are making the marathon journey in aid of Keech Cottage Children’s Hospice and all are under a strict regime in preparation for the big day - honest! The cyclists are Andy Cunningham, Craig Banks, Paul Jackson and Phil Inness; Howard Phillips is bravely standing by as reserve in case any of them suffers an injury to keep them off the starting line on 21st September.
Andy says, “Half the proceeds go to Keech Cottage and the rest to the charity of the organiser’s choice. Last year we raised two thousand pounds; we’re not putting a target on what we hope to collect this time round but, obviously, it would be great to beat that." |
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Axis
Electronics Looks to the Future with Big Management Changes
Bedford based Electronics firm, Axis Electronics,
has made its intentions clear for future development with
a raft of significant management appointments from inside
and outside of the company.
Nikki Hillson becomes Sales Manager after
eight years at the company which has seen her move up the
ranks through buyer, senior buyer and purchasing manager.
“When I first joined there were just two of us working
as buyers; by the time I left the department I had an excellent
team of 12 people covering the Buying, Material control and
Goods in responsibilities. It just shows how quickly Axis
is growing,” she says. Managing such accelerated growth
could have been quite daunting, but Nikki impressed in taking
control of supplier management, cost reduction and material
procurement.
“It’s hard for anyone outside the industry to
imagine the violent fluctuations in the market where materials
are concerned,” she says. “It’s a constant
challenge making sure everything gets to us on time.”
“I’ve always had some contact with customers
so moving over to Sales seems quite a logical step. I love
it here. It’s a privilege to work for a market leader
that is progressive and offers such a high level of service
and technological capability to its customers.”
While
Nikki is a reasonably long term product of the Axis stable,
Chris Nye has been brought in from outside,
but is also a true thoroughbred of the industry. The new Materials
Manager already has four years experience in the
role, but like Nikki, his broader experience will stand him
in great stead.
“After University I started as a buyer with a firm
making set top boxes. It was a great place to learn about
the industry and while I was there I passed my CIPS qualification
and moved on to senior buyer before taking another job as
Purchasing Manager.”
It was Chris’s next career move which led him to the
world of sub-contract electronics, spending four years as
a Materials Manager developing his employer’s supply
chain to add value and remove cost. Chris has big plans for
applying the knowledge he has gleaned at Axis.
 30
year old Howard Phillips has progressed from working
on the shop floor when he first joined Axis, then production
engineer and now Line Manager running his own cell and is
a terrific example of how people with talent can flourish
and grow at Axis. With a fistful of GCSEs he joined the company
aged 19.
“I was so lucky to come here. There aren’t many
firms where I would have had the chance to make this kind
of progress at my age.”
 Paul
Tipping could so easily have been the one that got
away if he hadn’t made such a fantastic impression on
the people at Axis when he came from an agency to perform
a simple stock check.
“I was temping and was sent to Axis. When the stock
check was finished I was all set to leave, but they asked
me if I wanted to stay on and work in the accounts department..
It was such a great piece of luck.”
Paul says he received tremendous training at Axis with one
to one tuition from the in house accountant and a self study
course for an AAT qualification. From such unlikely beginnings
he has become the Finance Manager with control
over every aspect of company cash flow.
But Paul’s talents do not begin and end with the purse
strings. He has recently taken over as Human Resources
Manager, a job he performs in tandem with his financial
responsibilities.
“People and money – they couldn’t be much
less alike, and that’s part of the challenge and excitement
of my dual role,” he says.
Axis Electronics Managing Director, Phil Inness,
says, “We are proud to have such an impressive
workforce here at Axis, and it’s always tremendously
satisfying when you can give someone a promotion that they’ve
worked for and deserve. We’re also not afraid to go
outside to bring talent in when we need to, and the combination
of the new and the home grown is an excellent blend.”
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Axis
Electronics wins East of England Training Award
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Paul Tipping, HR Manager, (on the left) and Phil Inness, Managing Director (on the right) of Axis Electronics receive their award from celebrity presenter Suzi Perry.
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Axis Electronics was presented with the prestigious East of England
Award at the National Training Awards ceremony held in Cambridge
last week.
The Bedford based electronics contract manufacturing company
was recognised for its commitment to growing talent in-house
as a way to narrow the skills gap in today’s technology
market.
Jaqui Henderson, Chief Executive of UK Skills, which runs
the awards on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills,
said "These awards have always been about excellence,
achievement and improvement. This means bottom-line benefits
for employers and significant career development for individuals.
We all benefit from a highly skilled workforce: the individuals
themselves, because they are able to fulfill their potential
and the organisations who employ them, because they have motivated,
loyal and creative employees."
Axis Electronics has come up with a traditional solution
to a modern problem and has developed a highly successful
apprenticeship scheme. School leavers are taken on and, eighteen
months later, these modern apprentices graduate from the scheme
as valuable employees of a similar calibre to the skilled
staff which Axis would normally look to recruit.
