Flashtalk Technology

August 23, 2010

We have completed a small website project to showcase the capabilities of our sister company, Flashtalk Technology.

Throughout the 1990s, as our products became more complex, and our production volume grew, we used a number of outside firms to manufacture the circuit board assemblies that went in to our products.

The smaller firms we used were responsive and eager for our business, but their quality or technical capability or inventory control were often a problem. We often found it necessary to send our engineers there to monitor their production or troubleshoot problems.

The larger firms in our area generally had none of these problems, but the business we gave them was small in comparison to many of their other customers, and we would face high prices and long lead times. When a big customer came to them with a rush job, our orders would get held up.

All these problems resulted in frequent discussions about bringing electronic assembly in-house.

Finally, in 2001, the vendor we were using was bought by another company that planned to move the operation out of town. They called us with this news and gave us six weeks to find a new supplier. The move also left Blair Hamilton, their production manager, out of a job. He joined us at TimeKeeping Systems to set up our pcb assembly operation, and as they say, the rest is history.

Because electronics manufacturing is so different from our business at Timekeeping Systems, we split it off into a separate company. Flashtalk Technology does manufacturing for TimeKeeping Systems and for other companies in our area.

Starting our own manufacturing operation was one of the best things we've ever done here. All the problems with outside vendors went away. Having our own electronic manufacturing enables us to keep our costs down and maintain a very high level of quality.

See the Flashtalk Technology web site