Manufacturing success—premier contract manufacturers

The South African contract assembly marketplace is a dynamic yet competitive sector. Be that as it may, Durban-based company Production Logix have carved out a niche by providing resources and a pricing structure that makes their services viable for the South African and European markets.

Established by Dave Elston and John Goncalves, initially as a small contract facility aimed at providing prototype services and small volume hand soldered PCB assemblies, Production Logix—ProLogix—has emerged as premiere players on the contract assembly market. The company concentrates solely on their roster of clients (no in-house or company-brand products to facilitate) and manufactures only boards for external original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers.

Prologix operates out of a state-of-the-art custom tailored factory in Westmead in Durban with volumes of PCBs ranging from a one-off prototype up to more than 10 000 units. “We service all market sectors, from military, commercial, industrial and automotive with assemblies used for air borne communications, white goods, water meters, vehicle satellite tracking etc. Most electronic assemblies also interconnect via wiring looms so we also have a harnessing capability which provides a “one stop shop” for our customers.” says Goncalves.

The company runs three SMT assembly lines—one fully integrated high volume line comprising a bare board loader, a Dek Horizon solder paste printer,  an I-Pulse M7-3L multiflex mounter and two I-Pulse M4 flexible mounters, a Vitronics Soltec XMP3 oven and an off loader magazine. There are also two standalone lines for smaller batch runs with one of them featuring an I-Pulse M4e placement machine and the other a Suzuki 1000V. Total placement capacity is 75,000 components per hour with components ranging in complexity from BGA’s and LGA’s to 0201 resistors and capacitors.

Prologix has built its reputation on using the latest manufacturing technology and being able to deliver products quickly with an average turnaround of two to three weeks. “We feel that we are one step ahead of everyone else, as far as technology is concerned, because we keep up with the latest trends in electronics manufacturing,” says Goncalves. “We regularly upgrade our capabilities so that we are always ahead of our customers current requirements and therefore ready for their future requirements.”

Quality control

Proof of this can be seen by the use of automated optical inspection machines or AOI. Prologix has three of these machines and use them to do 100 per cent inspection of all SMT assemblies. Impressively, all inspection data is automatically captured by special statistical software and projected in real time onto a large lcd screen in the department. If the number of detected defects falls outside of set control points, then production is halted until the production engineers rectify the problem.

Most recently Prologix procured and installed a Phoenix X-Ray machine. “The use of an X-Ray  machine as a process and diagnostic tool is basically mandatory if you are serious about providing your customers with suitable service levels” states Elston.

Having grown to what is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s finest contract manufacturers in just over 10 years, it seems the future is bright for Prologix. The company has plans to expand and is actively taking on more South African customers but wants to also take on international clients, and will no doubt succeed in doing so. “For us, we’re finding business very good at the moment. We’re starting to turn on shifts again which is a good sign because it means that there is a lot of sustainable work out there and that is the backbone of any business growth” says Elston.

With a stalwart dedication to customer service and keen technological innovation, Prologix is forging ahead, manufacturing success!

www.prologix.co.za

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