Fast, Flexible, Flawless: How Advanced Pick & Place SMT Fuels ROI

Automated Pick and Place (P&P) Surface Mount Technology (SMT) has come a long way. Once a purely manual-meets-mechanical capability, this technology has advanced in lockstep with the demands of digital evolution, drawing its unparalleled power from breakthroughs in AI, computer vision, motion mapping, and IoT.

For high-volume electronics manufacturing, P&P SMT delivers a dramatically more cost-effective approach to production. It begins with stencils composed of a specialized soldering paste for adhering electrical parts and components (SMDs) directly onto the face of a printed circuit board (PCB). From here, robotic assembly devices (P&P machines) guided by leading-edge digital technologies pick these parts and components up and precisely place them on the board. Last, the boards are fed through a reflow oven to melt the solder and permanently adhere the parts and components to them.

At Pivot International, we are a global product design, development, and manufacturing firm whose extensive investment in digital evolution delivers next-generation P&P SMT solutions for our clients. With DFM expertise across fourteen industries, 320,000 square feet of manufacturing space across three continents, we are a premium partner to clients worldwide.

P&P SMT delivers applications across multiple product categories and is the undisputed electronics manufacturing solution for the medical, industrial, commercial, and consumer markets we serve. How does P&P SMT outcompete traditional manufacturing methods? To answer this question, we need to look at how this technology delivers fast, flexible, and flawless production to drive cost savings, accelerate time-to-market (TTM), and fuel ROI.

Next-Generation P&P SMT is Fast

“Fast” refers to P&P SMT’s ability to increase speed, efficiency, and productivity. If traditional (manual) SMT is the Wylie Coyote of Warner Bros. fame, today’s digitally-driven version is the Road Runner. The fastest P&P SMT machines can swap out modules and handle varying parts and components with lightning-like speed, processing as many as 136,000-200,000 components per hour (cph) — a feat no human worker could ever match.

Thanks to precision APIs and industrialized hardware design, automated P&P SMT can boost productivity by up to four to five times. This promotes exponentially greater efficiency, which cuts costs and expedites product launch.

Advanced P&P SMT also fuels efficiency and productivity by factoring in broader supply chain considerations, business operations, and growth objectives. It is uniquely suited to support strategic planning and resource allocation through analytics that inform process optimization and make organizations leaner and better prepared to manage risk.

Next-Generation P&P SMT is Flexible

This technology has such a wide array of applications across so many markets because it can be precisely programmed. This affords a level of flexibility unmatched by other manufacturing technologies, allowing P&P SMT to accommodate many different types of components and to perform highly variable operations.

This flexibility can be thought of as having both internal and external parameters. Internal parameters (covered above) relate to actual product specifications as programmed for a particular product. External parameters relate to the technology’s relationship to other manufacturing sites and the ability to scale production to market fluctuations or spikes in customer demand. A concrete example of this second sort of flexibility can be seen in Pivot’s investment in high-speed, twinned SMT lines. These lines are located in our Omaha, Nebraska, and Manila Phillippines facilities and enable our customers to flexibly shift and scale production between them to suit their domestic and global distribution needs.

Next-Generation P&P SMT is Flawless

This technology also provides for flawless execution with uncanny levels of accuracy, impossible to achieve with manual dexterity. The optical sensors that guide the robotic assembly devices enable picking and placement with margins of deviation less than 1/10,000th of an inch. (Measurements undetectable to the human eye by many orders of magnitude). For medical, industrial, and complex consumer products, flawless execution is not only a matter of creating superior products and reducing costly quality issues but also of ensuring regulatory compliance.

If you’re looking for a trusted electronics manufacturing partner with next-generation P&P SMT technology, Pivot brings 50 years of product development experience. With five out of our nine subsidiaries deploying this leading-edge technology (Avatar, DigitTron, Castle, EDM, and DCI), we are the go-to partner for your high-volume EMS needs. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your business!

Is Domestic Manufacturing a Viable Alternative for Your Company?

Companies large and small are resorting to drastic measures to ease supply chain pressures. The largest enterprises are paying previously undreamed fees for private charter, mid-size companies are increasingly seeking to build private fleets, and businesses of all sizes are scrambling to find creative solutions to seemingly intractable sourcing problems.

While there’s no single fix for the current supply chain crisis that will benefit every business, domestic manufacturing may be an option that is too quickly taken off the table. While resolving specific supply chain struggles is simply a waiting game, there are viable alternatives that many companies can act on now with the advantage of a domestic supply partner.

Successfully Combatting Disruption for Nearly Half of a Century

At Pivot International, we are a global single-source product development, supply chain, and manufacturing firm with 320,000 square feet of international production space. Pivot has been in business for nearly half of a century, which means that the current crisis is not the first we’ve seen our clients through — not by a long shot.

