As an internationally renowned Corporation based in the US, Paramit has long been one of the key operators in a complex and highly advanced medical device and OEM market, but is leveraging its flexibility and entrepreneurial flair as a smaller entity in Malaysia to achieve similar successes.
DELIVERING PEACE OF MIND
Based in Penang, the wider Group’s abilities to provide fully-integrated engineering, manufacturing and post-manufacturing services to the medical industry primarily has been replicated in the Asia-Pacific region, with the latter’s supplier remit covering the rest of the world with its unparalleled levels of quality and consistency.
With more than 25 years experience in manufacturing FDA-compliant products via rigorous controls, testing, research and development, market analysis and technological innovation, the business is now entering an exciting new phase of its evolution in Malaysia; with a new facility on the horizon and a whole host of global customers eagerly anticipating an even more extensive and refined Paramit offering in the future.
Such exciting prospects have most recently been compounded by the acquisition of Lathrop engineering; a move which will see product realisation from ground-up design to scale-total with a unique focus on medical and life science instruments.
The result will see a better quality, more reliable product range across the board and heightened customer satisfaction in the process; all of which will lend itself toward the Company’s overall goal of achieving a ‘transferless process in one domain’.
Reduced times to market, reduced NRE costs and more predictable results from the outset by doing things the “Lathrop-Paramit way” are just three of the numerous benefits attained through the latter’s philosophy, and will applied to its entire portfolio of products.
MARKET GOALS
To ensure an optimised provision of these services, a strong culture of togetherness and innovation has been fostered within Paramit’s workforce, encouraging areas of knowledge sharing, teamwork, empowerment, personal and Company growth, decision-making responsibilities and respect in order to create an environment conducive to producing some of the most complex machines in any sector.
A reputation as industry leader, the support of a high value resource pool in Silicon Valley, a proprietary in-house approach, and the ability to meet market goals consistently enforces Paramit’s recognition across all of its divisions.
For Malaysia specifically though, it hasn’t always been an entire replication of the works ongoing in the US, with the medical facet largely dominated by its companions in the west. A more concerted focus on security technologies like fire and gas detection solutions; power tools and digital level measurement tools; automotive heating solutions; and farm information management solutions for the agriculture sector have largely occupied the Penang facility’s efforts.
Within the Company’s current 82,000 square feet facility acquired in 2011 though, its 500 employees adhere to the strict development procedures in place throughout all of the above sectors, leaving no reason why Paramit in Malaysia can’t increase its influence in medical production moving forward also.
ISO 9001 and ISO 1345 accreditation further affirms this notion and – alongside a new facility in the offing and the recently announced acquisition of Lathrop’s copious industry expertise – the perfect platform has now been laid for Penang to join the medical instrumentation fray.
NEAR TO ZERO DEFECTS
Recognition doesn’t just stem from volume and distribution footprint alone, however, and Paramit’s real differentiator derives from quality.
Achieving better than best-in-class standards across the board, and efficiency levels surpassing those of even six sigma, Paramit’s dedication to providing the most consistent, advanced and highly monitored product possible is what sets it apart across both its US and Malaysian headquarters.
In line 100 percent 3D inspection of solder paste deposition, quick machine setup for high mix environments, multi-product single setup algorithms, in line automated optical inspection machines and process validation all contribute to such enviable levels, and result in an almost unbelievable quality level of 10 DPMO (defects per million opportunities); compared to the best-in-class IPC standard of 30 DOMP for usual high mix environments of that type.
Further through the process, the design and engineering teams are equipped with the very best in functional test programs, internal ICT and functional test development machines, and system level functional test development facilities; ensuring the business stays true to the founding origins of the Company in the testing domain, and the long-standing tradition of excellence in this area that have followed ever since.
The next stage revolves around mechanical assembly, another area which has consistently achieved near to zero defects largely thanks to vPoke; “a proprietary, patented computer designed to prevent any manufacturing defect”, the Company explains.
“vPoke controls every input into every process sequence; every process sequence is verified, and this verification is captured as part of a complete device history record.”
Subsequently, vPoke guarantees that every instrument will be built the same way every time, at increased volumes and speeds.
Once again, this ultimately culminates in statistics almost unfathomable across the rest of the market; achieving “extreme” performance with less than one DPMO across system assembly in comparison to the best-in-class yardstick of 200 DPMO.
EXTREME PERFORMANCE
With such unrivalled processes and systems in place, the scene is now set for Paramit to continue its evolution on an even larger scale in Penang, upgrading its current 82,000 square feet of space to more than 162,000 square feet formulating its new facility; set to open in September, 2016.
Developed and built with the most stringent and dynamic of designs in mind, its environmentally friendly and sustainable make-up is appropriate for a Company that continues to raise the bar across all areas of longevity and efficiency.
Its supply chain management efforts are indicative of this, learning from the examples set in the US to create a more global distribution, procurement and logistics plan worthy of the products being deployed.
“We proactively manage supplier quality, EOL issues and reduce costs for our customers,” the Company states, “and our value add programme includes safety stock for long lead time items; just-in-time (JIT) for bulky items; vendor manage inventory (VMI) to reduce excess material exposure; automated execution tools for order management; and daily tracking of execution success.”
With more than 5,000 standard components and 3,000 customised parts managed throughout the Company, and materials brought in from as many as 20 different countries, such stringent monitoring and honing of the supply chain is of course essential, while close collaboration with partners and customers is equally critical in optimising both that and the manufacture process.
“We deliver peace of mind in the development and manufacturing of complex medical and life science instrumentation,” Paramit declares. And this certainly seems to hold true according to the feedback recorded among customers in the past year alone.
Creating a grading system predicated on the response of customers, the Company’s average rating has risen from an average of around 3.5 to more than 4.5 (out of five) in just one year; epitomising not only the organisation’s strong footing from the off, but its ability to react quickly to demand and improve its operations in a short space of time.
