Investment strengthens electronic product development

Graham Shaw, Chief Operations Officer, SMS, stated: “We believe that in the UK, SMS is at the forefront of innovation and product development. We ensure that existing Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and start-up OEMs are aware of how to conceptualise for commercialisation. We also offer them speed in a market, where maximising the time that their product is in front of their consumer counts, through our digital manufacturing services. I was delighted when my ‘new baby’ arrived.”

The new baby that Mr Shaw is referring to is the Mycronic MY600 Jet Printer and the Mycronic MY200SX Placement. Sara Chandler of Mycronic said: “We’re delighted that SMS has selected our groundbreaking products to strengthen its NPI activities, and we’re confident that the MY600 and MY200SX we’ve supplied will give SMS a strong competitive advantage in today’s challenging EMS market. And, of course, SMS will also benefit from our renowned support services, which have been developed specifically to help Mycronic customers to get the best productivity and profitability from their equipment.”

Andrew Maddock, CEO, stated: "SMS strives to identify the right technologies, capabilities, capacities and flexibility required at the right time in the right product idea phase. This allows us to offer resources such as engineering, design for manufacturing, supply chain optimisation, prototyping, failure analysis, testing, production and transfer, whilst addressing current and emerging market needs. SMS sits at the intersection of innovation, development and manufacturing.

"Based in Nottingham, UK, we are within a 200-mile radius of:

• The leading engineering universities where many of the technology patents of tomorrow, are being developed today
• The key industry associations, which enable us to drive our knowledge network
• The main UK innovation hot spots e.g. Cambridge, London, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham, that have pioneering spirit within their DNA

"Internally, we refer to SMS as being at the heart of the innovation triangle. By this I mean, if you were to draw a 200-mile triangle around SMS, we would sit at the centre of creativity, putting us in the prime position at the core of UK design and development,” he concluded.

SMS are planning to celebrate their recent acquisition by hosting an opening ceremony, in collaboration with their equipment supplier Mycronic, on 15th June 2017. During this event, a SMS Development Centre EMS customer will cut the ‘red ribbon’ to declare the Development Centre ‘open’ and watch as their first printed circuit board (PCB) is assembled in a fraction of the original time.