|
    
Undertaking design & manufacture work at home
yields benefits which far outweigh the hidden costs of going abroad.
It has always been our experience that design and
manufacture is more reliable when made within the recognised “centers of
excellence” in the industry i.e.
Europe, the US and Japan. The availability of skilled
labour, the need to have constant communications with the subcontract
manufacturer, calibration of equipment and similar issues can have an
impact on the quality and reliability of offshore manufactured products.
This coupled with long lead-times and less flexible
manufacturing practices soon erodes the apparent cost savings In our case
manufacturing in Europe has clear benefits to our customers in quality
with significant price implications. It also ensures the availability of a
dedicated design team for both new product development and customer
support. We now have our own network of distributors throughout the world
that rely on our local design expertise and flexible manufacturing to
support their design-in efforts in this growing market.
One of the biggest problems with offshore manufacturing is
the choice of components purchased. Allowing subcontractors to source
their own parts is a path to disaster, but they all do it, that is how
they improve margins. We are not in consumer or mass markets with our
products and so do not have to compete under such breakneck competition so
we can put quality first, second and third.
The UK also seems to have a concentration of highly
experienced RE designers not found anywhere else except possibly
Scandinavia. Interestingly, most of the new chipset offerings for short
range device applications are coming from Scandinavia. Our design
resources are therefore located in the UK and subcontract manufacture will
remain here also. In fact, we are rather proud to be able to say:
“made in the UK” on all our products. Copyright -
Electronics Weekly
| 