Phil Inness, Managing Director of Axis Electronics, said
” We’re delighted to receive this award and also
to see the modern apprentices mature and prosper. They are
the green shoots for the future”
As if to underline its growing reputation as an employer
of choice, Axis Electronics has also recently been re-accredited
to the Investors in People for the third consecutive time
since 2000. |
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Latest
Technologies - JTAG
As OEMs continue to move production offshore, on-the-ball
contract electronics manufacturers (CEMs) are adding enhanced
test capabilities to their portfolio of services to retain
and land new business in the UK.
Whilst a few manufacturing projects seem to be returning to the UK, due in most cases to the logistical
hardships endured by small to medium enterprises, times continue to be difficult for UK-based CEMs - due
to the ongoing 'manufacturing exodus' to the Far East. And, while some contractors appear to be accepting
the situation, some are not taking it lying down and are indeed challenging the new order by developing
top-quality services that add value and improve the quality of our manufacturing output.
Admittedly, the high-volume tide is unlikely to turn for some time (if at all) but for low to medium
volume projects (100s to 1000s of boards per month), and where customers need to truly partner with their
manufacturers, a number of specialist UK-based CEMs continue to offer second-to-none services.
One such UK-based CEM is Axis Electronics, which has a 24,000 square feet facility in Bedford. It has
a turnover of around £9 million and offers a wide range of services and technological capabilities (from
PCB assembly through to full turnkey box build).
Paul Jackson, Axis' Engineering Manager, comments: "We're a stable company and have seen steady growth
during our 12 year history by addressing niche markets that demand higher than normal reliability and
product quality. However, the industry is becoming increasingly competitive, and tighter margins mean we
must get into a cycle of continually offering more to our end customers."
Jackson goes on to explain that the competition has arisen from UK-based large volume manufacturers who,
having lost volume orders to the Far East, are now turning to the niche markets in which Axis excels.
The company's strategy to compete in the current climate is to complement its extensive manufacturing
capabilities with test services that ensure the fast-turnaround (delivery) of the required inventory of
quality tested boards.
"This is something the CEMs that have just entered the military markets for example will certainly
struggle with," warns Jackson. "We provide and design a lot of functional test solutions but in many
cases customers are keen to keep details of the functionality of the product in-house, and this can
make functional test a non-starter . Also, our regular manufacturing test strategies (such as
flying-probe) may not provide sufficient feedback on their own."
In common with the trend that has emerged since the late 90s, a single test strategy approach is
rarely applicable for most boards. For this reason Axis can boast a number of complementary test methods
including: Automated Optical Inspection (AOI); 3D X-Ray for the process monitoring and inspection of BGAs
and mechanical joints; In-Circuit Test (ICT); Flying Probe Test and Boundary-scan. Of all these it is the
last which has had the largest impact in recent times
"Boundary-scan test, as a means of complementing traditional PCB manufacturing tests, is undoubtedly
coming of age," notes Jackson, adding this warning: "However, getting the right solution in place does not
just entail buying a piece of kit and going on a day's training."
Also of importance to the CEM is the ability to accept net list data from a wide range of CAD systems.
Accordingly, Axis has placed JTAG Technologies, the longest standing and most widely used developer of
IEEE Std. 1149 boundary-scan tools, at the forefront of its test capabilities. This stratagem follows
the recent acquisition of an entire suite of development tools in order to facilitate advanced structural
tests and the programming of PLDs and Flash memory devices.
Doing Battle
The current climate has Axis, by Jackson's own admission, working in something of a 'pincer movement' -
caught between increasing board/component complexities and challenging project timescales. On one hand the
company is placing micro-BGAs, chip-scale packages, QFPs (with 0.3mm lead pitch) and is working frequently
with non-standard substrates, while on the other hand its customers are demanding rapid turnarounds on
fully tested boards.
Jon Westall, Axis' Principal Test Engineer, adds: "In our business there's no trade-off between high
test coverage/accuracy and fast turnaround time. Our customers expect, and receive, both. So it's
extremely important to use tools that automate as much as possible."
For example, the automatic generation of interconnect tests which includes a check for pull-ups and
pull-down resistors can make huge difference - cutting hours from test developments. Westall: "If you're
only testing a few dozen boards the quickest development route is the best option all round."
Multiple TAP port capability is also cited as a must. "Handcrafting headers to string together multiple
TAPS on a PCB can easily double the time and cost of a test," warns Westall. "It will also affect the
signal integrity of the JTAG signals which will in turn decrease the reliability of your test interface
- and that's really going to impact the value-added we can offer our customers."
The 'value-added' of which Westall speaks includes how Axis is taking many pre-production designs,
where boundary-scan may have been only partially implemented, and offering services to extend the test
coverage through functional cluster testing and also in-system programming of PLDs, serial PROMs and
Flash devices. "If necessary we can advise the customer of minor design changes that will increase test
coverage, which is indicated by the JTAG Technologies system prior to starting any real programming work
," added Westall. "These additional services, now sought (if not expected) by many companies outsourcing
the manufacture of their designs, are helping keep CEM alive and well in the UK, but you've got to have
the right tools for the job."
Conclusion
Not surprisingly, Axis uses boundary-scan solutions from a number of tool vendors - typically because
customers have created designs using such. "So we, perhaps more than anyone considering using boundary-
scan for the first time, have been exposed to the breadth of the industry's offerings," notes Jackson.
