IPC 610 and 620

AWS has a very flexible workforce, highly trained to the internationally recognised IPC standards - and to its most exacting levels, Class C. We will not allow employees to work on our customers' products without adequate training, and to this end we test all new employees before they undertake any assembly work for us. We have our own in-house trainers to IPC 610 and 620 standards, in addition to which we can call on the support of the local technical college for further training resource. For our repair and refurbishment activities we also have staff trained to IPC 7710 and IPC 7711 - respectively, for the repair of circuit boards and electronic assemblies.

Special Standards

AWS works in many industries, most of which have their own quality standards. So as not to incur excessive overhead and bureaucracy, in each manufacturing cell we "work to" the client's and their industry's relevant standards - auditably. Thus in different cells we work to U.K. Mil Spec, U.S. Federal Drug Administration standards, U.K. food industry standards and various rigorous company standards. We are audited regularly to these standards by our customers, and often by their customers and occasionally even by their customers' customers.

Stable Workforce

In order to maximise our flexibility, we maintain a reasonable proportion of agency and contract staff - all of whom we train suitably. The remainder of our staff are permanent, among whom we have a staff turnover below 5% per annum. This gives us a very stable core workforce, whom we can train in flexibility, and who can rapidly become very familiar with the products on which they work. This increases our delivered quality enormously, since we combine it with effective training, quality systems and management.

Quality

Quality is an inherent characteristic of the company.

Quality is monitored, measured and evaluated. It is built into all customer contracts as a way of demonstrating our confidence in our quality standards. We welcome and encourage customers to audit our quality procedures

At AWS, Quality is built into the components we produce and the services we provide. Quality is not just 'inspected in' at the end of the process.

We partner with customers and suppliers in achievement of initiatives - such as SPC goals and 'ship-to-stock' standards.

Incoming quality standards - from suppliers - are similarly monitored and measured. Approved supplier status is given only when quality consistency is maintained.

Standards and Affiliations: -
ISO 9001:2000
UL - Underwriters Laboratories;
Institute of Quality Assurance;
Smart - Surface Mount and Related Technology group