Flex Circuit Design Process

Flex Circuits and Lean Thinking.  For You, It Means:
Fast Prototyping, Innovative Designs, and Increased Value

To design and produce the best high-density flex circuits in the industry, we believe that a company needs it all – the tools, knowledge, experience, and willingness to continuously improve processes and methodologies.

What a Lean Thinking approach and ISO 9001 certification means for you:

• Faster, more reliable quote. We’ll flag potential issues and conference with you up-front, well before you ever see a quote.
• Faster prototyping.  Continuous process improvement and a focus on eliminating wasteful processes means that we can turn prototypes in as little as 5-7 days.
• Improved, more innovative designs.  By involving multiple team members with a wide depth and breadth of experience, we’ll more easily identify the best materials and design processes that ensure an efficient and effective design.
• Meet or exceed expectations.  Lean thinking requires us to constantly search for improvements. This frequently results in exceeding the expectations of our customers.
• Reliable, efficient, cost-effective production.  Because our engineers are cross-trained and talk with each other throughout the design and build processes, our production runs are easier and virtually error-free. We may be your ultimate production partners.

Why ISO 9001 Certification?

Studies have shown that certified organizations achieved superior return on assets and superior performance for their customers. This includes cycle time reduction, inventory reductions, and overall process improvements that result in reduced costs and a far greater return on investment.

The Tools of Flex Circuit Design and Manufacturing

MicroConnex engineers are recognized experts in medical devices, MEMS-scale sensors and actuators, and microelectronics.

For example, we have two magnetron sputter sources (sputtering thin films), 6kW DC and 2kW RF, and two planar RF diodes that allow deposition of multiple different materials without breaking vacuum.

Experience and dedication to continuous improvement have enabled us to push our three Laser Micromachining and Laser Drilling systems (ESI 5200, 5300 and 5300HE) beyond the printed specifications of the devices.

Our Knowledge and Experience

All of our engineers are cross-trained. More importantly, they work together as a team from start to finish, ensuring that every process is streamlined and potential issues are flagged up front.

We’ll bring the whole company in if we have to. We simply won’t quit until we’ve found the best possible solution for a customer.”

~ Tai, MicroConnex Applications Engineer

A Continuously Improving Design and Production Process

Aside from the individual experience and accomplishments of our team members, the biggest reason we’re able to provide rapid-fire prototyping and optimum quality medium-volume production is our continuously improving design and production process and methodology.

Lean Thinking Process Improvement Philosophy

Lean thinking, lean process improvement methods, and lean manufacturing are based on the belief that what you, the customer, ultimately want is value. You want a better return on your investment, more assurance that you’re receiving the best possible quality for what you’ve paid, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’ve made a wise decision.

Lean Thinking is the approach we use to bring you that higher value.

It starts with a company-wide philosophy that no process is sacred. Everything can be improved upon, and that means that every person in the company must be involved in process improvement.

How Lean Thinking Works…

When we receive your files, we’ll call in whomever we need to review the specifications. We’ll bring your engineers in on a conference call, or if necessary a Web-based conferencing system, to discuss the specifics, talk through different material possibilities, and identify key processes we can use to help you achieve your goals.

We’ll reconvene internally to fine-tune our ideas. We might call up Value Stream Maps we’ve created to identify possible targets for process improvement specific to your requirements.  Then, we’ll provide you with a quote.

We assign an engineer to move the process through an engineering run. This same engineer will stay with the process all the way through to production, ensuring consistency through all processes. His or her job is to ensure that all processes are built in and consistent at each stage.

“All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”

~ Taiichi Ohno

Once your design is moved to production, we’ll assign a supervisor from each department to verify that all processes are proceeding as planned. Issues or needed variations are spotted and handled immediately, and the Value Process Map is updated as necessary.

Because everyone, including the production crew, is well aware of the end goals for your circuit, we communicate with each other continuously throughout the design and production process. We have no “button pushers” in production.  Every member of our team is cross-trained.

Thus, it’s quite possible that the orientation of a process might be altered so that the work instructions are clearly stated and the actual production process is improved.

We’ll refine and fine-tune the processes along the way. Every member takes personal responsibility for the total value we deliver, instead of merely focusing on his or her individual tasks.  Consequently, even at the end process inspection, our engineers do their own in-process inspections rather than a standard QA check, which won’t offer the same in-process improvements.

The Bottom Line

Cross-trained engineers… Value Stream Mapping… Continuous improvement…

It’s not just the technology that makes a flex circuit design and manufacturing company great. It’s how we use the technology to bring more value to our customers that matters the most.