Category: Case Studies

From 10 units to 10s of Thousands of units, Sparkos Labs has enjoyed rapid growth thanks to Tracer’s focus on Design for Manufacturability and Engineering feedback. 

Company Overview

Sparkos Labs, Inc. operates out of Westminster Colorado and specializes in high end audio components, design, and gear.  The company’s competitive advantage resides in its ability to produce a superior (sounding) audio product, both from an engineering and manufacturing standpoint. 

Problem

After only a year from its inception, Sparkos Labs was gaining notoriety in the online audio community.  Enthusiasts and audiophiles all around the globe were reviewing Sparkos Labs products (namely a Discrete Op Amp product), making review videos and writing blogs, and as a result the orders started to pile up.  At the time, Sparkos Labs was performing all SMT assembly in house- the products were essentially hand crafted, one unit at a time.  The strategy here was to 1) minimize costs and 2) maintain a high level of control over the quality of the products.  Just one shoddy solder joint on their sensitive audio products could have a measurable impact on audio quality and as a result tarnish the company’s high end reputation.  As larger audio distributors started to take notice, Sparkos Labs faced what many would call a good problem:  How to scale production in a way that was cost effective in order to meet their growing demand, but yet maintain their in-house laboratory level quality in order to preserve the Sparkos Labs brand. 

Action

Right off the bat, it was very important to the customer that all parts were consigned.  This allowed for enhanced supply chain control by Sparkos Labs and kept costs low since it avoided a mark-up on parts by Tracer. 

Another important requirement set forth by Sparkos Labs was the ability to perform a First Article test, meaning calibrate and verify functionality of the first unit coming off the production line before all subsequent units are produced.  This was critical for Sparkos Labs because many of their products needed to be calibrated and trimmed (resistor values changed based on a variety of material and design tolerances) and to replace thousands of resistors manually would be a big waste of time.  The first article test also included rigorous inspection of tiny solder joints under high magnification, in order to detect previously known issues that Sparkos Labs had learned about during their assembly experience.

After multiple meetings and a few low volume assembly runs, it was clear that Tracer needed to increase build efficiency in order to meet Sparko’s cost requirements.  After performing labor analysis, it became clear that the soldering of a custom audio connector was a significant labor and cost driver. 

The connector, in its delivered state, was not able to be connected/soldered via automated SMT processing, and therefore was installed manually after SMT. 

Solution

Unlike other contract manufacturers who have more rigid procurement strategies, Tracer accepts both consigned parts kits or can buy parts in a turnkey arrangement, so there was no problem meeting Sparkos Labs initial consigned part requirement. 

With regards to the first article test, on every build-Tracer was able to provide a test bench and microscope for a Sparkos Labs technician to perform first article calibration, verification, and feedback to the Tracer production team.  Not only did this on site first article process help Tracer to perfect reflow profiles and other parameters to the customer’s liking- but it also educated Sparkos Labs personnel on the challenges around their designs and exactly where improvements could be made.     

Finally, to solve the labor issue on the part pictured above, Tracer Engineers developed both short term and long term plans.  In the short term, a socket for the connectors would be ordered, and modified at Tracer so that it could be loaded onto a JEDEC Matrix tray and then utilized by the pick & place machine, just like any other SMT component.   

To solve the problem permanently, Tracer Engineers spec’d out a completely new, off the shelf component that would replace Sparkos initial audio connector, and which would be compatible with an automated soldering process.  Tracer also outlined the necessary changes to the product design for consideration by Sparkos Labs.  This suggestion was immediately adopted by Sparkos Labs and saved the company money both on components since the connectors were no longer custom parts, and also on Tracer’s assembly costs since it enabled a more efficient assembly method. 

Results

As Sparkos Labs moved more and more of its in house PCB Assembly activities to Tracer, the company was able to dedicate more resources to what it did best- designing new audio products!   With Tracer’s help, Sparkos Labs easily met the rising production demands of its customers and continues to develop and produce world-class Hi-Fi Audio products. 

“Tracer graciously allowed me to be heavily involved in the production ramp up of my product.  I’ve learned so much about the process-it’s made me a better engineer.”

-Andrew Sparks, Sparko’s Labs, Inc.

