What's New at SAI?
SAI Quarterly
An Update for Employees, Customers, and Suppliers
Volume 1 Issue 1
Fourth Quarter 2022
In this issue:
What’s New at SAI?
Holiday Message
New Equipment: Nordson Assure X-Ray Component Counter
Successful ISO 13485:2016 Quality Audit
Kevin Kron, Director of Ops: SAI’s Future is ‘Completely Open’
About SAI
Founded in 1993, Spectrum Assembly, Inc. is a one-stop source for all your contract manufacturing needs. We combine an expert team, flexible automation, and a world-class supply base to provide responsive, on-time quality products for the most complex projects.
Our manufacturing operations are housed in one state-of-the-art facility totaling 80,000 sq. ft. in Carlsbad, California. We are small enough to provide a highly personalized approach, yet large enough to address your requirements from new product introduction through end-of-life.
What’s New at SAI?
Spectrum Assembly, Inc. is thrilled to return with the SAI Quarterly newsletter, bringing our valued employees, customers, and suppliers updates once again. This is our first newsletter since the fourth quarter of 2019, and much has happened since then—to say the least! In September 2020, we successfully recertified to AS9100, and by December 2020, we added fifteen new customers. In the past year, we added an additional twelve OEMs: ten medical, one industrial, and one consumer.
SAI is committed to becoming one of Southern California’s premier device manufacturing companies, with over 80,000 sq. ft. of ISO certified manufacturing space including a clean room, conformal coating and 3D X-ray capabilities.
SAI’s active customers stand at some fifty-five. Eighty-five percent of our manufacturing is in the medical arena, with another 15% in general industrial and aerospace sectors. SAI manufactures approximately thirty different regulated medical devices and consumable products, ranging from small, handheld instruments to large, complex floor-standing instruments.
By commodity, it’s fairly even. About one-third of our revenue comes from PCBA manufacturing, one-third from wire and cable products, and one-third from system integration box builds,” said Alexandra Topp, Sales and Marketing Manager. “Following our record year in 2019, SAI took over an additional 20,000 sq. ft. of space in our current facility. This additional 33% floor space will allow us to grow our system integration sector and attract more Customers looking for a fully integrated Contract Manufacturer.
"We moved into the new space during January 2020 and set up lines to increase our system integration throughput and provide a wider range of functional test and programming services to our customers. Spectrum Assembly manufactures complete devices handling everything from component sourcing and buying, manufacturing, test, and fulfillment. Plus, with 80,000 sq. ft. now available, there is substantial room for growth.”
In 2021, our expanded Carlsbad facility added a fourth dedicated SMT line, including additional automation and inline 3D AOI capabilities. As of the end of October 2022, we have 142 employees, up from 120 in 2021 and 105 in 2020. New staff members bring additional technical expertise, including our Director of Operations, Kevin Kron, who has been with the company for nearly a year.
Holiday Message
The last few years have been professionally and personally challenging for everyone on a global scale, but during one of the more difficult periods in recent history, Spectrum Assembly has continued to thrive, experiencing many exciting advancements and much growth in Southern California, as you’ll see in this newsletter.
As we fast approach 2023, I'd like to pay tribute to all our loyal customers, suppliers, and employees for their continued support. You made it possible for Spectrum Assembly’s continued success. On behalf of all of us at SAI, I wish everyone a joyful holiday season and prosperous new year.
Ron Topp, President and CEO
Spectrum Assembly Adds Nordson Assure X-Ray Component Counter
In September this year, Spectrum Assembly purchased and installed a Nordson Assure x-ray component counter, giving SAI improved inventory control capabilities.
“The Assure component counter does what they say,” said Michael Baldwin, Vice President, SAI. “The machine is extremely intelligent, and operation is designed so anyone can use it. Before having the Assure, we were counting thirty to fifty reels per day, but with component shortages as they are, it is critical to have a complete and accurate count of 100% of our inventory, and the Assure enables us to do that quickly and accurately.”
The Nordson Assure x-ray component counter boasts specialized logical algorithms and self-learning capabilities that empower operators to add new component types without the need for libraries that require programming and reliance on cloud-only support. The interface has an intuitive touchscreen and one-button operation, reducing the learning curve for operators to mere minutes.
In addition to a small footprint, a weight of about 360 kilograms, and easy installation, disruptions are minimized with maintenance-free operation. The machine can count a single reel in approximately ten seconds and four reels in under fifteen seconds, with 99.9% accuracy on most components using the latest software technology.
“We re-inventory everything once the kit comes back from our SMT department, so we have 100% accuracy in the parts database,” said Michael Cranford, Supply Chain Manager. “If, for instance, the counter shows 3,982 parts instead of 4,000 in the system, it updates our inventory tracking".
SAI continues to reinvest into the company. The addition of this parts counter, a second selective solder machine, conformal coating machine and an ISO 7 clean room (Class 10,000 cleanroom) makes SAI stand out from its competition.
For more information on SAI’s capabilities and pricing for products or services, contact our sales team at alexandra@saicorp.com.
‘No Findings’: A Successful ISO 13485:2016 Quality Audit
During a recent audit, Spectrum Assembly, Inc. certified to ISO 13485:2016, effective through December 4, 2023, with no major or minor findings.
Spectrum Assembly averages twenty-five quality system audits and facility inspections annually. So far this year, twenty-nine have been conducted. With the frequency of audits and inspections, SAI works diligently to maintain documented systems of the highest caliber.
“Evidence can be seen from our most recent three-day surveillance audit to the ISO 13485:2016 standard beginning October 11,” said Damien DeCrausaz, Quality Assurance Manager. “NSF International Strategic Registrations conducted the audit. This was the second consecutive year the company received no ISO 13485 audit findings. Our robust quality system, along with dedicated employees, ensures SAI’s quality system will maintain certification to the standard.”
Each month SAI reviews performance to defined quality objectives, internal processes, nonconformance reports, corrective actions, and supplier performance. Whenever data identifies an area needing improvement, the management team implements appropriate actions, defines expected completion dates, and monitors their effectiveness.
As of 2020, SAI is registered to AS9100D with ISO 9001:2015, with a current certificate effective through September 2, 2023.