Why is it important to invest in factory equipment?
As a Company, we believe it is important to invest in factory equipment.
Although it can be a big sum to cough up, the overall investment of new machinery outweighs the initial sting.
There’s always a machine for something, so finding out what is worth investing in and what isn’t is a bit of a minefield. Someone always want’s to sell you something and their something is always better than the other persons! So we do a lot of research before we buy to make sure that the equipment is going to be beneficial.
Sometimes though, the method and the machinery we are using just works, and there’s not a need to bring in anything new.
2023 Investments
This year we have purchased a Gensonic Stencil Cleaner, Mantis Compact Microscope, Surface Mount Reel Counter and a Vapor Phase Reflow Oven.
All these bits of equipment and machinery benefit stages throughout our production and have been a worth while investment, no matter how big or small.
Manufacturing trends and technology are always advancing so evolving with them is an important step to stay relevant in the industry and to be able to offer the latest services. With the Vapor Phase Reflow Oven, we are able to offer a more consistent reflow soldering on our surface mounted boards, with an overall, even soldering due to the vapor phase soldering method.
The Benefits
With the investment in equipment, repetitive and manual tasks have been reduced allowing for our team to be more involved with more complicated tasks that require the skills of a technician. Simple equipment like the surface mount reel counter has allowed more accurate and quicker stocks counts which is a relief to the team and management as stock takes are the worst fun for everyone!
With all our equipment we ensure that we are supported by the supplier with the initial discussions to how the product will fit our needs, how much it will cost us long term with upkeep, consumables and efficiency of energy consumption, to training and on hand support in the future. Demonstrations of the equipment meant that all the team could get a feel for the usefulness of the product and put their comments to Kate and meant that they could see first hand how to use it properly.
The investments in the equipment we have made so far this year have been beneficial as they increase productivity, improve quality and reduce errors in production. It’s been worth the research and cost!