Publication date: 21 December 2011
Recently, the editorial team at Electronics Production World caught up with Scott Fillebrown, President and CEO of ACD. In an interesting conversation, Fillebrown filled us in on the company’s past, future and what makes this company stand out from its many competitors.
Based in Richardson, Texas and founded in 1984, ACD started as a design service bureau. Founders Chuck Michie and Darrell Vaughn took a leap of faith by starting a circuit board design company and buying a newly released CAD system, Cadnetics. It was the first of many decisions that would build and grow the vision of ACD to offer high-technology engineering services to meet customers’ schedules. This vision would later include printed circuit assembly.
ACD quickly became one of the nation’s largest design houses because of its ability to lay out complex boards in short turn times. Over the years, ACD has had many chapters including laser photo plotting services, manufacturers’ representative, and even a value-added reseller (VAR) for computer-aided engineering and design tools. ACD offers R&D through production support for electronics OEMs. Today, it still offers circuit board design and, in 1999, led by President and CEO W. Scott Fillebrown, it added consigned and turnkey assembly services to the offering. This addition transformed ACD into one of the fastest growing companies in North America as well as a national leader of electronics manufacturing services (EMS). The assembly services support R&D engineers with prototypes, support production ramp up with pilot builds and handle typical domestic production. ACD’s latest added production capability is its ability to handle high volumes through its international production option ― offering the overseas price point with a domestic service and warranty. “Our goal is to offer the capability and expertise of a tier one contract manufacturer with the friendly customer service of a regional company,” said Fillebrown. The product offering, however, is only part of ACD’s success.
Owners Scott Fillebrown and Steve Schwaebler’s commitment to reinvest in the company points to another of ACD’s successes. Often, owners take the profits from their companies for personal use. This is not the case at ACD. This year alone the company expects to reinvest close to 13 percent of the projected total revenues for 2011 sales. In the previous five years, ACD has averaged close to 5 percent of annual sales in reinvestment. This is even more significant considering the economic climate over the last two years. What does ACD invest in? During 2009 and 2010, it mostly was infrastructure improvements. While it may not be considered a glamorous or exciting way to spend money, a 35 percent increase in sales was planned and the need to have the facilities and systems in place to operate effectively was an absolute must. These upgrades included Valor DFM & DFA software tools, paperless production, and enforced routing software, servers, building expansion and numerous other behind-the-scenes improvements.
This has been a more exciting year: ACD began 2011 with a total production floor makeover and capacity expansion. The cornerstone of this expansion was the move to Juki Automation Systems as the major surface mount placement machine. ACD purchased not one but two new lines rated at 140,000 placements per hour. These lines are fronted by new DEK Horizon screen printers and end with Heller Industries’ Mark III ovens. However, ACD has not stopped there. The company has expanded its support operations with more personnel and equipment. The most notable addition is Aqueous Technologies’ Trident Quad wash system, increasing its throughput and quality. “You will find we have the infrastructure and commitment to production equipment second to none. We believe the competitive advantage is won through capability,” said Fillebrown. One of the other winning strategies is the company’s MIS resources.
Without a sound approach to network infrastructure and software integration, life would be significantly more difficult, if not impossible. ACD employees consist of a team of programmers and systems administrators who helped create and maintain many electronics manufacturing industries. Some of these innovations include real-time customer email alerts, flight status touch screen monitors to alert process centers of incoming work, and customer self-service Web logins for job status and quality reports. This team also is responsible for customer-specific reports and other IT applications, for example, customers being able to login remotely to their supplied text fixture via the Internet. “The MIS team really wears two hats ― at times they are an extension of our customer service department and other times they enable ACD operators to harvest efficiencies out of equipment that other companies leave behind, becoming an extension of the production team,” commented Fillebrown. There are very few companies that have the luxury of a MIS/IT department that can create commercial quality programs. ACD is one of the lucky few. Extending beyond that is the fanatical support of the mostly wireless manufacturing floor (another first of its kind) and wired network. In today’s world, a good network is not good enough; you must have an extremely fast network with 100 percent uptime.
Superior equipment and great MIS resources aside, ACD’s real advantage is its employees. ACD is known in the Dallas Ft. Worth area as a great place to work. In fact they have received “Top Places To Work” honors by Workplace Dynamics and The Dallas Morning News the last three years finishing in the top 100 in 2009, the top 150 in 2010 and the top 100 in 2011 out of 1,200 companies. This is an honor that only the employees can make happen through a confidential survey. “Our equipment is the best, but our employees are even better. They have that do anything for the customer attitude,” said Fillebrown. “We try to have the same attitude toward them as they have for our customer.” This is a company that understands it is not perfect; however, it strives to be better. The outcome is a company with very low turnover — an average tenure of over eight years (even with adding 15-20 percent to its workforce a year for the last two years and more than 200 percent over the last 10 years.
The saying ‘past performance is not an indicator of future performance’ does not hold true for ACD. The company has what it takes to succeed, a solid reinvestment plan, a timeless product offering, financial stability, industry-leading equipment and world-class employees. What more could one ask for?
