Manufacturing Day!!!
Jennifer Fabrizio
Posts: 4
Hello everyone!
My name is Jennifer Fabrizio, the Production Manager here at Parallax. I am new to the forums and this is my first official forum post!
Friday, October 4th is Manufacturing Day! We are joining other manufacturing companies around the U.S. to celebrate our manufacturing abilities and our incredible manufacturing staff. We take pride in our work and proud to make some of THE BEST products around for YOU!
This is our first year in participation and to celebrate, Parallax is holding a private event and will be hosting a lunch in honor of our manufacturing staff. We have invited their families to join us and tour the facility.
We would also LOVE to hear from you!! I'd like to share some of your thoughts on this topic with my staff and let them know how much they are appreciated. Please share!!
What are your thoughts on Parallax's ability to manufacture here in our own facility? What has been your experience with the quality of our products? What are some of your favorite Made in the USA products that Parallax builds?
To find out more about Manufacturing Day, visit: Mfgday.com
Thank you!
My name is Jennifer Fabrizio, the Production Manager here at Parallax. I am new to the forums and this is my first official forum post!
Friday, October 4th is Manufacturing Day! We are joining other manufacturing companies around the U.S. to celebrate our manufacturing abilities and our incredible manufacturing staff. We take pride in our work and proud to make some of THE BEST products around for YOU!
This is our first year in participation and to celebrate, Parallax is holding a private event and will be hosting a lunch in honor of our manufacturing staff. We have invited their families to join us and tour the facility.
We would also LOVE to hear from you!! I'd like to share some of your thoughts on this topic with my staff and let them know how much they are appreciated. Please share!!
What are your thoughts on Parallax's ability to manufacture here in our own facility? What has been your experience with the quality of our products? What are some of your favorite Made in the USA products that Parallax builds?
To find out more about Manufacturing Day, visit: Mfgday.com
Thank you!
Comments
Keep up the great work
I've always been very happy with the quality of the products I have purchased from Parallax. Not only are they well designed and well built, Parallax stands behind them like no other company I've ever worked with. Congratulations on your part in making Parallax products excellent!
The 4x5 board form factor. Nice to swap out a variety of boards without changing standoffs, etc. It is nice to have a form factor that does not change every single revision. There are no weirdly shaped boards with odd size mounting holes. The board itself is very durable and will not let you down. From the precision SMT component placement to the included sticky bumps, it is all very nice.
My favorite, the Prop Project Board, is the most functional for me. It screams build something here, then move it over to custom PCB, mass produce, and make money yourself.
Chips and boards aside the quality of the experience is great too! Plenty of resources, and a company willing to listen to their customers.
My only complaint is that you are not located in San Diego
The DefCon badges were great at Propeller exposure, and I heard you all worked at a dizzying pace trying to get that out. So, hat's off to that. I'm sure that's just one of many examples.
I've been a customer for 20 years, and have never had a problem with a Parallax manufacturing quality.
Thank you all for achieving so much!
--Steve
While I realize that Jen is asking you a few questions (please answer them) I reinforce that she and her team are absolutely critical to our success at Parallax. Running inventory, manufacturing, kitting and shipping takes one very capable, strong and positive person. Jen has a tough job, too - though integrated with our early engineering processes she also has to work with the situations we create by building the products we design. Never a complaint. Jen also manages our inventory and kitting, so this means she has to solve excess inventory problems when poor decisions are made elsewhere upstream. Jen has worked at Parallax for perhaps 13+(?) years in several capacities before accepting the key role she has today.
And get this - she maintains a 99.97% inventory accuracy with a bunch of people (like the Parallax folks on this forum) that freely check out the inventory they need. Many companies would do anything to have this kind of inventory accuracy.
There are many key people working for all of us behind the scenes and we appreciate them very much. We'll get to know some more of them in the next couple of days, I'm sure.
"Manufacturing day" should be every day this week at Parallax!
