Extreme Collaboration

New product designs involving complex technology and often cutting-edge intellectual property move through significant challenges as engineered models become physical products. No less substantial are the challenges of production. Extremely precise processes must be deployed to exact specifications to produce products that work as designed, in volume, and at optimal costs.

When the two worlds of product and process design collaborate, significant benefits can occur. Successful interaction results in efficiency improvements, cost reductions, yield improvements and more. And yet, in typical EMS/customer relationships, these worlds often remain geographically – and philosophically – apart.

Fabrinet takes a different approach. Collaboration between a customer’s design engineers and Fabrinet’s deeply experienced manufacturing engineers is encouraged – whether the product is in prototyping phase or a when well-established process is being transferred to a new location. Direct, transparent communication is supported throughout operations, reinforced by 24/7 real-time view into production status detail via Fabrinet’s Information Tracking Systems. This two-way information flow however, remains completely customer-specific. Fabrinet operations teams, factories and purchasing operations specific to each customer, with extreme IP protections in place. In this way, any innovations involving a customer’s IP remain proprietary, protected and unique to their own manufacturing process.

“Our engineers and line assemblers take enormous pride in their work,” said Dr. Harpal Gill, Fabrinet’s COO. “Where another CM might just stop a line when a problem occurs, Fabrinet engineers will jump in and work 24/7 in cooperation with the customer to define the problem, identify a solution and keep the line operating. Beyond the deep, hands-on experience each of our engineers brings to their work, we offer continuous training in quality and different facets of manufacturing operations. As a result, our employees are enormously creative. Recognizing this, our customers will often ask us to solve a manufacturing process challenge.”

Rachun Choomjai, director of Fabrinet’s PCBA manufacturing operations, described a recent challenge to increase throughput in a functional test operation. “Our engineering team worked with their customer’s engineering team to to create a new concept of a functional tester capable of testing 18 units simultaneously – versus the original design which could test only one unit at a time,” Rachun said. “This has significantly improved the production throughout by a factor of 18 with no compromise in quality or impact to delivery schedule.”

Dr. Sompob Ratanasawetwad, general manager of Fabrinet’s Pinehurst manufacturing campus, related a similar experience. “Normally, 1 or 2 die are placed on a substrate. In this instance, a customer wanted to process 140 die on a substrate. Even in small volumes this process is extremely challenging as the epoxy holding the dies must be very precisely placed. Our engineers worked to develop both new tooling and a process to achieve the greater quantity placement with no compromise in quality or yield. We provided the customer with all the required data, documentation and reliability analyses and they were more than pleased to qualify the process we had developed for them.”

With a commitment to continuous improvement, Fabrinet is equally focused on identifying areas in which efficiency can be improved within its own operations. The examples here are diverse and numerous. Fabrinet’s Director of Quality Systems, Ampon Rojanabenjakun, estimates that more than 140 Lean manufacturing projects are in place at any one time, with more than 5,000 Kaizen and Six Sigma projects completed since the company formally implemented Kaizen and Six Sigma practices in 2003.

“It’s not enough for a CM to be focused solely on cost improvement,” said Dr. Gill. “We seek to partner with our clients to establish mutually beneficial processes that improve a company’s flexibility and ability to more rapidly adapt to changing market conditions and requirements. And that’s where we excel.”