GPC Electronics’ investment in process control technology and commitment to quality and customer service have been key factors in winning a new three year contract to supply telephones to North American telecommunications player Nortel.

GPC Electronics has been supplying telephones to Nortel since 1996, and this contract continues, with demand for the product still increasing. The new contract concerns the supply of a more complex type of telephone called i2004, in volume. The telephone’s design and development reflect Nortel’s focus on Internet Protocol-integrated, telephony/ data networking solutions.

“The new telephone is a networking product, and it leverages the Internet Protocol to bypass normal service providers and call charges,” Peter Curran, GPC Electronics Account Manager for Nortel, said. “Nortel has created a phone that will seamlessly integrate with your network, which means that you can control costs and increase your flexibility.

“From our point of view, the circuit board used in this phone is reasonably complex. It has a large number of high end integrated circuits on it, including Ball Grid Array (BGA) devices.

“The difficulty is that to manufacture these boards in high volumes, you must have a repeatable and stable process. With our 3D x-ray equipment we can demonstrate absolute process control, because we’ve got real measurement of solder joints feeding back into our process. We’re the only company in Australia with real time x-ray capability.”

“We have regular contact with Nortel through conference calls, with people dialling in from Nortel in Australia, California, Montreal and Ottawa.

“This dialogue keeps the focus on production issues in terms of the stability of the processes, capacity to produce the volume required, the current status on materials required to maintain production, and any current issues and what the actions are to resolve those issues.

“It’s really important to have continuous dialogue with the customer on this basis, so if we have an issue, we can table it with the customer, even if it’s GPC’s task to resolve the problem.

“GPC Electronics has turned a very big corner. Five to ten years ago, we primarily made circuit board assemblies, and that was it. Now we’ve entered the next phase in the supply chain, and we’re in the business of project management and supplying finished products into the market place.

“To be able to make an advanced circuit board in high volume is very good for us – it grows our core competencies, it grows our process control capabilities.
“Nortel has a good investment in technology and infrastructure worldwide, and they will certainly be developing competitive products and services. As a fairly major manufacturer for them already, we hope to work with Nortel more in the future.”