Tait Behind-the-Scenes: Manufacturing

Tait Manufacturing FactoryWelcome to the Tait Manufacturing Facility. If you’ve ever wondered who makes our Tait radios, or how we ensure the highest possible standards for our products, then you’ve come to the right place. While many technology companies choose to outsource production, Tait has chosen to keep things in-house. We’re too obsessed with good quality to let anyone else build our radios.

We recently explored the area with our tour guide Aaron Robinson, the Production Manager. Come along with us on this exclusive look at our manufacturing facility that holds all our secret recipes. You’ll see the processes we follow to bring you Tait products, from placing tiny components to running electrical verification tests. You’ll visit the assembly line, where hundreds of our hard workers put the finishing touches on countless radios everyday.

You’ll also learn how we approach lean manufacturing to keep costs down so that our clients will receive excellent value when they choose Tait.

Watch the video and discover all there is to see in Tait’s fascinating Manufacturing Facility:

If you have any questions for Aaron or Evan about the Tait Manufacturing facility please comment below! We would love to hear from you.

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Full Video Transcript:

Evan: I’ve got my blue jacket on which is purely a style statement,
correct?

Aaron: it looks more like a team than a fashion statement.

Evan: I like the sleeves here. It’s got like kind of a nice
parachute sleeve feel.

Aaron: They’re carbon impregnated so they keep the electrostatic
electricity from our clothing away from the products.

Evan: Can I wear it outside of work?

Aaron: If you want to.

Evan: Hello everyone and welcome to behind the scenes at Tait. I’m
here with Aaron , Production Manager at Tait, and we are in the
manufacturing facility. Aaron, how are you?

Aaron: Very well, thanks. How’s it going?

Evan: Excellent. So one of the cool things to me about Tait is that
we actual do build all of our radios in-house. Why did we make that
decision to do it here and not outsource it?

Aaron: Originally we designed and developed our products in-house.
We’ve carried on with that model. Over the years we’ve tested that against
many other suppliers for outsourcing, and we come back as being extremely
competitive. We are also very agile. We can do the small orders. We can do
quick turnarounds, and that gives us control over our own business.

Evan: Yeah.

Aaron: Rather than being reliant on outsourcing. Quality is a
given no matter whether you do outsource it or whether you build it in-
house.

Evan: So we have some pretty intense machines around here. What are
these guys actually doing?

Aaron: They place all our service mount devices. One line is for
the infrastructure product. These two lines behind us here are for our
mobiles and portables, the high volume products. They have faster machines
and the fourth line in the back there is for accessories and small runs.
This does run 24 hours a day and five days a week, and places in the region
of a million parts a day.

Evan: Wow, a million, okay.

Aaron: So most of our products get a functional test so it tests
60 – 80% of the board, and it’s about our third quality
check along the production line. And this is our first electrical
verification that the products are working.

Evan: Cool.

Aaron: So the graphical screen tells you there’s a board on there,
and there’s a queue of boards waiting to come on to the test equipment
here.

Evan: Okay, this machine right here is what I call the Tait
“tougherizer.” It is currently making these waterproof IP67, and now you
know. So some of I’ve heard you guys talk about as far as lean
manufacturing. Can you explain what that is and why we do it?

Aaron: Like I said, lean essentially is about elimination of
waste. And the way we go about that is that to have lines that move to takt
times which is the rate at which customers are buying from us. We set
ourselves up to build at that rate so we don’t have any waste of
overbuilding product or having to hold finished goods products as a buffer
so that we can get stuff in there. So it allows us to keep the minimum
amount of inventory and the minimum amount of stock in our finished goods
area.

Evan: So we can increase or decrease the speed at which we’re
producing to meet demands, correct?

Aaron: Yes, and we do that weekly to match what the current
forecast and current demand is from customers. So we can double our
production within the week. It makes our lives easier as well. And as a
keep one of that it keeps the cost as low as possible.

Evan: we are currently exiting the building because of a fire drill.

Evan: Okay, well hey, Aaron, thank you so much for giving us a tour
and even though the fire alarm was a bit inconvenient, the nice thing is
that you can see all of the different Tait people together who make these
radios possible. So Aaron, thank you so much for showing us around. This is
really informative.

Aaron: Hey, thanks a lot for coming and having a look and seeing
what our guys get up to. Yeah, great.

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