By Jason Duerr, Director of Engineering, Aimtron Corporation, Streamwood, IL Utilizing the advantages of globalization, Aimtron runs operations on two continents. The company’s Chicagoland facility serves as both headquarters and its main production facility. Recently remodeled front offices nearly double available desk space for engineering and purchasing departments. New Equipment Added On the other side of the globe, in Shenzhen, China, Aimtron’s own printed circuit board fab house has recently moved into a new building. This expansion has increased capacity, and new equipment investment allows tighter tolerances for trace width and layer count. All of this is in addition to the company’s current PCB assembly and harness assembly services in China. Traveling Southwest from there, the company’s Nasik, India operations have made exciting new additions. This year, Aimtron has hired several engineers to assist with Engineering department support. For non-ITAR work, the Nasik engineering staff handles aspects of assembly drawing creation, BOM processing, checklists needed for production, and other project maintenance. In a stunning achievement this past year, the Nasik facility achieved ISO13485 for transition of medical products. Software engineers in Nasik also code custom tools and applications. These are used to augment the Epicor MRP system, shop floor workflow, labor tracking, and support checklists. Making it Happen Dhaval is now in India overseeing expansion of the engineering office. As he explains, “It was important for me to interview new hires personally. At Aimtron, our team is our greatest asset, so we have to make sure our new staff has both the technical capabilities for our needs, along with an understanding of where we want to be in the marketplace. Since communication with our home office is daily and constant, our team must work as one.” “Global operations help support our original vision of providing flexible solutions for our clients,” says Aimtron’s CEO, Mukesh Vasani. “Although the majority of our business is still local and domestic, we respond to our customer’s desires. The nature of some projects is such that they require global manufacturing. Local accountability and local communication are keys to success.” Proven Results Just as the company bridges continents for better pricing, Asian and Indian companies are looking for a foothold in the North American marketplace. Aimtron is able to assist with sales contacts, business leads, and overall domestic (USA) presence. For both prototype and production, the company provides raw PCBs directly to customers. Inspection and Quality All customer requirements are carefully documented on Aimtron’s internal network, called “Aimnet”. Point-of-use documents call out assembly inspection features, and also collect any notes or concerns made by the inspector. The company’s internally generated assembly documents, corrective actions, souring notes, or any relevant support documentation are shared with our global partners. Through good communication, lessons learned during prototyping help ensure first article success on high-volume overseas production runs. “In many cases, Aimtron is able to achieve better device pricing than our overseas partners. We share data, supply sources, everything we can,” explains Dhaval about the challenges. Aimtron University Contact: Aimtron Corporation, 1448 Yorkshire Drive, Streamwood IL 60107 |
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