In the decades preceding the pandemic, we’ve successfully helped clients manage complex risk and defy or significantly buffer supply chain, economic, climatic, and geopolitical disruption. We have accomplished this feat through multiple strategies. Among these strategies is access to competitive China-alternative manufacturing facilities, including flexible options in the Phillippines and the American Midwest.

Domestic Manufacturing: In Some Cases, Simply the Single Best Choice

With domestic manufacturing assuming a level of importance and investment it has not enjoyed in more than thirty years, it can no longer be assumed to be the second-best choice to offshore manufacturing. On the contrary, it may be the single best choice for some companies, period. Determining whether domestic manufacturing is the best choice or simply a viable shorter-term alternative for your company often comes down to asking yourself the following questions.

1. Could domestic manufacturing conceivably solve our supply chain challenges and offer a compelling cost incentive?

Quite naturally, questions of cost are paramount. If the process of choosing a manufacturing partner is looked at as a decision tree, the answer to this question will play the single greatest role in how you navigate its branchings. But it bears repeating: take care that you don’t reach a no without conducting extensive due diligence. Many companies write off a domestic partner on the basis that the part or component they need for their product isn’t available or manufacturable in the U.S. within any reasonable time, at any reasonable cost.

While this may be true, even this fact may not be the end of the line. At Pivot, for example, our in-house Design-For-Manufacture teams are known for our innovative engineering hacks. These hacks enable your product to function and perform flawlessly with a part or component that is available or can be manufactured in the immediate future at a reasonable cost. What’s more, when considering broader supply chain costs and your company’s value chain, domestic manufacturing can come out as the clear winner to offshoring.

2. If something significant changes in the supply chain or market, can we flexibly scale or even toggle production between domestic and offshore locations?

Agility in manufacturing is critical to remaining competitive, which is why Pivot offers flexible manufacturing options to rapidly scale production to changing circumstances and market demand. Whether you’re looking for small lot sizes to make your operations more lean and your products more customizable, or large lots to drive maximum cost-savings, our domestic manufacturing locations handle a wide range of production runs to ensure the most economical lot size for your needs. Moreover, if a hybrid approach to manufacturing best serves your company, Pivot’s investment in twinned mirror-mount SMT lines enables you to toggle production between our U.S. and Phillippines-based facilities.

3. How important to our team is the ease of communication with our partner?

For decades, offshoring has brought many advantages, but the ease of communication is generally not one of them. Every phase of NPD involves dozens if not hundreds of complex communications. When you add a language barrier to this equation — or even differing cultural conversational styles — miscommunication becomes that much likelier. At worst, miscommunications can be very costly. At best, they can significantly complicate the process of launching a new product.

4. Are internal oversight and onsite access a priority for us?

Another thing to consider when determining whether a domestic manufacturing partner is the right choice for your company is whether operational transparency is a priority. Unless your partner owns their production space, it’s extremely difficult for them to effectively “mind the shop” to ensure strict compliance and quality control. At Pivot, not only do we own our facilities, our central U.S. location makes it incredibly easy for your team to be onsite. From anywhere in the country, it’s just a short trip to our ISO– and IEC-certified facilities to see for yourself exactly where your project stands. (Pivot delivers ISO 9001:2015, 80079-34, IEC 60601-1, and many more, including FDA registration.)

Domestic manufacturing doesn’t hold all the answers to the current supply chain crisis, but it can be a cost-competitive solution to current challenges for many companies. If you’d like to learn more about how Pivot can support your growth goals and product launch, contact us today.

The Global Chip Crisis is Driving Investment in Domestic Manufacturing

The global chip crisis appears to have reached a crescendo. Opinions vary on how long it will last. Analysts with optimistic estimates are betting on improvement in early 2022, while those with more pessimistic outlooks are placing their bets on late 2024. Though it’s likely the reality lies somewhere in between, the forecast disparity is a testament to how uncertain the situation remains.

Crossing Divides

Surprisingly, supply chain uncertainty has spawned certainty about one thing: the dangers of U.S. dependency on China-based high-tech manufacturing. “America First” is rapidly becoming a supply chain battle cry. Incentivized by massive government subsidiaries, policymakers, and industry leaders across the political spectrum are crossing party divides and beginning to function as a unified front to drive a resurgence in domestic manufacturing. But although the U.S. appears to be headed in the right direction, not even corporate recipients of massive government subsidies can move quickly enough to stop the bleeding. (Take Intel’s two new $20 billion Arizona-based fabs that won’t be fully operational till mid-2024.)

