Have You Been Satisfied as a Customer? -- Twenty-six companies braved their customers' scrutiny in the first Service Excellence Awards for Electronics Assembly Equipment and Software Suppliers.

The 2001 Service Excellence Awards for Electronics Assembly Equipment and Software Suppliers is the only awards program that honors companies in the assembly equipment and software industry for excelling in the critical area of customer service. In the first year of this new awards program, cosponsored by Technology Forecasters, Inc. (TFI, Alameda, CA) and Circuits Assembly (CA, Atlanta, GA), the program offered an opportunity for assembly equipment and software suppliers to see how they compared to their peers in customer satisfaction and for PCB assembly companies to evaluate their current and future suppliers.

The idea for this program was born from the Service Excellence Awards for Contract Electronics Manufacturers program that began 10 years ago. The electronics manufacturing services (EMS) contestants in that program wanted an objective source for customer satisfaction with their suppliers-the capital equipment and software companies.

Steven Hall, president of EKRA America (Marlborough, MA), winner of the screen printing category, sees the program as a measurement tool. "At EKRA America, we have built our company around ensuring that customers truly enjoy working with us. The Service Excellence Award is particularly important to us because it provides us with a direct measurement on how we are doing against this goal."

In the fast growing, highly competitive electronics industry, some providers are choosing to differentiate themselves from their peers based on customer service. These companies are focusing on establishing best-in-industry customer service processes that include consistent customer surveying.

Gary Ovick, vice president of global customer support for Assembleon America, Inc. (formerly Philips EMT, Alpharetta, GA), winner of the pick-and-place category, commented that "today's equipment buyers are looking far beyond product specifications to evaluate potential suppliers. A supplier's service and support capabilities directly impact the effective utilization and up time of the equipment in an actual production environment. We have long recognized the strategic importance of providing best-in-class equipment as well as total support solutions that maximize a customer's return on investment. The recognition that our customers have provided us through this award reinforces the merits of our strategy and provides even greater emphasis to maintain this leadership position."

It Takes Courage to be Judged

Twenty-six assembly equipment and software companies were up to the challenge. Each signed up to have their customers interviewed to learn what those customers thought about their products and service offerings. The customer interviews, conducted by TFI, provided near-verbatim feedback to participating companies, allowing them to quickly target areas for improvement and to respond immediately to customer responses. The Service Excellence Awards provide peer comparison by allowing customers to rate their equipment and software providers on a five-point scale: 5-superior; 3-standard; and 1-poor.

The participating companies are rated in five service areas. For the assembly equipment category, the interviewers talked with the first 15 that were available out of 25 of the entrants' best customers. For the software category, the interviewers talked with the first seven out of 15 of the entrants' best customers. These questions were asked:

- Dependability: How would you rate the dependability of this supplier and the product you purchased?

- Ease of Use: How would you rate this supplier's product(s) in terms of ease of use and user friendliness?

- Responsiveness: What rating would you give this supplier for responding to your requests, changes and orders?

- Technology: How would you rate this supplier for providing the highest technology your products contain today and in helping you achieve your overall manufacturing goals?

- Value: Relative to the price you paid, how would you rate the overall value of the product(s) and service(s) you purchased from this supplier?

The competing companies were divided into seven assembly categories and one software category based upon their primary equipment function. The categories are as follows: cleaning; dispensing; pick and place; repair and rework; screen printing; soldering (reflow and wave); test and inspection; and manufacturing software. An award was presented to the company in each equipment category that demonstrated top-quality customer service throughout all five categories. The winners in each category are listed in Table 1.

This year's winners were honored at an awards ceremony and luncheon on January 17, 2001, held during the APEX show in San Diego, CA. Executives from winning companies were present to receive the awards on behalf of their companies. The averages and range of scores received by the participants are listed in Table 2.

The Award as a Competitive Differentiator

As always, learning how to improve service is vital for competitive differentiation. With this in mind, the interviewers asked the contestants' customers: What specific improvements could this supplier make to help you improve your position in your marketplace?

One winning company wasted no time in implementing suggestions received from their customers. Anthony Hynes, president of Precision Valve & Automation (Halfmoon, NY), winner of the dispensing category, reported, "Knowing your customers feel you are providing them such a high level of service is invaluable. We have already begun to implement a few of the recommendations brought to our attention by way of this survey. We fully intend to use this exercise as a means to improve upon what we already feel is the strongest service team in the industry."

How do the winning companies plan to position this win to their advantage in the future? Robert H. Fischer, vice president of operations at EMC Global Technologies, Inc. (Doylestown, PA), winner of the cleaning category, equated winning the award to a sports championship. "Winning [the award] is to EMC what a championship game is in professional sports. It's a fantastic feeling knowing that we are so highly rated by our customers. What we do realize, though, is that getting to the top is easier than staying on top. The challenge in the next year is to not remain at this level, but to raise our internal benchmark to a higher point. Doing so will not only result in repeat business, but will also give [our company] the most effective advertising-word of mouth."

Validating Performance

Winning companies see the program as a way to validate their company's performance. Robert M. Dutkowsky, chairman, president and chief executive officer of GenRad (Westford, MA), which won the test and inspection category, shared his thoughts: "This is a testament to the long tradition of service and support excellence offered by GenRad. Our dedicated support staff prides themselves on seeing that each customer gets maximum efficiency and peak performance from their test systems."

Another testament came from Marc Peo, president of Heller Industries (Florham Park, NJ), winner of the soldering category. "Receiving this recognition from our customer base reaffirms that the closed loop systems and feedback mechanisms we have put in place are working. However, we will not stop here. In fact, we will continue to strive for excellence on both the technological and customer satisfaction fronts."

Giving Back to the Industry

In addition to the winners being presented with a gold-etched crystal plaque to commemorate their achievement, a donation of $10,000 was made on their behalf to the Dave Fradin Scholarship Fund, an IPC (Northbrook, IL) research grant. Part of each participant's entry fee was included in the donation.

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If your company delivers software or assembly equipment to the electronics industry, we encourage you to contact TFI to sign up for the 2002 Service Excellence Awards series. If you purchase capital equipment or software for electronics assembly, encourage the executives of your suppliers to stand up to this objective industry test. Visit www.techforecasters.com for more information.

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Ginny Snyder is a senior consultant and project manager for Technology Forecasters, Inc., Alameda, CA; [phone].

http://www.circuitsassembly.com

Copyright [copyright] 2001 CMP Media LLC