TCM Electronics commenced business in 1992 with one goal – to provide the best value for money contract manufacturing service for ‘high tech’ OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).

 

In the early nineties, as the outsourcing trend was taking off, companies were finding that the reduced overheads were coming at a much greater cost. They were losing control of their own manufacturing processes and were suffering  missed production deadlines and serious quality issues. TCM commenced business to offer OEMs a solution to these problems.

 

TCM Electronics sets itself apart in the contract manufacturing industry with its philosophy on the value of procurement. Procurement is the ‘critical path’ in manufacturing. With long component lead-times and product ‘time to market’ crucial, procurement must be carried out correctly the day the production order is given. It must then be closely managed until completion. Procurement can’t be treated as an ‘added extra’ by the contract manufacturer – it must form the core of the service. This strong procurement foundation must then be coupled to a quality obsessed production team that operate within a well-defined quality system.

 

Procurement is the ‘critical path’ in manufacturing,

don’t risk your production on unproven sources!

Our Services

Our main service offering is full procurement management with high quality assembly (IPC-A-610 Class 2+) and testing (to customer specifications). There are however various separate services the customer can select as their needs change. For example:

 

• Full or part procurement of electronic components in kit form, ready for in-house assembly by the OEM or an O/S contractor.
• Procurement of the ‘non-electronic’ production materials for inclusion in our production process or dispatched to you for final assembly work.
• Conformal coating.
• Component ‘end of life’ management.
• Prototypes – procurement and assembly.
• Assisting your design team by locating difficult to source components and reviewing new product ‘bills of material’ for suitability to the market (ease of purchasing).
• Design of unique scheduling systems to meet the needs in your marketplace.

 

Our dedicated team will take the time to find out what level of out-sourcing suits you and also find ways to tailor fit our various scheduling alternatives to best fit your market.

 

For more information on our commitment to excellence, refer to our Customer Commitments document.

 

 

IPC-A-610 Manufacturing Standards

IPC-A-610 is the most widely used electronics assembly standard in the world. A must for all quality assurance and assembly departments, IPC-A-610E illustrates industry-accepted workmanship criteria for electronics assemblies through full-color photographs and illustrations. Topics include flex attachment, board in board, part on part, lead free, component orientation and soldering criteria for through-hole, SMT (new termination styles) and discrete wiring assemblies, mechanical assembly, cleaning, marking, coating, and laminate requirements.

 

IPC-A-610 is invaluable for all inspectors, operators and trainers. Revision E has 809 photos and illustrations of acceptability criteria. This revision has been critically reviewed for clarity and accuracy. The document synchronizes to the requirements expressed in other industry consensus documents and is used with the material and process standard IPC J-STD-001.

 

http://www.ipc.org/default.aspx

 

 

Co-ordinating your production requirements

TCM enables OEMs to outsource with confidence. This means you can reduce costs, focus on key issues and have manufacturing capacity on call to meet varying production demands. Also, you can maintain a level of involvement which suits your company’s needs.

 

In summary there are four critical things that TCM will do for your company:

 

• Provide consistent on-time delivery of correct products
• Drastically reduce your total real costs of procurement and production
• Enable your valuable staff to focus on your core business functions
• Provide an unparalleled level of manufacturing quality

 

Our focus on quality

We achieve our goals by having a comprehensive but workable quality system accredited to ISO9001. Our system is comprised of four separate manuals with each having a specific purpose:

 

• Our Quality manual addresses the scope of the ISO9001 standard.
• Our Work Instructions manual details every operation we do, step by step.
• Our Training manual lists our unique industry knowledge, built up over many years, which we can then pass onto new employees.
• Our Basic Electronics Training Accreditation (BETA) provides detailed component knowledge training for all employees

 

Our quality system is 'under pinned' by our ‘Customer Charter’ and '23 point Commitments Document. This document spells what customers can expect time and time again. These commitments are embedded into our quality system.

 

 

What is the real cost of purchasing?

When calculating the total real cost of purchasing in manufacturing there are four distinct areas:

 

• The price of the component or assembly
• The accountable costs of purchasing, i.e. raising orders through to accounts payment
• The cost of key staff distracted on non- core business functions
• The cost of not meeting or missing out on your customers orders

 

The ‘price’ part of the cost equation is only relevant if the supplier delivers the correct product at the correct time. If the supplier delivers the wrong part at the wrong time, the price then becomes irrelevant! Also, the cost of staff distracted from core activities and also not meeting your production deadlines are so valuable that you can’t put a price on them.

 

In summary then, TCM will drastically reduce your accountable costs of purchasing, obtain consistently competitive material pricing, enable your staff to get on with their most valuable tasks and most importantly, minimise the production deadline risks.

 

At TCM we realise that 99% of the components won’t get your product going! We take the responsibility of finding alternative sources or parts when normal supply channels are out of stock.

 

The real cost of purchasing can mean that the cheapest part can actually become the most expensive part – if it doesn’t arrive in time.