Domestic Investment and Global Supply Chain

Despite the political, economic, and supply chain decoupling we’re seeing between the U.S. and China, this doesn’t imply that offshoring is going the way of the dinosaur. Offshore manufacturing will likely always play a key role in U.S. economic might, so the problem isn’t one of either/or but of both/and. The global supply chain will remain just that: global, but it will be characterized by increasing degrees of decentralization aided by the latest in blockchain technologies. For example, at Pivot International, we leverage this both/and approach with 320,000 combined square feet of domestic and offshore manufacturing capability.

Diversified Sourcing is About Much More Than Managing Risk

Even if a supply chain utopia existed, access to a diversified supply network — including domestic and offshore manufacturing options — represents a company’s best bet at driving cost-efficiencies and managing risk.

The Advantages of Domestic Manufacturing

Independent of its role in managing risk and reducing U.S. dependency on China-based suppliers, domestic manufacturing delivers a host of advantages that can make it a superior choice in any supply chain climate. These advantages include:

Circumventing VAT

The U.S. is one of the few countries that does not levy Value Added Tax (VAT), the tax applied to almost every link in the broader supply chain. Because VAT can apply to so many variables, companies often underestimate its cost and impact on their investment. Partnering with a domestic supplier can circumvent many VAT costs and better protect your margins.

Avoiding or Reducing Tariffs

Working with a domestic manufacturing partner for all or part of your product development needs can eliminate tariffs or significantly reduce them.

Keeping Container and Shipping Costs in Check

In the wake of “Containergeddon,” the role of domestic manufacturing in making an end-run around these risks is now painfully obvious. But putting container shortages and the resultant sticker shock aside, domestic sourcing can help companies avoid ocean container costs altogether, which are among the heftiest shipping expenses.

Manufacturing in the American Midwest — Often a Superior Solution

When it comes to cost-competitiveness, Midwest manufacturing can often outperform coastal manufacturing for two reasons. First, because the midwest is a central hub for logistics and e-commerce, it beats the “In” and “Out” costs of almost any other area of the country.

Second, coastal cities almost always represent the greatest concentration of wealth (and thus notoriously high costs of living.) This means that the operational costs of coastal manufacturing can be much higher than in the midwest, and these costs are passed along to customers. At Pivot, our customers have often been surprised to receive quotes from us that have been dramatically lower than those they’ve received from coastal manufacturers. And among other benefits of manufacturing in the Midwest, they appreciate how easy it is to be quickly onsite in our Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri facilities within a matter of hours from anywhere in the U.S.
Domestic Manufacturing Is Assuming Unprecedented Importance

With port disruption, supply shortages, and trade tensions mounting, domestic manufacturing is assuming unprecedented importance. And this recognition is driving extensive investment in the sector for the first time in decades.

At Pivot, we are proud to be playing a role in securing U.S. supply chains and providing our clients with multiple solutions to complex NPD and sourcing challenges. With nearly fifty years of experience across fourteen industries, industry-leading Design-for-Manufacturing talent, and a one-source business model to simplify and streamline your NPD, we are the U.S.-based global partner you’ve been looking for.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you move your NPD successfully forward, contact us today for a no-cost consultation!

We look forward to working with you!

Critical Questions to Answer When Selecting a Domestic Manufacturing Partner

Selecting a domestic manufacturing partner has become increasingly challenging in the wake of pandemic-driven economic and regulatory changes. While the choice to offshore manufacturing used to be all but a foregone conclusion, businesses are increasingly confronted with complex cost equations that call this choice into serious question. And for companies at the beginning of new product development, the choice can be even more complex.

At Pivot International, we’re a U.S.-based one-source product design, development, manufacturing, and supply chain management partner. What we often refer to as our top “superpower” — DFM (design for manufacturing) — has driven award-winning innovations across fourteen industries. And although we began nearly fifty years ago in the American midwest, we have become a global leader with product solutions across three continents. (Including multiple American manufacturing facilities in Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri.)

When researching domestic partners to solve your manufacturing cost-equation, you’ll need to answer questions related to four critical considerations:

• Cost-Effectiveness
• Quality Control
• Track Record
• Convenience, Communication, and Access

Let’s take a look at each to understand why they’re important, how they fit together, and how selecting a domestic manufacturing partner can be an advantageous choice.

Cost-Effectiveness Of Domestic Manufacturing

Let’s talk about why cost considerations can be one of the trickier parts of solving your manufacturing equation. Even though there’s no question that you can get offshore supply chain advantages here at home, all domestic manufacturing partners are not created equal. (Depending on where they’re located, there can be substantial cost differentials between domestic partners.)

For instance, compared to the costs of coastal manufacturing, midwest manufacturing is the clear winner for two reasons. First, the midwest, particularly Kansas City (where Pivot is based), is a logistics and e-commerce hub. This means that “In” and “Out” costs are the most cost-competitive in the country.