Ken Gracey
Thanks everyone and welcome to the forums, Jennifer.
Keeping as much manufacturing as possible within the company's location provides benefit to design, bring-up and quality as proximity does allow high levels of communication between the entire project team. Continual improvement of process is aided by proximity of all project/product teams.
As fuel prices increase and the wages of workers in "traditional" manufacturing countries rise, costs of manufacturing in the U.S. should become more competitive. Companies like Parallax are hopefully front-runners in bringing home manufacturing, where it makes sense.
What has been your experience with the quality of our products?
What are some of your favorite Made in the USA products that Parallax builds?
Propeller Memory Card
Compass Module 3-Axis HMC5883L Card
Touring Parallax's manufacturing areas during Propeller Expos, showed a high level of worker pride in the work and facilities. Parallax has a unique quality about how it does business and having some level of manufacturing done not just locally, but internally is part of that quality. Works for me!
dgately
I think Jen would agree too a special thanks for: Terrel, Tiffany and Sue who make the wheels turn in manufacturing as well!
<we need there pictures posted here, can someone do that! :cool:!>
-Matt
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." H.S. Truman
I've been lucky enough to take a tour of the manufacturing area at Parallax. The equipment was great to see, but the people there impressed me the most. What a great bunch of people, who seemed happy and enthusiastic about their work.
I've always gotten a good build quality and am quite pleased to be buying made in USA products when we can. I do the same for appliances, cars and tools.
Seriously, I think Parallax does an excellent job with manufacturing and kitting. I've purchased a number of boards and kits and haven't had any issues. On the forums you are always seeing example of Parallax doing "the right thing" to correct any situations with part shortages or failures in kits or failures in their manufactured boards.
As always! Excellent job! You should be a model for other businesses that aren't able to figure out how important satisfied customers are.
Happy Manufacturing Day to the unsung heroes in the back rooms!
Congrats Rick!
Said another way, Manufacturing Day is the day after our twins' Oct 3 birthday!
Our manufacturing team works cohesively to create the great Parallax products that are made in the USA and with the old-school pride in their work. These guys are a pleasure to work with and though I don't spend very much time in the manufacturing department, the time I do spend is always great. That said, I have my own personal shout-outs for each member of the team based on my interactions with them.
Jen - Thanks for letting the manufacturing team have a say in how some of the processes are defined, giving them the flexibility to work they way they do and for acknowledging them personally on the forums where so many users of our products visit. Also for working with the other departments to improve efficiency between departments.
Terell - Thanks for very quickly handling all my requests to rework this board, change SMD components on that board and attach wire-wrap wires to create test points while I am troubleshooting a design. You do this without complaint and have even gotten the requests while you were eating lunch.
(sorry, didn't have a photo for Sue)
Sue - Thanks for running all those test procedures for me on RMAs when we don't have a tester in TS. It helps when you already know the test procedure and can efficiently handle the request much faster than I could. :thumb:
Tiffany - Thanks for helping me find things when I am looking for them in manufacturing and the laughing at my dumb jokes about how I can't find anything in your department.
Kenneth - Your modifications to existing designs always keep us engineering types on our toes. Your custom Stingray chassis really made me rethink chassis designs. :cool: Oh, and your Oscar the Grouch T-Shirt still cracks me up.
Matt - Thanks for always noticing when I wear my yellow Parallax Expo "Ask Me" shirt to the Rocklin office. You're the only one who seems to notice! :nerd:
And thanks to you all for working so well with us on all the products we come to you about.
Cheers to you!!
HMD to Parallax!!
How long does an Activity Board spend getting picked and placed? Just curious how fast that little guy can pick&place.
One question, do any of the manufacturing staff use the products they make each day in their own projects?
YAY MFRING TEAM!!!
-MattG
Are they on your way to the break room??
(just yanking your chain, Matt. You are one of the sung heroes around Parallax!)