In the energy space General Microcircuits is helping manufacturers achieve high-quality products for energy applications.  With companies introducing many new and updated products to support the growing Energy Market, the GMI team is using its vast experience, stability, and broad manufacturing capabilities  to assist its customers with New Product Introductions. Read More...

GMI’s president, Stan Cox, became “President-emeritus” on October 1, 2011. In his new role he maintains an office at GMI and will be called on for his expertise.

Stan joined GMI in 1982. Over the years he has worn many hats but in every position the hallmark has been his steady and influential leadership. He has been the “rock” that all at GMI has leaned on over the years.

Stan created an environment that empowered associates and provided an atmosphere where people look forward to coming to work. He had a constant faith in his vision for GMI to be a leader in the evolving world of electronics. Stan took a fledgling company of less than a dozen employees in a converted hair dresser’s shop to a multinational company with more than 140 employees in multiple locations. He guided the company from a traditional pin-in-hole, domestic manufacturer to an international and state-of-the-art company.

Succeeding Stan as President/CEO is David G. Dalton, who has been with GMI for 21 years. His most recent position at GMI was Executive Vice President of Sales/Marketing.

GMI has morphed into a full-service advanced manufacturing electronics company. Now with manufacturing capabilities in Asia, Latin America and the southern United States, GMI has fully deployed its risk-avoidance model for manufacturing services. Calvin Ward, Vice President of Global Supply says, “Our goal is to offer our customers the operational and supply chain support so they can concentrate on the engineering and sales side of their businesses.”

Historically, GMI has engaged with customers at any time during a product’s life cycle., In most cases GMI is introduced to a new company during the innovative growth phase of a new product, assumes the manufacturing role during the mature phase of the production cycle and lends support and end-of-life services during the harvest (legacy) phase. GMI has a proven track record of supporting its customers every step of the way.

GMI’s strategic placement in Costa Rica is paying dividends for its customer base. One customer responded, “I want to thank the GMI team for your efforts in expediting our PCBAs for us in Costa Rica. Your efforts will allow us to build and ship several critical month-end orders. We appreciate your support and dedication.”

David Dalton says, “GMI’s objectives in offering a near-coast, low-cost geography as an alternative to our Asian model were to: 1) decrease production lead-times while maintaining low-cost region pricing; 2) guarantee consistent quality; 3) improve responsiveness and 4) simplify logistics.” Early returns substantiate all four objectives.

Nick Harris, GMI’s Vice President of Global Operations adds, “This past decade Asia was a great solution for our customer base; in recent years we have seen a need for a transition or alternative solution to alleviate some cost points for some of our customers’ projects. We expected to begin with modest complexity assemblies, but we learned within a few months the skill set and experience of the Ticos (Native Costa Ricans) surpassed our expectations.”

GMI’s Board of Directors recently approved the purchase of AOI and X-ray equipment so the transition of much more complex assemblies can occur. To date, more than 45 projects have been successfully qualified and transferred to Costa Rica’s San Jose Valley.

Within the past two years, GMI has undergone an amazing internal face lift. GMI has invested in new equipment and replaced older equipment, added new square footage and renovated older areas. In addition, GMI launched an aggressive schedule to implement a shop floor management tool which will offer management dash board controls and evolve GMI into a paperless work place. Finally, GMI has aggressively pursued energy efficiency and environmental sustainability projects under its IS014001 initiative.

All of these efforts were to set the stage for our next initiative: 5S+1. The five S’s represent Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standard and Sustain. The +1 S that GMI has emphasized since the company’s beginnings 31 years ago – SAFETY! (0 time lost due to safety related incidents).

SORT means that you remove all items from the workplace that are not needed for current production operations. The principle is “only what is needed, only in the amounts needed and only when needed”.

SET in Order means arranging needed items so that they are easy to use and labeled so that anyone can find them and put them away. The key here is eliminating waste in motion, searching, human energy, excess inventory, defective products and unsafe conditions.

SHINE is the removal of dirt, grime and dust from the workplace. The key is to turn the workplace into a clean, bright spot that is in top condition and a place where everyone will enjoy working.

STANDARDIZE is the method we use to maintain and integrate the first three pillars.

The fifth pillar is SUSTAIN; this means to make a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures.

It takes a dedicated, empowered and disciplined staff to sustain and maintain the 5s platform. Now that GMI has its facility optimized, GMI plans on launching the 5S+1 initiative this current fiscal year.

GMI recently completed the second part of a three phase implementation of Aegis’ Manufacturing Operations Software (MOS). This was effective in fulfilling one of the primary 2011 operational objectives.

GMI has implemented the Aegis’ software strategy to improve efficiencies and quality by streamlining and controlling process planning and launch, process tracking and control, and quality and test management. Factory information visibility and process-wide control is core to competitiveness. GMI utilizes technology to connect data to all of our factory processes and equipment. The deployment has streamlined placement and AOI machine programming, introduced standardized paperless documentation to the factory floor, product and route tracking, route sequence enforcement, inventory location visibility, job status visibility, AOI and test data collection, diagnostics support, real-time monitoring, data retrieval/visualization, and historical reporting. The Aegis’ software system enables GMI engineering to automate the distribution of information to operator workstations in sufficient detail for quality product building. This system has already produced direct benefits to GMI and our customers.

Users can now determine where any work order is located throughout the factory in real-time. Customer service often depends on delivering the information they need when they need it. Aegis allows program managers to track WIP status and provide predictive job completion times. This is important to GMI customers. Quality has to be built into any manufacturing process. The Aegis software collects data in real time, providing GMI with the information necessary to build the product correctly, verify its quality during production and facilitate corrective actions. This data is also available for reports, visualizations, and real-time dashboards that can be configured and used by GMI to constantly improve quality and efficiency. With Aegis, GMI has instant visibility of the process and product. GMI continually improves its processes to be more efficient and provide its customers with the best quality, delivery, and costs.

Just a few years ago GMI’s response to customers on their repairs and returns was embarrassingly lacking and inefficient. The numbers of days those repairs were at GMI were excessive. GMI management decided to revamp the area by empowering a group of associates who became accountable and responsible for the entire program. The first step was to isolate the group from production. The second was to invest in a MRO module that was fully integrated into GMI’s ERP system. This module linked in crucial areas that allowed the tracking of item history from initial production or receipt to the final shipment back to the customer.

This ability provides our customers with valuable information regarding the history of repairs, change orders and rework, down to the serial number level. Knowing this history of an item by serial number can help determine inherent problems and solutions, avoiding further costly repairs. The results have been miraculous. GMI’s in-house days have consistently outperformed management’s targets and as a result have challenged management to raise the bar and reduce even further the average number of days in-house before shipping back to its customer.

Since a global energy company approached GMI to help launch their electronic Wind Energy initiative in 2001, GMI has produced multiple electronic assemblies within the clean energy sector, whether it is for smart grid applications, LED lighting solutions or energy monitoring devices. Currently, GMI estimates 65% of its revenue is generated within this segment and that at least 50% of its customer-base sells into this market. Jay Handley, GMI’s Vice President of Business Development, says, “GMI divides the energy sector into four quadrants: energy creation, energy distribution, energy monitoring and energy consumption. We have been fortunate to diversify and offer service to all four segments.” We expect to see great growth potential in these segments for years to come.