Second, compared to cities in the midwest, coastal cities are notorious for their high cost of living. This impacts manufacturing customers’ bottom lines since workers in coastal cities command much higher wages than their midwest counterparts. (This forces coast manufacturers to charge a premium to be profitable, externalizing their employment costs to customers.) At Pivot, many of our customers have expressed their surprise (and relief) at finding we could offer far more cost-effective solutions than the coastal partners they’d consulted.

Quality Control

Cost-effectiveness goes hand in hand with quality control. Questions of cost-effectiveness are less about the question, “can we do it for less?” and more about, “can we keep costs down while keeping quality up?” Achieving consistently high quality is never a matter of chance but of ensuring the proper controls are in place. At Pivot, our Quality Management Systems and Policies meet the requirements of ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, ISO 80079-34, and IEC 60601-1. We are also FDA Registered, UL Listed, and CSA Approved. We are compliant with WEEE, Conflict Minerals, Prop 65, REACH, and RoHS regulations.

Track Record

The right certifications are essential, but experience counts every bit as much when it comes to delivering a product destined for market success. When selecting a domestic partner, you’ll want one that’s not only helped customers successfully weather crisis and chaos but has helped them succeed in the midst of it. (After all, if your manufacturing partner has a track record of delivering solutions and fueling customer success even in adverse times, you can trust your company is in good hands.) At Pivot, our near half-century worth of experience has seen our customers through many storms — economic, geopolitical, and pandemic. In the last year alone, our alternative sourcing solutions have buffered our customers from the worst of pandemic-driven disruption.

Convenience, Communication, and Access

When companies are researching a domestic manufacturing partner, they can easily overlook elements without a clear price tag attached. These elements can not only impact costs and concrete outcomes. They can also be the difference between peace of mind and an extended headache. When researching a domestic partner, ask yourself how closely they’ll collaborate with you and your team? Do they offer visibility into their operations and keep you reliably appraised of where things stand? Do they speak your language, or will you need to navigate a language barrier? How about their work ethic? (Do they have a solid reputation and “walk their talk”?) Lastly, is your partner near your time zone? Can you be on site within a matter of hours from nearly anywhere in the U.S.? Pivot’s midwest-based product development and manufacturing enable our partners to answer a resounding yes to each of these questions.

There are many reasons why a domestic partner can help you successfully solve your manufacturing cost equation. If you’re ready to enter the production phase of your product development or are simply seeking a one-source partner for your end-to-end product needs, we deliver the solutions for you! Contact us today for a no-cost consultation!

Advanced Pick & Place SMT Automation

Want to Increase Productivity, Reduce Costs, and Accelerate TTM?
Choose a Partner With Advanced Pick & Place Surface Mount Technology Automation

Automated Pick and Place (P&P) Surface Mount Technology (SMT) has made incredible advances in the last ten years by combining artificial intelligence, computer vision, motion mapping, and IoT technologies to provide a dramatically more efficient and cost-effective approach to high-volume production.

Advanced P&P SMT works by applying surface-mount devices (SMDs) onto a printed circuit board (PCB). It is the most efficient and effective electronic manufacturing solution for medical, industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. And it has applications across a broad array of product categories.

At Pivot International, our extensive investment in digital transformation provides state-of-the-art P&P SMT solutions. As a leading product design, development, manufacturing, and global supply chain management company, we deploy advanced P&P SMT to help our partners create some of the world’s most exciting and award-winning products. With one-source expertise across fourteen industries and 320,000 square feet of tri-continental manufacturing might, we are a premium partner to clients worldwide.

How does advanced P&P SMT enhance efficiency, drive cost savings, and accelerate time-to-market (TTM) at a rate well above and beyond traditional methods? Let’s take a look.

Increased Productivity

Advanced P&P SMT automation delivers speed that leaves manual P&P in the dust, swapping out modules and handling different parts and components with dizzying speed. The fastest P&P SMT machines can process as many as 136,000-200,000 components per hour (cph) — exponentially more than a human worker.

Using precision APIs and industrialized hardware design, automated P&P SMT can increase productivity by four to five times. And as the saying goes, time is money. The faster a product can be created, the faster it can be delivered to market. Whether this applies to the launch of a new product or simply the need to ramp up production in response to market demand, advanced P&P SMT is a critical part of the overall success equation.

Flexible Manufacturing

Advanced P&P SMT can be programmed according to precise specifications to flexibly accommodate a wide variety of components and to perform a wide array of operations. This flexibility applies not only to product parameters but also to actual manufacturing sites and the ability to scale production to demand. For example, Pivot’s investment in high-speed, twinned SMT lines in its US-based Omaha, NE facilities, as well as in its South Asia, Philippines-based Manila facilities, enables customers who distribute globally to flexibly shift and scale production between them.

