- Customer Success with Koh Young
The Challenge: Breaking Free from Batch Processing
Imperial Electronic Assembly, a Connecticut-based contract manufacturer, has been serving the electronics industry since 1989. What began as a 10-person operation has grown into a 120-employee company operating in a 45,000-square-foot facility. As a smaller CM competing in an increasingly complex market, Imperial needed to deliver the same capabilities as larger manufacturers while maintaining flexibility and responsiveness for their customers.
Imperial’s original quality control process relied on a batch AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) system that created bottlenecks and delayed feedback on production issues.
“Imperial originally had a batch system for AOI,” explains Mark Bohacs, Engineering Manager. “Every time we ran a product through our system, we basically had to batch it and run it through one at a time. This meant we weren’t getting immediate feedback on quality issues.”
The company also recognized the need for Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) as technology advanced. “We went with SPI because of the ever-changing technology, the finer pitches, the BGAs,” Mike explains. “We needed the ability to make sure the prints were good beforehand to eliminate any type of rework. It’s very key to make sure that’s done properly at the initial step.”
As a contract manufacturer building diverse products for multiple customers, Imperial needed exceptional flexibility. Mark explains the unique challenge: “As a smaller CM, we’re able to handle the same thing that larger CMs do with the same equipment. We chose the Zenith UHS AOIs, because we wanted that capability to offer true vision and control of the board. We don’t build a product, we make it—and our product could be anything. Taller parts would get in the way, and Koh Young was very clear that we needed to understand what our product is. We wanted to have that flexibility, and Koh Young allowed us to offer that to any customer in any configuration.” To make the right choice, Kiet and his team evaluated three other manufacturers alongside Koh Young in a side-by-side analysis. As Kiet elaborated, “We eliminated two of those manufacturers early, which left Koh Young head-to-head against another manufacturer. We were able to visit other local users who had the machines. This personal engagement gave us a good understanding of the company. Koh Young's reputation was very highly regarded.”
Data-Driven Process Improvement
The comprehensive data provided by Koh Young’s systems, integrated through KSMART software, has transformed Imperial into a more data-driven organization.
“We used to do a batch system, so they would run through SMT, then do AOI. We’d have to wait and be like, oh, now we have a bad batch, we got to rework the entire job. Having the ability to do it inline and detect problems right away as they’re occurring has been tremendous.”
Mike Conte
Operations Manager
The Selection Process: Choosing the Right Partner
Imperial conducted an extensive evaluation of approximately three different vendors for both AOI and SPI systems. The decision to partner with Koh Young was driven by multiple factors.
Tony Conte, Founder and CEO, confirms that Panasonic’s recommendation carried significant weight: “We have a long-standing arrangement with Panasonic, who recommended Koh Young when we went to put AOI and SPI inline. We’re looking for that visionary stuff from the supply chain, especially from equipment manufacturers, because technology is changing so fast.”
