Global Manufacturing Services, Inc.

Contract manufacturers who have good equipment and a modicum of expertise in the use of that equipment can populate LED boards with little trouble.  The ‘rub’ comes when the customer wants more than simple LED placements, like quality blank board sourcing, like LED and driver circuit sourcing from reliable sources that can guarantee genuine parts at the right price and delivery order after order, and dependable and careful attention to binning of LEDs. like intricate conformal coating, like lenses installed properly and wire leads soldered neatly onto the boards.  Finished LED boards are seldom in a rectangular configuration, due to their ultimate application.  Some boards are serpentine, some are long and skinny and still others are circular. And of course everyone needs their boards quicker than you can possibly get them done.   A screw up in any one of these areas and you can wind up with a lot of boards that don’t live up to your expectations and an unhappy customer.

Let’s look at each one of these for opportunities.  (1)  Metal clad boards can be purchased from a variety of sources, but we have found that consistently high quality boards at an affordable price and reasonable delivery is quite another matter.  As everyone in the industry knows, board manufacturing is a very, very tricky and expensive business.   There are chemical etching solutions to deal with, both in the process as well as the disposal of or recycling of waste streams created by the process.  Then there are optics, and soldering, and baking of the masks, etc.  Even with the latest process controls and procedures developed over the past several decades, it is difficult to keep consistent quality.  So it is imperative that the assembly house select the the best board material for the application and the best board house to manufacture your boards.  (2)  Sourcing quality LEDs and ancillary components that are guaranteed to be non counterfeit is a feat in and of itself.  Finding a reliable supplier that can provide assurance of genuine parts at the right price, with no mixed bins and can deliver them  order after order takes time to develop and maintain.  (3) Next consider conformal coating.  Some customers need the finished board to be conformally coated, but you usually do not want the conformal coating to cover the LED lens, least you affect the lens by reducing light output or distorting the LED’s output color and/or intensity. The coating can be applied by human hand or a machine.  The decision of who or what does the coating will depend on the quantity of boards to be done.  Since it can take quite a bit of time to program the machine, a few will likely be done by hand, whereas a large quantity will likely be done by machine.  Successful hand application is tricky and requires very skilled and trained people to do it successfully.  (4)  All LED boards need either connectors and/or wires for connecting them into the fixtures.  The very small connectors in use today can be easily contaminated with the conformal coating collecting in the connector. The selective coating which is generally cured with heat must be applied in such a way as to not cover solder pads where wires are to be soldered in the final step. Then there is the matter of testing the finished product to determine if all LEDs function are functioning without blinding the tester. Testing for color and intensity is also frequently a requirement.

Many LED boards are very small and labeling for date code and part number can be a challenge. Of course on the other hand long skinny boards are common as we begin to replace fluorescent bulbs with LEDs. They present still other challenges

So the assemble of LED boards is more than simply placing LEDs on a standard board.

At Global Manufacturing Services, Inc. we have been building power LED boards for the lighting industry as well as LED boards for the signage industry for a number of years and have solved many of the challenges of this exciting industry. If there are LED boards in your plans, please call us for and let’s discuss your application. I am sure you will be pleased with what we have to offer.

With the LED lighting industry picking up speed, Global Manufacturing Services, Inc. has begun to service the industry with assembly services.

 We purchase UL listed metal clad printed circuit boards from selected board houses and place high intensity LEDs from Nichia, Phillips, Cree and others onto the boards along with driver circuits and connectors, etc.   Because many of our customers are using the finished product in outdoor environments where corrosion is a concern, we are conformally coating the boards with a silicon based coating that we dispense onto the boards.   We have developed test sets and testing procedures to make certain that assembled circuit boards are working as specified.  If you need us to manufacture your power LEDs assemblies please call us at 336 246 5143 or send an email to akeith@skybest.com.

Being as how Global Manufacturing Services, Inc. is a manufacturer of many products including printed circuit board assembly as well as product box build, we sometimes get a wide eyed bloke or blokette coming through our doors wanting us to quote on the potential customer’s latest product. Turns out the person has figured out that by putting a wind mill on top of his electric car he/she can generate electric power that can be used to drive the car and it will never need charging.  And if he/she parks on a hill no battery required … just push it off get the wind mill turning and viola we’re off and running.

Of course the person has no concept of the first law of thermodynamics and so trying to explain why this concept is flawed is fruitless.  So we try to send them on their way without insulting them and hoping it will be awhile before the  next one shows up.

Guess what? The cute little 8 year old girl in our neighborhood came up all wide eyed and excited and said “Scotty, scotty (her dad told her I am a Scot) “guest what” I just saw?” I looked at her and noted (1) she came from the vicinity of her uncle’s house and (2) that she was more excited than normal. Since I knew she is afraid of big animals, I said “You saw a rhinoceros on the roof of your uncle’s house.” She said, oh, don’t be silly.”

We make guesses or estimates every day, in many cases without even realizing that is what we are doing. Making an estimate to check reasonableness is a valuable tool, to save money and/or to keep one out of trouble. For example if you go into the cafe and order two hot dogs and a chocolate shake, and the waiter wants to charge you $14.73, I hope while you are waiting you have estimated what you are probably going to have to pay for this junk food. If you are like me, you have already made a “rough estimate” or guess of what to expect. What is a reasonable amount? The hot dogs are maybe $1.65 each or around $3.00 and change and the shake maybe $2.82 depending on size. Tax at 7% may run the bill up to somewhere between $5.00 and $7.00. So you quite rightly buck on the $14.73

Our electronic manufacturing services business, Global Manufacturing Sevices, requires us to constantly fine tune our estimating skills. We quote jobs using a very good set of spread sheets that aids us in the task. We go out to our suppliers to get parts cost. We count parts on the bill of materials (BOM) and try to get an idea (estimate) of how much labor it will take to assemble the circuit boards. We add our known overhead and come up with a figure, but then we run a reasonableness test to see if it makes sense. We compare our price with that of other similar circuit boards we have built. We ask our selves what we can reasonably charge if we filled up the factory with 100% of this product. No one technique gives us the final answer, but we usually come up with a pretty good estimate of what the cost should be.

