Part of Remploy, the UK's leading supplier of employment opportunities for disabled people, Remploy Electronics has come a long way since its formation in 2003. The past year has seen the start of a £700,000 investment programme that is transforming the group's six factories into 'centres of excellence' for electronics manufacturing. Advanced testing facilities are now in place and plans to support lead-free operation are well under way.

In the wake of the Second World War the British government established an organisation to provide work for returning disabled service people. Sixty years on, and in the midst of celebrating its Diamond Jubilee, Remploy has more than 80 factories in the UK that supply goods and services to half the top British companies. In doing so, it turns over £250m each year.

For the majority of its history, Remploy has supported the UK electronics industry and, in 2003, it created a dedicated division to meet the needs of customers who are competing in a globally competitive environment. Remploy Electronics has six factories that provide a full range of contract equipment manufacturing (CEM) services and which are being developed to make leading edge capabilities available to all small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

Niche Strategy

Providing small, medium and high volume batch production in a high mix environment, Remploy's focus on rapid response time and quick change over capability has attracted customers including Solartron and Nexus. The division does not aim to compete with the international contract equipment manufacturers but, rather, has identified a niche between them and the plethora of local suppliers.

This strategy is paying off, according to Remploy Electronics' business manager, Rick Cook: "Although much of the very high volume manufacturing has moved overseas, there are still a large number of SMEs in the UK who are looking for the scale and flexibility of contract manufacturing that Remploy is set up to provide. We can offer these customers a combination of corporate purchasing clout - due to the scale of the Remploy group as a whole - combined with the benefits of a highly focussed division with a selection of operating sites."

Investing in hardware - and people

In 2004 Remploy Electronics embarked on an investment programme that will turn its six dedicated electronics manufacturing facilities into 'centres of excellence'. The initial phase has seen £350,000 invested in the installation of a new PCB assembly line at the factory in Bolton and this is being repeated in Barking.

While all Remploy Electronics sites, including those in Southampton, Brixton, Holloway and Medway, have the capabilities to produce electro-mechanical assemblies, the investment has enabled the division to offer the most advanced PCB manufacturing services currently required by UK-based SMEs. This includes the capability for placing devices including 0201 surface mount packages, fine pitch quad flat packs and micro BGA components. Placement rates for the group as a whole have risen to over 60,000 components per hour.

But Remploy is not just investing in capital equipment. Its heritage and, indeed, its whole reason for existence is to create sustainable employment opportunities for disabled people. In order to achieve this, Remploy invests substantially in training for its employees. This has multiple benefits: a direct value to the employee who gains vocational and other skills of their own choosing; a highly skilled and, consequently, efficient workforce; and the resulting effect on commercial success that funds the continuing expansion of training and job opportunities.

Home or away?

Global sourcing, which has resulted in most high volume electronics manufacturing moving to regions with lower labour costs during the past decade, has also had an impact on lower volume requirements in recent years. However, some companies are discovering the hidden costs associated with going offshore outweigh the perceived benefits. Rick Cook observes: "We are seeing customers with mid-size volume requirements returning to us having moved to offshore suppliers. At a pure cost level, labour is certainly cheaper in China or the Baltic States but components may well cost more to source there. If the cost of a product is more dependent on the component element, rather than the labour element, then the benefits of the overseas CEM may be marginal at best."

Other factors have even more significance in making the decision. "Many customers take into account the trade offs in service and flexibility that are required when moving production offshore and decide that the downside outweighs any cost advantage," adds Cook. "A significant supply pipeline commitment is often required - six months is common - and the ability to implement engineering changes can be hampered by sheer distance and time differences. It can lead to a lot of frustration."

Testing to the fore

The increasing complexity of boards with fine pitch surface mount components, often on both sides, presents a major challenge for manufacturers. Inadequate testing leads to a risk of high failure rates on deployment. This causes damage to profit margins due to the costs of changing failed boards and to the company's reputation.

Remploy has recently introduced a PCB testing service that it claims is among the most sophisticated in the UK, representing a significantly higher level of testing capability than was previously available to small/medium sized customers. The new test facility incorporates a Flying Scorpion FLS 450 in-circuit tester from Scorpion Technologies. This enables PCB assemblies to be tested automatically and simultaneously on both sides for production in-circuit test and component faults. Simple and cost-effective to set up, it tests active and passive components and is particularly suitable for boards featuring fine pitch and flip chip technologies.

Use of a double-sided flying probe, such as the FLS 450, enables defects including open and short circuits, dry joints and missing or incorrect components to be identified and rectified quickly. This leads to improved production quality and higher reliability of PCBs.

"The ability to provide this level of testing is becoming a high priority for more and more of our customers," says Graham Denyer, project engineer for Remploy Electronics. "Companies invest a lot of money in the development and production of today's complex boards and it makes sound commercial sense to apply the same scrupulous approach to the testing process."

For less technically demanding boards, Remploy can offer a range of testing options including automatic optical inspection (AOI) as well as Wayne Kerr and Schlumberger automatic test equipment.

Pb-free migration

Many companies are anticipating the effect of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive on their product manufacturing process. It should also be said that many are not - but should be. Remploy is being proactive on the introduction of environmentally-friendly production methods and its project team, set up early in 2004, is well advanced in planning their implementation. Because it is understood that many customers may need more time to switch to lead-free components, Remploy will run a dual process. This will provide a flexible migration path and enable customers to experiment as they prototype revised designs using lead-free parts.