Flawless Execution

Advanced P&P SMT also provides for uncanny levels of accuracy unmatched by the human eye or manual dexterity. Using optical sensors, these devices essentially perform an incredibly precise “target lock” from which to perform the next step of their activity. Advanced P&P SMT is so accurate that its margin of deviation is less than 1/10,000th of an inch. Not only does this level of precision and accuracy result in a better, more competitive product, it dramatically reduces quality issues.

Optimized Resource Allocation

Advanced P&P SMT works hand in hand with broader supply chain considerations, business operations, and more significant growth goals. Its speed, efficiency, and flexibility support strategic planning and resource allocation. For example, advanced P&P SMT can make organizations leaner by reducing the need for human workers. Conversely, they can free up these workers to invest their time and focus in areas of greater value. What’s more, advanced P&P SMT provides analytics that are essential to business intelligence, risk management, process optimization, innovation, and more. When advanced P&P SMT automation is combined with human ingenuity and insight, the benefits of each can be realized to their fullest.

If you’re looking for a trusted product development and manufacturing partner with the latest in P&P SMT automation, Pivot brings nearly a half-century of experience. With nine subsidiaries, including five that employ this winning technology (Avatar, DigitTron, Castle, EDM, and DCI), Pivot is the answer to your high-volume electronics manufacturing needs. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow!

Small vs. Large Lot Sizes: How Scalable Manufacturing Gives You the Best of Both

While it’s commonly understood that small and large lot sizes each have distinct advantages, how to get the best of both is not.

The choice between small and large lot sizes is best approached from a both/and perspective. But for many companies, this choice is often seen as either/or. This assumption is not always unfounded: many manufacturing partners lack the capability to deliver the best of both. The reasons for this are twofold: First, they may lack the facilities and technology. Second, they may lack the in-house DFM expertise (Design For Manufacture) that ensures an innovation is optimized for flexible and scalable manufacturing.

At Pivot International, every product we create starts with a consideration of the end — of how design translates to manufacture. With 320,000 square feet of manufacturing across seven company-owned facilities located in three continents, we enable our partners to flexibly scale production in response to fluctuating demand and changing market conditions. Whether you need manufacturing of prototypes, all the way through large-scale production, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s look at the advantages of small and large lot sizes and how to get the best of both.

Small Lot Sizes

While small lot sizes have traditionally been reserved for customized or quasi-customized products, small lot sizes can sometimes make sense for “plug and play” products as well. For instance, while modular or fairly simple products will almost always call for large lot sizes, small lots can be used for optional customization further down the chain. While it’s generally more cost-effective to manufacture in large lots, small lot sizes can come with hidden benefits.

Small lots reduce excess inventory and warehouse storage costs and all but eliminate waste. They simplify scheduling and can enhance quality. Regardless of whether the product in question is MTO (Made To Order) or MTS (Make To Stock), small lots can be an essential part of lean manufacturing strategy.

Large Lot Sizes

Though large lots do not allow for customization and can come with high inventory and warehousing costs, manufacturing in bulk is highly cost-effective and the obvious choice for a wide range of consumer, industrial, and medical products. Other advantages include reduced variability and the ability to ship products on demand.

ELS (Economic Lot Size)

It’s critically important to understand the various advantages afforded by small and large lot sizes; however, a bigger question needs to be addressed. This question concerns ELS (Economic Lot Size) and the flexibility and agility required for driving down COGS by scaling production in response to fluctuating demand and changing market conditions.

To illustrate, say a company forecasts product demand at 500 units for the coming year but learns that the most cost-effective lot size is 1,000. This means that two years’ worth of inventory will need to be stored and managed. If market demand drops significantly in this time, the business selling this product is likely in for some serious trouble. If this business had selected a manufacturing partner that offered flexible production runs from the beginning, a drop in demand would be a far less risky proposition.

On the other hand, if you’re a successful startup company that is slowly breaking new ground, penetrating new markets, and manufacturing in small lots in response to customer demand. Suppose the product takes off and demand suddenly spikes. In that case, the startup will need a manufacturing partner with the flexibility to increase lot size and rapidly ramp up production to capitalize on this unexpected growth opportunity.

Scalable Manufacturing Solutions

At Pivot, our nearly fifty years of experience spans over fourteen industries, including consumer, industrial, and medical. We are the proven partner behind a wealth of internationally award-winning innovations that put our clients on the map and drive their companies’ growth. With in-house DFM expertise and scalable manufacturing capability in U.S., European, and Asian markets (including alternatives to China), we help you deliver a successful product to market, on time, and on budget. To learn more about our collaborative approach to product development, contact us today!

