SMT007 Magazine

SMT007-May2019

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82 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 Lori Giglio: I'm the general manager at the NPI Engi- neering Center for Data Electronic Devices and have been with DataED for 18 years now. I started as an account manager, and when they opened up the NPI Center about four years ago, I came over with a small team to head up the project, which has been very suc- cessful. We came over with approximately 4–5 dedicated employees, and now we're up to 13. The business has been successful since day one. We were profitable in the first year, which was a surprise to everybody. But it speaks to the service we offer, and the commitment that we have to our customers and their success. Johnson: What's the one thing that you want every customer to understand about delivering a job to your shop? Lori Giglio: Our customers are our first priority. Every customer that walks through our door, in my philosophy of business, should feel like they're the only customer and that their proj- ect is of the utmost importance to us. It should be completed in a timely manner within the timeframe we commit to, and they should be treated with the respect that they deserve. Hamlett: Recently, we've been talking about what differentiates us from other companies. Some of our customers had complaints about the way we were doing business, and we lis- tened and came up with a solution for every- one. And with that, the word spread. We don't have people trying to sell the business; it has been spread by word of mouth. Lori Giglio: We have a high referral rate from our customers. We receive a lot from custom- ers once they've engaged with us, done busi- ness with us, and are happy with the service they received. Customers often send me refer- rals to other companies in different industries that they are aware of that need the services we offer at the NPI Center. Again, our cus- tomer-focused philosophy is working. Johnson: What services or assistance can you provide at DataED that your customers seem to overlook? Hamlett: From a production standpoint, one of the things that people don't know that we have is conformal coatings for the assemblies. We offer tests and test design and do a lot of repair work, including ball grid arrays (BGAs), as well as design for manufacturing (DFM) and design for testing (DFT). We have some envi- ronmental stuff too. A lot of people don't know that because they think of us as a board house that builds boards and stuffs parts on them, but we offer more than that. And in terms of materials, we can look at the bill of materials (BOM) and give customers an idea of if there are obsolete parts listed. If parts are going to go end of life, we can make them aware of that so that they can do last-time buys. Lori Giglio: I agree, Jeff. Even though I don't have conformal coatings at the NIP Center, I have the extension of the production facility. I can offer services that a small, standalone NPI center could not offer because I can offer them through the other facility. I can offer to do con- formal coatings, for example. And we can offer the test aspect if customers need it because we have a big production facility on the other side of town. We also offer that same engineering and manufacturing expertise. We're approaching it from an engineering perspective to look at the design, build it, critique it, and help the customers. Often, the customers are on site and present. If not, they're definitely involved. We engage throughout the whole process, so they're learning as well. Johnson: So, you help customers get from what they think is a finished design to something that is more ready for production and manufacturing. Lori Giglio: Yes. We help address things that an engineer designing may not be aware of when Lori Giglio

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