Brexit, Chipageddon, a global pandemic and now a war in Eastern Europe; the manufacturing industry has experienced more supply chain disruption in the last few years than many nowadays can remember. It’s led to both manufacturers’ just-in-time (JIT) inventory models and their reliance on Far Eastern suppliers being called into question.
But among all the turbulence, there are firms that have not only remained resilient and operational, but also used the situation as an opportunity to focus on adding value internally and externally.
One such company is Hampshire-based G&B Electronics, a contract electronics manufacturer that produces printed circuit board assemblies, or PCBAs, for clients across a number of industries, including aerospace, audio, the medical sector and more. The Manufacturer caught up with sisters Laura McBrown and Kate Sharp, Managing Director and HR Director respectively at G&B, to find out how the electronics firm – which they took over from their father, George McBrown, around seven years ago – has weathered the storm of the past two years.
Empower your people and they will delight your customers
Laura outlined how, despite the challenges G&B has experienced over the last two years, the company has continued to focus on its staff and building a culture that encourages and facilitates learning and development.
“We have a passion for helping our people achieve their full potential”, Laura said. “We encourage our team to throw their hats into the ring for different projects, opportunities and promotions, and this shines through in the work they do.”
Laura added: “Because our people genuinely care about what they do, it reflects in the products and service our clients receive”. She explained how G&B has been focusing on doing a better job to make their clients’ manufacturing as easy and slick as possible. This includes helping clients with design for manufacture to enable them to be the best they can possibly be.
“With everything that’s gone on over the last two years and everything that’s happening in the markets at the moment, if it weren’t for team G&B and the way that they genuinely care about what they do and their passion for the products, then I’m sure we would be in a much worse position than we’re in now”, Laura said.
It’s also interesting to note how passionate G&B is about promoting equality in manufacturing. Its team comprises 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men on both the shop floor and in the leadership team. Promoting and encouraging equality is another area where G&B is particularly passionate.
G&B Electronics’ workforce comprises 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men on both the shop floor and in the leadership team. Credit: G&B Electronics.
Adding value and building trust around the supply chain again
Laura also spoke about one potential silver lining of the events of the past two years, saying that the value of manufacturing is being realised once more.
“We are often judged on price alone and that’s something we have a passion to change. Our industry contributes significant value, but due to the non-disclosure agreements we are often all under, no one is truly aware of how things work until something like this happens”.
“We have all benefited from JIT stock systems but ultimately someone at the bottom of the chain is sitting on stock. During the pandemic these stocks have been run down, factories closed and team members let go. We are now in a fight for the parts and talent that we need.”
One of the steps G&B took during the uncertainty was to reach out and proactively forewarn its clients about potential supply disruptions.
“We could see how the situation was unfolding and we took the time to talk to our clients about how we could help them mitigate risk and get in front of the problem”.
For example, Laura explained how G&B worked with their clients on everything from the process of creating a risk-based schedule to implementing a buffer stock of “at risk” parts that automatically replenishes until they feel comfortable to run the additional stock down. G&B also agreed bespoke decision making frameworks with each client to be clear about how they can proceed when securing stock at a premium prices, without giving their clients any nasty price surprises.
G&B Electronics produces printed circuit board assemblies, or PCBAs, for clients across a number of industries, including aerospace, audio, the medical sector and more from its base in Bordon. Credit: G&B Electronics.
Revising the amount of safety stock they hold has been a focus for manufacturers in recent times. Indeed, according to research by Unleashed, the amount of stock held by UK SME manufacturers has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic. Overall value of stock rose by 34 per cent between 2020 and 2022, while overall domestic demand dropped 6.8 per cent. Average product value remained consistent.
As Unleashed points out: ‘With stock value rising and demand falling, the data suggests many SME manufacturers are now moving towards a ‘just in case’ model, as they look to manage shipping costs, boost resilience, improve flexibility and increase their financial buffers’.
How much do G&B’s clients appreciate the contract electronics manufacturer? Well, one of its clients actually arranged for the entire G&B team to have afternoon tea at Christmas. They invested time, effort and money into ensuring Team G&B enjoyed a lovely afternoon. They didn’t have to. They did though because that’s how much they appreciate everything G&B does for them.
More intuitive planning and reduced disruption with the help of technology
Kate then explained how G&B is currently working on a large project to implement new technology on site – Access FactoryMaster MRP, Access Orchestrate and Access Financials.
AccessFactoryMaster MRP. Image courtesy of The Access Group.
“Our current system wasn’t allowing us to plan effectively, which made things quite challenging on the shop floor. With Access Orchestrate, we can plan for people as well as machines, overlap operations, put more than one person on a job, split jobs and have greater visibility and editing control across our whole production operations”, she said.
“Particularly with the component availability problem, once fully implemented, Access Orchestrate is going to make an enormous difference”, Kate said. Laura added: “In our industry, what matters is price, on time delivery, performance, and quality. We’ve nailed quality and our clients are very happy with that. But if we can’t accurately tell our clients when they’re going to get their products or help them capitalise on an “unplanned opportunity”, then we’ve got a problem”.
By leveraging Access Orchestrate, G&B can use data to make smarter decisions and better plan its production.
“We need to be able to have a system that we can look at and say if we do this and put extra resources/time here, we can tell our client ‘yes’”, Laura said. “If we have that flexibility within our planning system and have full visibility of what we’re doing when it comes to jobs running concurrently, it’s a game changer”, Laura added.
Moving to Access FactoryMaster MRP at the same time made sense – “it’s simple to use and intuitive; It will make life a lot easier in the long run”.
Streamline your operations and build a solid foundation for growth with Access Manufacturing software – learn more.