Midwest Manufacturing:
Why it’s a Winning Bet for Your Business

You’ve spent months or even years developing your product, and now it’s time to start looking for a manufacturing partner. Or maybe you haven’t yet begun to develop your product and are looking for an integrative partner who can take you from conception to launch, handling everything in between.

At Pivot International, we’re an integrative leader in product design, development, manufacturing, and supply chain management. Our DFM (design for manufacturing) expertise is behind dozens of award-winning products across fourteen industries. Although we’re headquartered and have manufacturing facilities in the heart of the American midwest (Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri), we are a global leader with product solutions for markets across three continents.

The search for a manufacturing partner will need to include considerations of cost, quality control, and scope of experience. It will also need to include considerations of technological investment, ease of communication, and site access. Let’s look at how each fits together in an integrative model and why a midwest manufacturing partner can be an incredibly advantageous choice.

Cost Competitiveness of Midwest Manufacturing

Midwest manufacturing tends to offer clear cost advantages over coastal manufacturing for two reasons. First, the midwest in general and Kansas City in particular (where we’re based) is a central hub for logistics and e-commerce, making “In” and “Out” costs among the lowest in the country.

Second, the cost-of-living in coastal cities is higher than in the midwest. This means that companies in coastal areas necessarily pay their employees a higher-than-average wage. This cost is externalized to customers, which gives coastal manufacturers their reputation for being considerably more expensive than their midwest counterparts. At Pivot, customers have repeatedly told us stories of receiving prohibitively costly quotes from coastal manufacturers, only to find we could offer a significantly more cost-effective solution.

Quality Control

Of course, if cost were the only consideration, choosing a manufacturing partner wouldn’t be such a big decision. You’ll also need to factor quality-control into the equation. Our Quality Management Systems and Policies are consistent with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, ISO 80079-34, and IEC 60601-1. We are also FDA Registered, UL Listed, and CSA Approved. We are compliant with WEEE, Conflict Minerals, Prop 65, REACH, and RoHS regulations.

Experience and Expertise

You want a midwest manufacturing partner with decades of experience that knows the industry, inside and out, and has seen customers through thick and thin. At Pivot, we bring nearly a half-century of proven experience and expertise across fourteen industries. We’ve been around long enough to have solved thousands of challenges and weathered many storms — economic, geopolitical, and pandemic. This means we’re experts in employing advanced risk management strategies to protect our companies and our customers, even in the worst of times.

Technology Investment

Even if your partner is a green light in terms of cost, quality, and experience, have they invested in the latest digital technologies, including digital twinning, AI, AR, VR, blockchain, and more? Do they have the technological capability to handle both small and large production runs, as well as the ability to alternate between them flexibly? Can your partner scale production to real-time demand? (This is especially crucial when attempting to capitalize on unpredictable demand curves and rapidly appearing market opportunities.)

Ease of Communication and Site Access

Let’s think about less tangible but no less critical considerations. Is your partner easy to work with? (Do they take a collaborative approach and keep you in the loop on where things stand?) Do they speak your language? (Not just product-wise, but literally — will you need to deal with a language barrier?) Does your partner have a reputation for having an impeccable work ethic? (Do they walk their talk about doing whatever it takes to come through for you?) And is your partner near your time zone? When you opt for Pivot’s midwest-based product development and manufacturing, you’ll be able to answer yes to every one of these questions.

We hire talent that brings advanced design and engineering expertise to the table and the ability to work well with people. Because our teams specialize in DFM, we know the product development process from end to end. This, combined with the lack of a language barrier, makes our teams incredibly easy to collaborate with. We’re also less than one-day travel from anywhere in the US. You can jump on a plane, or in your car, and be onsite to meet the team or check on your project in a matter of hours.

There are countless reasons why midwest manufacturing is a winning bet for your business. If you’d like to learn even more about how our integrative, one-source model can help your product successfully cross the finish line, contact us today for a no-cost consultation!

Cyber Attacks in Manufacturing – Here’s How to Protect Your Company

Manufacturers are the number one industry target for cyber attacks. Is your product and company data safe? That’s a question you need to ask since the 2020 State of Encrypted Attacks identified manufacturing as the industry most vulnerable to malicious browser breaches. (It found that 38.6% of attacks were targeted at this sector.)

Manufacturing’s unique vulnerability lies in its tendency toward fragmentation and technological obsolescence. Fragmentation refers to the fact that the various facilities of single manufacturers are rarely on the same page. More often than not, each facility is using different systems and IT infrastructures with no coordinated oversight, integrative processes, or policy enforcement between them.

