Successful Outsourcing

A STRUCTURAL APPROACH
Since 1997 the Company has built on its specialist skills, and in the process has expanded the facilities to offer an even faster level of responsiveness than previously experienced. Paul Deeham, Managing Director is quick to point out that the changes have been designed to create a more structured approach to its relationships with customers - in effect a seamless transition from supplier to customer, creating a "your factory in our premises" approach. Team working is very much the order of the day, and with a flat organisation chart, the company happily boasts that there are never more than two tiers between the shop floor and the customer.

This structural approach ensures that not only are the staff empowered to manage customer relationships, but they also take responsibility for ongoing performance measurement. This is done both internally and with the customer, to ensure that delivered quality is exactly in line with expectations.

As electronics outsourcing specialists we have provided successful solutions to many clients

Questions

WHETHER A LARGE OR SMALL CONTRACT, YOU NEED TO ASK A NUMBER OF FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS WHEN OUTSOURCING

  • Does your prospective supplier have the necessary expertise in YOUR industry sector?
  • Do they have the infrastructure / systems in place to meet JIT delivery schedules?
  • Do they strongly manage the supply chain?
  • Do they have financial stability, with the necessary working capital to run a "your factory in their premises" approach, in line with your anticipated volumes?
  • Can they demonstrate commitment to their customers' needs?

Balance

The facilities, with advanced placement technology, semi-automatic conventional assembly, customised test solutions, backed by its most recent addition of high voltage test equipment, are all geared to operate as extensions of the customer's own facility - very much a factory within a factory approach.

AWS' mission is very much balanced on being a leading provider of manufacturing solutions to customers in specialist niche markets - to be seen as a trusted and valued part of the supply chain. It acknowledges that the different tiers in the market require different volumes and in some cases, different skills, but the three key elements of Systems, Expertise and Capital apply across all tiers. An inability to fulfill these three elements leads to the same end result - an inability to really deliver.

The end question is - does your existing supplier merely deliver, or REALLY deliver?

Focus

In order to avoid the proverbial "jack of all trades / master of none" nickname, AWS have sought to create dedicated teams to work on specific contracts. The market has now fragmented into several tiers, based on size and sector; we have therefore determined to target only specific niches where the match between need and offering is strongest. Those sectors requiring customised solutions, where flexible schedules of up to 1000 units per week are required, where complex assemblies are required, have consistently proved to be the ones that really benefit from our approach. We have experienced huge growth in servicing companies in the scientific and medical instruments sectors; vending equipment remains a major market for us and we are also winning projects for datacomms / IT / computing units and most recently, power control systems as used in the rail industry.