I went for the rhinoceros ladder, but when I got to her uncle’s house down the street, a water buffalo had slid down the roof of the house and had fallen through the roof of the porch onto the deck below. Well, at least my guess was partly right. It was a large animal!

Global Manufacturing Services, Inc. is an Electronic Contract Manufacturing business located  in West Jefferson, North Carolina, which is in the Northwestern part of the state and so to visit customers, suppliers and others we gotta travel a good bit.

The other day I was heading for Atlanta to take in a home automation trade show.  As you might guess, I have been to Atlanta a few times, so I do know some short cuts from here to there.  So I plug in the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta into my trusty (or so I thought)  GPS unit and set about navigating down to Atlanta.

So I take my first short cut and the GPS speaks up saying: “Ok, wise guy I see that you are not paying any attention to the route that I have laid out for us”.  And of course I say: “What the ….”!!  And the GPS says:  “Yeah, so you think you know more than me, when you know that the government has laid out millions if not billions to throw up a couple dozen satellites and untold ground stations so that I can tell you morons how to get from one place to another”  Again I say:  What the  …., but now in spades!!!  The sassy GPS says:  “You see that crooked arrow on the screen … you keep this up and I’ll grab that jagged arrow and stick it …. well we won’t go there!!  Now I am dumb struck.  So I turn around and go back to where I got off the route, and never veered off again.

Has your GPS ever given you any static like that?

The trade show was good and  hot Atlanta was nice as always.

Later

We are sometimes asked what type things can we do at our factory in West Jefferson, North Carolina.  I have briefly listed the primary items below.

RoHS, I.e. lead free assemblies with no up charge or leaded assemblies if that is required..

KanBan and order fulfillment for delivery to you for your just in time requirements.

Electromechanical assembly including light press work and light welding.

Full “box build” which works well when you would like us to put your finished goods on our shelf and then ship direct to your customer as you require.

Excellent MRP system to interface with your MRP system for low error rates.

Excellent, modern equipment with skilled operators to operate and manage assembly. We’re able to assemble very large SMT boards: 20 inches by 24 inches.

Great materials purchasing department to source components from around the globe.

Serious about ISO quality without the chaff and cost associated with lesser quality systems.

Employees with great work ethic, and always eager to get it right.

Reliable, honest customer service that makes the best look mediocre.

Fast quoting with your circuit board Gerbers and Bill of Materials.

Our low overhead assures you of competitive pricing.

I hope that you will soon let Global Manufacturing Services, Inc., GMSWW quote a project for you

As the recession recedes a bit, it is tempting to go out and hire a few extra workers to take care of a spat of orders.  But because this recession may go on for awhile, it likely makes more sense to contract out some of your electronic or electro-mechanical assembly work to companies like Global Manufacturing Services, Inc. in Western, North Carolina, and wait and see if the uptick is going to be sustainable.  We can quickly quote your work, set up the project in our fast turn factory all at a good price.   if you get repeat orders then we can continue to do the work or maybe then it will be time to call back or put on a few people.

Now that the economy is improving, and energy prices rising, why would we think prices won’t rise on everything except maybe home sales? I predict that prices will rise by 2% within the next six months. Already we are seeing higher prices for the materials we purchase for our electronics assembly business, circuit boards, flux, solder, electronic components and wire. In the near future any raw material that has a significant energy component in the cost of its manufacture will be much more expensive. We are hearing that we should expect a 40% increase in electricity prices, especially in areas which rely on coal fired electrical generators. We know that will drive prices up. Fortunately we get a good portion of our electricity from Duke Energy who has nuclear powered generators.

What about freight? Petroleum prices are already on their way higher. This will make our domestic manufacturing more competitive with offshore competition, but what percentage increase in domestic freight costs do we expect, 10%, 20% or more? Who knows, but as we have learned to run a lean organization here at gmsww.com during this shabby economy; we will be prepared to get along as well or better than many.

We take an order from a major corporation and it clearly says on our quote that we gave them; that the terms are 30 days net.  Their purchase order says terms are 30 days.  Then when they don’t pay in 30 days, we get informed by their accountant that they NOW pay in 60 days.   Is it fair, hell no.  Is it real life?  You bet.  We are small, they are large, so they do whatever they like.  They just gave themselves a loan on our back.  Do we have any sympathy for the big crooks that are struggling … Get real!!!! 

These are exciting times in the world of lighting and signage. An incredible array of high power LEDs are now available for lighting such as in Architectural design, street lighting and the multi color LEDs are revolutionizing the sign business for outdoor advertising as well as the gaming industry to name a few. Fortunately there are Electronic Manufacturing Services like us at, Global Manufacturing Services, Inc. that can put them on metal core and/or clad circuit boards or mount the super high power Star mounted LEDs onto heat sinks, which can light up your project. If you need help with the thermal design to assure that the LEDs do not run too hot, which can reduce efficiency as well as LED life, we can help.

We have placed multi color SMT LEDs for signage in large numbers. We are now involved with the assembly of multi watt power LEDs.  Proper heat sinking and care in assembly are critical to the success of your project. We take special care to make your project successful and therefore make ourselves successful.

We especially like these products because of their high efficiency and do not contain mercury or other bad environmental actors. Their higher efficiency can help reduce the hazard of global warming by using less electricity than their cousins … the incandescent lamp and CFLs. We are glad to be a part of this revolution.