When Axis considered the solutions available the company had to consider a number of factors including:
- cost-effectiveness (initial price as well as long term cost of ownership);
- ease-of-use;
- ruggedness (of hardware);
- stability (of software); and
- levels of support.
Jackson: "In today's climate, it's important to partner with reputable, well established companies with
experienced staff. Also, it's crucial to work with companies whose very roots are in the technologies
you're wishing to use - JTAG Technologies fits those requirements admirably."
Axis' customers are outsourcing to them because they have the necessary skills and tools for the work.
Using the right tools, process optimisation is more rapid, faults can be diagnosed quickly and repairs
undertaken much faster. Also, features within the tools give Axis' customers the confidence that, if it
is deemed necessary, they can keep their functional tests in-house - but still take fast delivery of
boards that have the highest possibility of being right first time."
Multiple TAP capability (in the boundary-scan tool) is important for any CEM wishing to offer fast
programming and test services. Whilst a board with multiple TAPs can be catered for using a custom
cable for 'daisy-chaining', doing so adds cost and degrades signal integrity.
Axis sees boundary-scan as an invaluable complement to test methods like flying probe. |
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Product
Tracking
 In
June 2006 we celebrate the 3rd birthday of the launch of
our web-based product
tracking system. ‘This is a great tool
and a valuable window into the day to day running of the operation’ commented
Chris Jukes, Quality Manager, Axis Electronics.
Chris takes up the story. “We were originally looking
for ways to improve communication between our account management
function and our customers as part of our drive towards a lean
office environment.
After consulting several clients we decided the best way forward
was to provide a secure on-line service, which clients could
dial up and get the latest up to date information relating
to their products whether it was related to delivery dates,
build status or a review of inhibitors.
Three years on, the results have been impressive. Web tracking
allows both parties to focus more time on added value activities
and has saved a significant amount of time previously spent
chasing each other by telephone and by e-mails. Indeed, it
is not unusual for clients to make several visits to our web-site
a day to ensure they have all the information they need for
their respective meetings”. |
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Latest
Technologies
 Axis introduced three selective
soldering stations in 2005. ‘Having
both selective and wave soldering on site has given us the
ability to cope with whatever our customers can throw at us,
comments
Paul Jackson, Engineering Manager.
“It has also given us the flexibility to run both a
RoHS compliant lead-free process together with a standard leaded
process for those customers currently exempt from the legislation.
We have found selective soldering to be a very reliable process
producing good quality solder joints on assemblies which would
have proven difficult to wave solder because of their component
density and geometries. The selective soldering process is
controlled by CAD data making it a very repeatable process
and at the soldering tip is a nitrogen shroud to minimise oxidation
and maximise the solder flow characteristics.
It is particularly good for complex PCB assemblies, which
have dense component population on the underside of the card. |
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Allocation
– A Supply Chain Update
 Many
manufacturers are now reporting extended lead-times and allocation issues on a variety of electronic commodities. Nikki Hillson,
Purchasing Manager of Axis Electronics takes a closer look
at the commodities likely to cause the biggest headache for
electronic
manufacturers in the next few months.
“I am afraid it is that time again where certain components
are either moving to allocation of having their lead-times
extended to meet the growing global demand.
In particular, certain types of SRAM and Flash memory are
now on allocation and they are expected to be joined shortly
by a number of micros and FPGAs.
Logic, Linear, Discrete and Power semiconductors are also
seeing extended lead times primarily driven by the large demand
coming from the Asia-Pac markets.
Passives seem to be bearing up a lot better at present although
price increases are expected on tantalums and lead times are
extending on certain connector types.
As usual we will be monitoring the markets very closely to
ensure we achieve the best deals for our customers and their
products”. |
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Meet
the Team
 Urszula
Pawelek, HR Manager was instrumental in introducing the modern
apprenticeship scheme to Axis in 2005. As a result of our
strategy to invest in our long-term future by developing our
own staff,
Axis has now been nominated for a National Training
Award 2006.
Urszula Comments, ”After achieving Investors in 1995
we recognised the benefit to our business of a multi-skilled
workforce.
At the time we focussed heavily on developing our existing
staff but it soon became evident that we also needed to develop
staff
for our future by offering vocational careers to young people
in our local area to safeguard our long-term future in this
industry.
We introduced a Modern Apprenticeship programme and last year
recruited 5 apprentices. We put a lot of time and effort into
our recruitment process to ensure we got the best candidates
for our program. Out of over forty applicants we selected five.
They were all straight from school with limited work experience.
Our plan was to develop a programme that would: -
- Raise the understanding of our apprentices of
the electronics manufacturing. industry to full competence
within
the apprenticeship programme.
- Gain NVQ Level 2 in performing engineering operations.
- & Give the apprentices an understanding of every
department in the company.
- Allow the apprentices to seamlessly integrate
with the rest of the workforce.
12 months on this has proven a very successful strategy and
has gone some way to providing the skills we will need for
our future”. |
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Latest
News
