A+B Electronic in the last 5 years - of change and development
The last 5 to 6 years have been an eventful time for A+B Electronic, characterized by change, progress and constant challenges.
That is why we have taken the time to look back over the years. We let those who know best have their say: the colleagues in the different departments. They tell a story of technical and structural innovations, more transparency and a desire for change. We give you an insight into our processes and structures.
A change in management often leads to far-reaching changes in a company. Not only is the progress of previous years continued, but many new processes are also initiated.
The changes in the last five years are, among other things, a reaction to booming markets and a shortage of components for passive components from 2017 to 2018. Customers panicked at the time and ordered, ordered and ordered. At A+B Electronic, this culminated in an excessively high order backlog and delayed delivery dates well into 2019. Communication and reliability in our customer relationships suffered greatly during this time due to inadequate structures. To deal with the situation, we made changes to the organization as well as extensive adjustments to production, which led to increased capacity. In addition, a modern ERP system that can connect and monitor processes from purchasing to incoming goods to production.
That was a little over 5 years ago, but in 2015 we invested in a new production hall. A spatial expansion to enable us to continue to grow as a company. So there have already been some big leaps for us to create new capacities. And we still have some ideas for the next steps. In the long term, we will be in a much better position to meet all customer needs.
Since 2019, we have also been working hard to communicate more openly with customers again. The magic word here is transparency and trusting cooperation is always at the forefront. A+B Electronic is undergoing an overall rethink. With the new processes, we can act much more flexibly and also respond better to challenges such as the situation with Covid-19 and the recent shortage of components.
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“Our products stand for high quality and customised customer solutions. To ensure that our products meet the quality requirements, we need a reliable supplier. And here A+B Electronic, as our strategic long-term supplier, is exactly the right choice. A+B Electronic not only delivers very good quality on time – they also have nice and motivated employees. If a complaint does arise, it is handled professionally and quickly.”
Sebastian Bauer, Technical Managing Director at solvimus GmbH
Oliver Rauh has been in charge of operational sales at A+B Electronic since December 2018. This is how Mr Rauh sums up the last few years:
I've been with A+B Electronic since 2011, I did my apprenticeship here and have already experienced a few changes. What I particularly remember are the structural changes. For many years, the technical aspects of operational sales were rather neglected. This changed when Ms Teichmann and I took over the management of operational sales in December 2018. There is now a targeted division between commercial and technical topics in Sales. This means that customer enquiries can be better allocated and answered - a major improvement in internal and external communication.
The new, industry-specific ERP system also offers great advantages, particularly in sales. The system can be used to map capacity planning, throughput times are taken into account and work steps are planned. When does the material arrive, when does it go into production, what process are we in? This is a big step for A+B Electronic and has definitely had a positive impact on us.
The hierarchies have also become flatter in recent years. This has given every employee more freedom to make decisions, but also more responsibility. The low fluctuation rate shows that this creates a positive atmosphere in the company. Overall, we benefit greatly from our good team.
Sven Kapmeyer* has been the Administrative Manager at A+B Electronic since January 2020. He previously worked as a controller at the company for many years. His assessment of the last few years:
In recent years, we have largely automated processes for creating quotations, for example. With the BOM Connector, we can prepare customer parts lists more quickly, obtain quotations and carry out initial price calculations. Every company has different designations and article numbers. Manually assigning each part to a bill of materials is very time-consuming. We have definitely been able to optimize this.
By connecting a materials management tool, we are also able to recognize bottlenecks and anomalies in our supply chains at an early stage. For example, we can see when material arrives too late and can react immediately. In this way, gaps in the supply chain can be recognized promptly and closed before problems arise in production.
These are all things that customers don't even notice directly, but which make internal processes run much more smoothly. Ultimately, everyone benefits from this: suppliers, A+B Electronic and our customers.
*Note: Sven Kapmeyer was appointed Managing Director in November 2021.
Kristin Teichmann and Rolf Haake are a team in technical management at A+B Electronic. In February 2020, Ms Teichmann moved from the management of technical sales to the technical management of production. For Mr Haake, her move is representative of a general and positive structural change at A+B Electronic. She talks about the many changes in production:
In recent years, we have filled many management positions at A+B Electronic with young people. That also made sense here in production. Mr Haake can pass on his experience and knowledge and I myself can contribute new ideas. We work as a team here.
The change was exactly the right decision for me, as I had wanted to return to technology for some time. For example, we were able to expand areas such as technical project management. This is where we have all the experts for customers' technical questions. Communication between sales and production has become much easier thanks to the separation of the commercial and technical areas. I have also expanded quality assurance so that we are now focusing more on quality management and control. On the other hand, we have creative thinkers in test equipment construction who tend to think 'out of the box' and come up with customized solutions.
But the changes don't stop there. Since mid-2020, work has also been underway to implement a warehouse concept. The aim is to optimize work processes in the incoming goods department and warehouse at A+B Electronic. A component X-ray counter ensures fewer missing materials in the warehouse, while an incoming goods table ensures better traceability and control of deliveries. We ensure automated processes. This makes our processes faster and safer. In this way, we minimize sources of error and can reorder material at an early stage.
We are also working on improving production capacities. The new additions to the machine park are one of the factors contributing to this:
In addition to the stencil printers, we also have our MICRONIC MY700JP jet printer for SMD assembly. This applies the solder paste to the PCBs before assembly without the use of a stencil. This is faster and more flexible, as stencils have to be produced for each order. This means we can solder prototypes and 0 series for you with the jet printer before we go into series production with a stencil.
One of the highlights of our SMD lines: the Fuji 7x NXT2 pick and place machine. Between the application of the solder paste in the jet printer or stencil printer and the soldering in the reflow oven comes, of course, the assembly. Our new hybrid placement machine is particularly fast, reliable and precise in the placement of SMD components.
With the latest generation of our selective soldering machine, we can solder THT-equipped PCBs quickly and flexibly. In contrast to wave soldering, the solder joints are only applied to defined points on the PCB. Thanks to an integrated CAD assistant, the soldering programs can be created offline and then changed more quickly on the system.
AOI systems are used to visually inspect printed circuit boards for defects. However, there are also components with concealed connections. We check these using our YXLON Cheetah X-ray system. The solder joints in the assemblies are x-rayed and the correct connection of the solder points is checked. This massively improves our quality processes and means that hardly any defects stand a chance.
Would you like to gain your own impression of our company or do you have a project for which you are looking for experienced support? Then get in touch with us. Together we will find the best solution for your projects.
