The Reach Solution

Any company that produces a product containing electronic assemblies has a buy vs build choice. Companies with core competency other than electronics hardware generally have to make do with what is available "off-the-shelf" or try and persuade an existing manufacturer to customize an existing product for them. This can be difficult and frustrating. Even companies that are capable of designing and producing their own assemblies sometimes don’t have the resources to do everything in-house.

Reach has provided solutions to companies that make products ranging from automated ticket vending machines to medical devices to semiconductor processing equipment. In such cases the core competency may be in sales, a specific medical technology, or an industrial process. What these companies have in common is a need to use electronics to control equipment and connect it to the outside world. They don’t necessarily want to become experts in embedded processing, networking, or flat panels in order to produce their products. If standard PC hardware and software is adequate, then it is by far the best way to go. Yet the PC world moves at a breakneck pace that what is readily available today may be impossible to find tomorrow. For companies that cannot use standard components either for functional or long term availability issues, Reach can bridge the technology gap and fill in the missing pieces.

Reach’s advanced design and manufacturing concept has proven to be popular for OEMs who assemble their products from externally supplied sub-assemblies to simplify manufacturing operations. The alternative is to hire a design engineering firm and then use a contract manufacturer to build the product. This requires a lot of in-house expertise to oversee the design and then make sure the manufacturing transfer happens smoothly. Problems can easily occur when the designer doesn’t have to build the product and the manufacturer doesn’t know how the design works. By providing a single entity that does both functions, Reach can speed development of custom sub-assemblies and ensure that designs get manufactured on time.

The main benefit of using a company like Reach that can both design and manufacture assemblies is reduced time-to-market. During the design process, purchasing is consulted to ensure that only readily available parts are chosen. The purchasing function is an integral part of every project ensuring that designs are manufacturable in a timely manner. With Reach’s expertise in test equipment, design-for-test and timely production test development is an integral part of the product development and production plan.