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| From the Pages of OEM Technology News, March 2000 issue |
Global Communications' Success Story:
Asian Made PCBs to OEMs & Contract Mfrs
PCB Supplier Credits the Internet |
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DANA POINT, CA - From an aggressive advertising, public relations firm that involved itself with the electronics industry, Global Communications found itself marketing a new client from China, a PCB manufacturer, who wanted to get into the American marketplace. With a small, yet effective advertising and public relations program, Global Communications was able to attain a sizeable niche in the marketplace where contract manufacturers and OEMs were seeking a supplier of printed circuit boards offshore that offered U.S. quality boards at nearly one third the price.
Within one year, the new PCB office in California was doing nearly 5 million dollars in sales. The following year, the facilities in Guangzhou, China had closed down. Jerry A. Grunor, President of Global Communications knew the potential of purchasing boards offshore and hired the Chinese engineers, traveled to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and signed exclusive agreements with ten of the major PCB manufacturers.
Now, using his own marketing experience, Grunor began to promote his newly organized PCB Company, Global Communications, by advertising in the trades, using his expertise in PR, exhibiting at the right trade shows, and putting together a user-friendly Web site. Within two years, this new supplier of PCBs has already set projections of nearly 40 to 50 million dollars, with customers throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe.
There is a need for printed circuit boards that have the same excellent quality as those made in the U.S., that are competitively priced, and built by PCB manufacturers which are ISO 9001:2000 and QS 9000 Certified, and UL Approved. There is a need also for quick turnaround. Born from a need to integrate and assemble products efficiently and profitably, contract manufacturing has become the new establishment within the industry. Global Communications saw that need, and within two years is now servicing over 75 contract manufacturers and OEMs nationwide, including Canada, Mexico and areas of Europe.
The Internet, according to Grunor, is playing an ever increasing part in this business. More than 80 percent of the sales are done over the Internet, either through Internet E-mail or through the Web site. Since Global Communications deals with companies all over the world, including New Zealand, Germany, The Philippines, England and France, plus the manufacturing in China, many hours are spent between the project engineers, sales and marketing personnel, quality and analysis and operational people over the Internet.
In the past, the printed circuit board customers would mail schematics. But now they can be condensed into Gerber files and sent over the Internet E-mail. It is then that the engineers open them up, or, if they are too complex, are e-mailed to the PCB manufacturers overseas. The pricing and quotations are quickly turned around to the customers within 12 to 24 hours, saving at least three to four days getting quotes to customers. This allows the CEMs to bid on their projects much faster. Often large Gerber data files with fab drawings are received that may take at least an hour to transmit to China through telephone lines. Global Communications made sure that their operation was set up in an area that has cable modem service with which the same files take only 15 seconds to transmit.
The bottom line is that the business would not have grown as well and as fast as it did in the two years that Global Communications has been in the PCB business if it were not for the Internet. Today, the use of the Internet brings millions of products from thousands of sources to any desktop, anywhere in the world. Quick as a ‘mouse.’ The E-mail feature gives our customers as well as our PCB manufacturers immediate one-on-one communication capability, quoting prices, setting lead times, changing panelization drawings, silk screen dimensions, and making revisions as fast as the customer can say "how soon."
Global Communications is currently supplying some of the top contract manufacturers and OEMs. Their boards are in use by such companies as Hewlett Packard, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Motorola, K-Byte, General Motors, Superior Manufacturing, Cal Quality, Comtel, Interconnect Systems, Thomas & Betts and many more, large and small, from electronics to automotive, from aerospace to medical. The power of the Internet has made it possible to give buyers a wide range of purchasing opportunities, while updating and downloading their data files that keep information immediate and accurate.
As production started to grow, contract manufacturers approached Global with their needs for wire harness and cable assemblies, labels for all types of packaging, and for static control products & ESD (electro static discharge) flooring, with particular emphasis on retrofitting old floors. Static control is the monitoring and solving of problems of tribo-generation and static charge emanating from the human body. Handling carts, chairs, plastic structures or packaging materials are now supplied competitively. The use of large areas of ESD static dissipative or ESD conductive flooring as a primary method of controlling ESD is increasing. Fixed grounding of operators by wrist straps for static discharge is found to be neither practical, nor a solution for compliance in areas of highly mobile personnel, in engineering, incoming inspection, stock rooms, shipping and receiving areas. Some leading experts predict that the main ESD responsibility of a company will be to simply provide and maintain ESD flooring and require employees to use ESD footwear at the work site. Electronics testing, cleanrooms, or manufacturing facilities nearly always require ESD static control flooring for ISO 9000 compliance.
Global Communications has partnered with the best companies to accommodate the contract manufacturers and OEMs, not only in supplying printed circuit boards, but many other products and services, meeting the needs of this ever-increasing industry. With a sales force throughout the country, from Maine to California, each customer is serviced by experienced representatives who understand the problems that arise in many of the problematic areas in this fast moving industry. The solution is experience, knowledge, quality, price, and on time delivery. Global Communications has found the right formula to serve the electronics community to its fullest. Within the marketplace, there is a solution to every problem, once you have that formula.
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Jerry A. Grunor
President
Global Communications
Div. of Global Communications 2000, Inc.
32545 B Golden Lantern, #283
Dana Point, CA 92629
Tel: (949) 248-7815
Fax: (949) 248-7819
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