20th August 2024
Sales Director, Garry Myatt talks about the ESD facility at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A), which has become an intrinsic link to the benefits and value-add of its outsourcing strategies.
Today, an increasing number of OEMs are choosing strategic outsourcing as part of an overall production and supply chain strategy, looking to increase profits through efficiencies and improved clarity over core and non-core competencies.
By working with outsourcing partners in engineering and production, OEMs are finding effective ways to manage spikes in demand, mitigate supply chain risks, and identify new areas of value-added design and manufacture.
Since its £100,000 investment into creating an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) manufacturing facility in 2020, that core competency has only strengthened and broadened. And according to Garry Myatt, Sales Director at PP C&A, the investment is a decision that is very much paying off.
“Many opportunities that may not have otherwise surfaced have already taken advantage of the ESD facility – Box build projects in applications such as ophthalmic testing, educational hardware kits, cloud-based asset management, fluid dispensing, and a variety of assemblies used in the dairy industry have all benefited greatly.”
The decision to green light the ESD investment came after recognising that the larger box builds in which PP C&A had decades of experience assembling, were often supported by smaller and often more complex enclosures.
This particular area of box build is generally serviced by OEMs in-house or outsourced to a contract electronics manufacturing (CEM) partner, usually responsible for the PCB assemblies and providing small box builds as a bolt-on service. But these strategies miss out on several added-value benefits obtained through a more strategic partnership.
As a strategic outsourcer with its core competency being ‘box build and system integration’, populated printed circuit boards are handled like another material line item and the requirement is managed accordingly through an approved vendor process.
With robust planning and lean manufacturing operations, backed by a skilled workforce of electro-mechanical technicians, PP C&A is displaying that there is a solution available to OEMs seeking a more effective outsourcing partnership for box build.
The type of box builds and assemblies that require ESD facilities and semi-clean room environments are often in new product development and when product realisation tops an OEM’s agenda. It is at these stages where being positioned to offer Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) on top of production capabilities and dedicated environments holds much value for an OEM and this is a combination PP C&A has offered consistently in a bid to help OEMs save a lot of money and pain down the road.
“Many companies continue to develop a product that leads to unnecessary costs, requires an inflexible supply chain, and suffers from inefficient manufacturing processes,” pointed out Garry, who has more than 25 years’ experience in electronics.
“This is why our engineering, operations and supply chain are integrated at the earliest possible stage to help optimise a design that’s efficient to manufacture, have parts readily available and ultimately speed up time to market.”
It’s a strategic outsourcing partnership that provides OEMs with better production flexibility, reduced lead times and greater control over their supply chain and costs.
Garry concluded:
“We’ve got a lot of exciting diversification plans, some of which focus on making the most of the ESD facility with both existing and new clients.
“With 2023 being a record year, securing over £5m of new orders from emerging and high technology markets such as healthcare, and green technologies in energy and agriculture, we anticipate further growth supported by this facility.
“OEMs are encouraged to explore the services we have to offer if they’re looking to ease internal pressures and overcome constraints.”
PP C&A employs over 200 people at its award-winning facility in Cheslyn Hay and provides outsourcing strategies to over 30 of the world’s largest machine builders and OEMs.
Garry Myatt, Sales Director at PP C&A
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
Recent weeks have brought two important industry moments into sharp focus, concluding that demand for AI and automation is rising, but investment, skills, and long-term thinking must follow.
For decades, one question has sat at the heart of operational strategy for machine builders and OEMs: make or buy? It’s a familiar debate and it isn’t the wrong question by any means, but perhaps it is an incomplete one.
In most machine building businesses, change is still treated as an exception. A late-stage drawing revision, component substitution, or wiring tweak discovered during build. Each one is handled, resolved, and signed off. And then everyone moves on. But what if that’s the wrong way to think about it? What if change isn’t the disruption to the system but the system itself?