Moreover, much of the manufacturing industry is struggling with the technological obsolescence of legacy network equipment. This equipment preceded the digital revolution and was never designed to defend against data breaches. Between fragmentation and technological obsolescence, manufacturers’ security systems have as many holes as swiss cheese, and cyber “rats” are quick to take the bait.

At Pivot International, we are a global one-source manufacturer, product development, and supply chain company with integrative operations and extensive investment in the latest digital technologies. These technologies include mirror-mounted twinned SMT, blockchain, AI, and more. Centralized coordination and oversight are built into our business model and technology stack. This ensures we achieve alignment across all our company-owned facilities and afford our partners maximum data security.

What signs can manufacturers watch for that may indicate an attempted attack?

One of the most popular phishing approaches is impersonating a respected brand or trusted company’s tech support team. Here’s how the ploy works: Hackers cripple your system, and then — like a criminal who remains at the scene of the crime — pose as an innocent source of support for solving it.

This good cop/bad cop game is played using malicious web redirects from compromised websites. Suddenly, you receive a pop-up alerting you that your system has been hacked, along with a “helpful” offer from “Microsoft” to “fix” it — provided you first issue a credit card number.

From there, things quickly go from bad to worse. Phishing is only the first stage in a far more elaborate plot to succeed at credential theft that continues through email attempts at deception. If the user bites, the system is rendered defenseless against malware installation, and eventually, to corporate data theft.

Manufacturers need visibility into and the ability to monitor all the users and the nooks and crannies of their networks. “As more traffic is encrypted, it is mission-critical to inspect all of the traffic,” explains, Deepen Dasia, CISO and VP of security research at Zscaler, “a proxy-based architecture with a multilayer defense-in-depth strategy that fully supports SSL inspection is essential to an organization’s security approach, regardless of size.”

What other ways can manufacturers protect themselves?

• Use cloud-native proxy-based architecture to inspect every user across all traffic to decrypt, detect, and prevent threats in all SSL traffic.
• Deploy AI-driven quarantine measures to contain suspicious activity, store it for analysis, and stop malware installation.
• End fragmentation by adopting technology that ensures all your facilities and users fall under a unified network umbrella of IT infrastructure and security.
• Play it close to the vest. Use apps — which, by definition, are not detectable to attackers — to allow authorized access to resources and data without exposing the entire network.

Are you looking for a trusted partner to help you bring a new product to market?

Pivot brings nearly a half-century of product development experience and DFM expertise that spans over fourteen industries and 320,000 square feet of manufacturing across three continents. Pivot is the proven partner and driving force behind some of the world’s most successful and award-winning innovations. If you’d like to learn more about how Pivot can support your growth objectives, contact us today for a no-cost consultation!

The Changing Trade Climate: 5 Steps for Helping Industrial Manufacturers Move Forward

The current conditions of global trade represent a divergence from thirty years of manufacturing trends. The globalization of manufacturing, combined with bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, has transformed what were once linear supply chains into complex trans-national networks. With continually shifting trade regulations related to ongoing US-China tensions and COVID-19, industrial manufacturers need to be aware of the implications of various trade scenarios.

With our nearly fifty-year track record of helping businesses design, develop, engineer, manufacture, and distribute successful products, Pivot International delivers proven supply chain and compliance solutions to challenges posed by changing trade policies and COVID-19 disruption.

Pivot provides 200,000 square feet of manufacturing capability across three continents and product development expertise that spans twelve industries. By deploying the latest in digital technologies and agile manufacturing practices, Pivot enables its partners to rapidly respond to dynamic trade conditions and market demands to maximize cost savings and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

What trade scenarios are most likely to take shape?

There are three possible trade scenarios that will impact global manufacturing, two of which involve heightened trade tensions.

By analyzing global trade regions in China, North America, Europe, and ASEAN countries in relation to the US, we can assess tariff-impacts on industrial manufactured goods to reveal the following:

Possibility 1: 2019 tariff-levels persist
Possibility 2: 10% additional tariff levied on 2019 tariff-levels
Possibility 3: 25% additional tariff levied on 2019 tariff-levels

