NAI, a designer and manufacturer of custom interconnect solutions that deliver power and signals to monitor data, connect people and keep equipment operating, has announced the consolidation of its existing Centers of Excellence into a consolidated solutions center in Hermosillo, Mexico.Â
The Hermosillo Solutions Center is now home to the Industrial Center of Excellence (ICoE), which provides design and development services related to industrial interconnect solutions, including cable assembles, harnesses, block assemblies, panel and box builds. This operation has been relocated to the Plant 2 facility adjacent to the Fiber Center of Excellence (FCoE).
The solutions center also houses the Fiber Center of Excellence (FCoE), which provides interconnect design and development services focused on fiber optic technology.
According to NAI, the purpose of this consolidation is to provide the engineers at both facilities access to the various test and validation equipment needed for their respective operations. As research and development centers, these two operations support New Product Introductions (NPIs). With both facilities co-located under one roof, customers can now experience the capabilities that NAI has for interconnect design and development, all in one space.
Another reason for this move is to accommodate the continued growth of these engineering support centers and NAI’s overall business. The combined professional staff has grown 54% in three and a half years to 180 engineers. The floor space required for these facilities has grown by 76% in the same period, to a total of 14,340 square feet. The CoEs have developed and shipped more new part numbers through the first half of 2020 than during all of 2019.
The solutions center provides three levels of design services: build-to-print, design assistance and full-service design. Engineers will design, analyze and qualify assemblies and harnesses, as well as box or panel builds, before they go into production. In addition to engineers, the professional staff includes technicians, advanced sourcing experts and cost estimators. They use program managers to oversee NAI’s Product Development Process (PDP) and to ensure the product concept is successfully transferred to manufacturing through NAI’s standard Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) launch process. The transfer can be made to any of NAI’s six manufacturing locations in Mexico, China, and the U.S.