Conclusion

Certain products simply require a high level of collaboration between designer and supplier in order to successfully get to market.  Tracer’s flexible and dynamic services provide its customers with unmatched opportunity for process involvement and control, while is focus on Engineering and problem solving fosters an innovative environment.   

Establishing a new company and launching a new product requires a Quick-Turn PCB Assembly shop that delivers ON TIME, EVERY TIME.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

InLogis, Inc. designs and manufactures Distributed antenna systems (DAS) for enhanced indoor cellular & public safety radio reception, including amplifiers & kits, annunciators & fiber-optic links.

PROBLEM

It was early 2016. Owner/Founder Doug Talley of InLogis, Inc. had just sold his previous company of 15 years, which had designed and produced SiriusXM Radio commercial products. Just like its predecessor, InLogis needed to design and produce various radio products- but this time Doug needed to break into a completely new sector. InLogis’s primary product was intended to provide fire-code compliance on certain commercial buildings, by enabling fire-departments to utilize critical data in emergency situations. For instance, emergency responders could access InLogis devices to pinpoint which room and level of a building that a specific smoke alarm was triggered. The speed to market and ability to produce product within a compressed timeline was critical for InLogis’s growth because once a new building was built and fitted with a competitor’s product, the opportunity for a sale simply disappeared.

ACTION

Tracer’s founder Tyler Toth, had worked with Doug’s previous company before Tracer itself was founded. Doug knew that Tracer’s initial focus was on Quick-Turn and prototype level work and would naturally be a great supplier to support InLogis in achieving its time-critical push to market.

SOLUTION

In this particular case, Tracer simply WAS the solution. Tracer executed its primary competency: SMT Assembly in 10 days or less. Tracer assembled Rev. A, Rev. B, Rev. C, and continued to support 5-10 day turns as InLogis’s needs moved into low-volume production batches (two sister PCBAs in quantities of 50 EA at a time).

RESULTS

Fast forward to 2023 and Tracer has completed a total of 74 Quick Turn jobs for InLogis, ranging anywhere from 5-10 day assembly turns. Of those 74 Quick Turn jobs, Tracer has been late only 3 times. In those cases, boards were always delivered only 1 day late and most importantly Tracer ALWAYS COMMUNICATED delays effectively, before the customer had to ask.

• 8 year partnership
• 74 Quick Turn Jobs completed
  • 42 builds on a 5 day turn
  • 32 builds on a 10 day turn
• 7,500 PCBAs produced
• On time Delivery: 95.9%
• 3,996,000 total components placed
• Consigned component kits always audited within 24 hours
• 77 unique components on average build
• 0 RMAs

Today, InLogis, Inc. continues to serve its customers competitively. Costs are kept low through utilization of Tracer’s Quick-Turn services, allowing InLogis to maintain a Just-In-Time inventory/delivery method. Periodic design changes in order to add features or reduce component sourcing risk are dealt with seamlessly by Tracer’s dynamic engineering and Quick-Turn process.

CONCLUSION

High quality Quick-Turn PCBA service and a tendency for overcommunication has been encoded into Tracer’s DNA from its very creation-and it is thanks to customers like InLogis, Inc. who require so much of their PCB Assembly supplier.

After tolerating slow production turnarounds and SMT placement issues with an offshore PCB Assembly shop, CCX Corporation turned to Tracer for a solution.

Company overview

CCX Corporation is a best in class, North American manufacturer of custom and high-speed cables and connectivity solutions.  They produce custom cables according to customer specifications as well as high speed fiber, copper and power cables and a complete suite of optics. CCX employs over 200 people in Colorado and New Mexico.  

Problem

CCX’s PCB Assembly supplier based in Mexico was struggling with correctly soldering a small DFN (dual-flat no-leads, SMT) component on a newly introduced product.   The PCBs, arranged in 10-up arrays, were small (about 15mm square) and also quite thin.  Despite some stability fixturing that the original Assembly shop had developed, Tracer Engineering came to the conclusion that the fixturing was inadequate, and was resulting in a “trampoline” effect.  Basically, the fixturing didn’t support the thin boards well enough, so that when 1 DFN was placed by a pick & place machine, the vibration of that placement would disturb or skew surrounding DFNs, causing opens, shorts, and other defects.  Due to the ineffectiveness of the SMT assembly process of the shop in Mexico, excessive SMT rework was required, slowing the shop’s turnaround time.  This unnecessarily long turnaround time was especially painful for CCX considering that CCX was consigning parts. The shop in Mexico was tying up CCX’s cash in inventory.  Like any business decision, low cost was a major factor in sourcing an assembly shop as well as an imperative restraint in moving assembly to another, perhaps more sophisticated shop.  Worse yet was that CCX had already sunk cost in the special fixturing with the supplier in Mexico.  The switching costs to re-establish production with a new supplier were a chief barrier to solving the problem within CCX’s budget.  However, executives of the project knew something had to be done to improve the situation.  