5 Steps for Helping Industrial Manufacturers Move Forward

• 1. Be vigilant about tracking trade changes. Manufacturers impacted by global trade policies need to ensure they’re staying on top of changing import and export regulations. This will help them defend against non-compliance, proactively reconfigure their sourcing network, and identify new market opportunities.
• 2. Identify and overcome barriers to supply chain mapping. This activity is essential for increasing supply chain security. Although it can be time-intensive and difficult, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Ensure disruption metrics are included in supplier-performance metrics. Failing to do so exposes your business to otherwise avoidable hazards.
• 3. Identify opportunities for alternative sourcing. The possibility of tariff-escalation makes a diverse supply network more critical than ever. As COVID-19 made abundantly clear, having your eggs in multiple baskets is a competitive advantage in the best of times, but is also vital to survival in the worst. With China continuing to be ground zero for trade tensions, it’s particularly important to identify alternative sourcing solutions.
• 4. Deploy advanced digital technologies. This includes AI, blockchain platforms, augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing, digital twinning, and more. When strategically combined, these technologies drive productivity, increase cost-savings, and reduce risk.
• 5. Close knowledge and skills gaps. Coupled with COVID-19, trade tensions, and the new policy changes they are giving rise to are confronting companies with knowledge and skills gaps that they lack the talent to close. (For example, while many companies have in-house prototype and concept engineering, they lack the DFM engineering that is critical to cost-savings.) These companies will require partners with integrative operations that can deliver end-to-end product development, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions.

If you’re looking for a proven partner with advanced supply chain solutions and the latest digital technologies to help your company defy disruption and bring innovative products to market, Pivot can help. Pivot brings IEC (60601-1) and ISO certification (9001:2015, 13485:2016, and ISO 80079-34), FDA registration, UL listing, and CSA approval. Contact us today for a free consultation and learn more about how we can help your company grow in challenging times.

COVID-19 Has Sent Manufacturing Trends Into Hyperdrive: Here are the Ones to Watch

The impacts of COVID-19 have added rocket fuel to manufacturing trends that were already rapidly picking up speed. These trends are now in hyperdrive and companies that recognize the significance of this acceleration and act accordingly stand to gain appreciable competitive advantage. How businesses respond to disruption in the next year will largely determine their fate for the next decade.

At Pivot International, we’re helping companies worldwide forge the future of their business and reshape a rapidly evolving industry. With advanced digitization, including AI, IoT, blockchain, VR, AR, and SMT technologies, we bring over 200,000 square feet of manufacturing capability across three continents and supply chain solutions for surmounting disruption and navigating a post-COVID world. With nearly 50 years of experience in bringing successful products to market that span twelve industries, we’re helping to position our partners to seize opportunity and grow their business in times of challenge.

What trends, challenges, and opportunities should companies keep their eyes on? Here are some manufacturing trends that top our list:

An Increase of Mergers and Acquisitions

With supply chains already strained by ongoing trade-tensions prior to COVID-19, more and more supply relations have been stretched to their breaking point. For many companies, this presents a prime opportunity for innovation, expansion, or both. An acceleration of mergers and acquisitions will continue as fewer companies command a share of the playing field.

Agility and Innovation as Core Competencies for the New Normal

COVID-19 disruption exposed and widened the gaps between global challenges and the industry’s capacity to close them. As waves of disruption rippled throughout the industry, companies scrambled to secure disintegrating supply chains, improvising with alternative sourcing, repurposing their production lines, and thinking outside the box of “business as usual.” Companies that wish to immunize themselves against disruption and remain competitive in the emerging manufacturing landscape will have to make this kind of agility and innovation a permanent part of their operations.

Supply Network Transparency and Cross-Company Integration

For years, many companies have paid lip service to the need for greater supply chain diversity and predictability. But as COVID-19 disruption reached critical mass and supply streams ran dry, the proverbial chickens came home to roost. Few companies survived unscathed, causing them to take the imperative of supply network transparency and cross-company integration even more seriously. Companies must look both upstream and downstream to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From raw materials to components to assemblies to prototypes and fully-fledged products, cross-company integration is the new order of the day.

Local Sourcing and On-Demand Manufacturing Technologies

Between the trade wars and COVID-19, the 25-year trend toward Chinese manufacturing will begin to reverse as security-sensitive sourcing and production migrates west and becomes increasingly localized. For non-consumer parts and products, especially, regional protectionism will be factor prominently. To support localization, robotization, additive manufacturing, and other on-demand technologies will see a spike in growth with wider adoption.

Companies’ supply chains and margins are under unprecedented pressure. To defy disruption and maintain and build market share on an increasingly competitive playing field, leaders must remain watchful for opportunities to profit from accelerating trends. By tracking mergers and acquisitions, making agility and innovation a core competency, achieving greater supply chain transparency and cross-company integration, and — where it makes sense — shifting to local or on-demand manufacturing, companies can adaptively respond to changing demand curves and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

If you’re seeking a proven partner for defying disruption, getting a project back on track, achieving the first-to-market advantage, or making a strategic play to dramatically improve your competitive position, Pivot delivers the solutions you’ve been looking for. We’ve provided the product design, engineering, development, manufacturing, and distribution know-how for some of the world’s most innovative companies. Contact us today to see the difference we can make to yours.