Action

At the time, Tracer and CCX’s business relationship was at an infantile stage.  The only experience CCX had with Tracer was in consigned, SMT-only, proto level assemblies used for cable testing- which Tracer was consistently turning in 1 day completely free of defects.  CCX VP of Engineering and Quality Jon Westerlind called an emergency meeting to be held with the Tracer Engineering and Sales teams.  Immediately, Tracer personnel could tell the method devised by the assembly shop in Mexico was not optimal and could be improved.  The quality issue and turn time issue were one in the same as SMT defects were likely slowing the build purely due to touch-up or rework time.  The pricing issue, perhaps the most difficult to overcome, ended up being a major driver of Tracer’s end solution. Tracer had 2 weeks to devise an assembly plan that would 1) solve the quality issue, 2) produce 10,000 units within 2 weeks beyond the planning phase, and 3) not exceed cost restraints of the project- which didn’t account for significant changeover cost related to custom tooling.    

“…we appreciate the diligence of Tracer on this…”

Solution

Tracer’s team hit the drawing board immediately.  The proposed solution was simple:  Proper development of the fixture design.  The first improvement to the fixture design was in supporting the PCBs, particularly around the DFN components better.  This was achieved through a more complex geometric pattern to support the PCBs, as well as the addition of precision tooling pins to further stiffen the arrays during assembly.  The second improvement was addressed by increasing number of arrays accommodated on the fixture, from 6 arrays (60 units) per fixture to 10 arrays (100 units) per fixture.   The density was also cleverly increased- meaning the new fixture design, though able to hold 40 more units, was actually dimensionally smaller than the original fixture.  Not only did this smaller fixture area lend itself to more consistent stencil prints and reflow temperatures and therefore increased process stability, but also the amount of specialty high temp fixture material required was less than that the prior fixture design, which means the fixtures where actually cheaper as well.  Lastly for the final fixture improvement, Tracer Engineering made an absolute breakthrough by reducing the SMT process from 2 SMT line passes into 1 pass. This was possible because 1 side of the assemblies only required solder to tin the pads for CCX final assembly processes but no SMT parts actually were placed on those pads.  The improved fixture design facilitated this leaned out process via milled slots which allowed the hot-air convection to gain access to the pads on the bottom side of the boards without disturbing the paste.  Long in short, Tracer could practically process the double-sided assemblies as if they were single sided, which would further reduce SMT processing time over the shop in Mexico.     

Click here to view the fixture design document

“…soldered and performed well…”

Results

Tracer submitted its proposal within a few days of the emergency meeting, to which the customer replied “we appreciate the diligence of Tracer on this”- Michael Dirks.  The first 1000 units were processed within weeks and submitted to CCX for First Article Inspection, who reported the “samples soldered and performed well” – Jon Westerlind.  As a prerequisite to winning the business, Tracer was able to beat the old supplier’s unit price by 37% and in doing so the savings on the first 10,000-unit build alone covered the $5,000 worth of specialized fixturing that was required to implement Tracer’s production plan.  Over the following 12 months, Tracer produced about 50,000 units across the 5 different versions of the product. The following year, Tracer produced another 150,000 units.  Tracer continues to assemble this particular product and bids on new product releases for CCX Corporation.  

Statistics

	Supplier in Mexico	Tracer
Price	100%	63%
Turn Time	~6 weeks	~2 weeks
Throughput	20%	100%
Customer Sales Impact	Detrimental	Catalyzing
Yield	Unacceptable	No RMAs to date

Conclusion

Overall, Tracer fosters a culture of innovation and creativity unmatched by larger and more bureaucratic organizations.  It seems that sometimes the traditional cost saving strategy of outsourcing to Asia and more recently Mexico for Mid Volume PCB Assembly can prove to be suboptimal.