{"id":19216,"date":"2025-07-06T11:18:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T02:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohyoung.com\/en\/?post_type=news&p=19216"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:58:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T04:58:53","slug":"driving-manufacturing-excellence-at-intervala-with-koh-young-enhancing-product-quality-and-operational-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/kohyoung.com\/en\/news\/driving-manufacturing-excellence-at-intervala-with-koh-young-enhancing-product-quality-and-operational-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving Manufacturing Excellence at\u00a0Intervala\u00a0with Koh Young:\u00a0Enhancing Product Quality and Operational Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There has never been a time when it is more important to drive manufacturing excellence, particularly in the United States. Reshoring is creating real demand for contract electronics manufacturers like Intervala, but that demand must be met swiftly and competitively with scale and efficiency. Alongside this, unemployment is low and talent is getting harder to find, so expansion needs to occur in a way that mitigates the risk of talent shortages. Partnerships with equipment vendors who understand that their customers need to be competitive while digitally transforming and accelerating automation are highly valued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We took a deep dive with the team at Intervala to explore how strategic supplier relationships, when done right, can add value and enhance quality and operational excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Intervala is Where Complex Problems Find Intelligent Solutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Intervala describes itself in concise terms. It is a full-service manufacturer, innovative problem solver and customer-service champion. Intervala believes there\u2019s a solution to every problem. The company creates customized, intelligent solutions for unique, high-performance electronic and electromechanical manufacturing requirements. Customers choose and stay with Intervala because Intervala understands its customers\u2019 complex product and service needs and provides a customized experience tailored to their requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joe Benz<\/a>, Intervala\u2019s Director of Operations in the Pittsburgh region, explained the importance of standing out in a crowded marketplace. \u201cIn contract manufacturing, part of the game is to differentiate yourself from the pack. Certainly, one of the ways to do that is capital equipment selection. For us, the capital equipment selection process has been pretty straightforward. Our goal is to find the best equipment, not the best bargain, but the best equipment in the marketplace. We define that by the hardware and the software, but also the support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intervala\u00a0had a long association with members of the Koh Young team,\u00a0including Head of Global Marketing Brent Fischthal, and felt very comfortable it was going to get stellar support as a result. But the company also used a performance matrix to look at how Koh Young performed against the competition. Joe explained that made the decision to\u00a0invest\u00a0in\u00a0Koh Young\u2019s printed circuit board manufacturing equipment easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was a paradigm shift for us,\u201d said Joe. \u201cIn the past, our gear, as well as some of the gear we were evaluating, would just be two-dimensional, scanning the board, comparing the board to other two-dimensional images we had in a library to do some differentiation between same or different, but we were very limited in our ability to actually identify nonconformances and, therefore, very limited in our ability to improve our manufacturing processes.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stellar Quality and Stellar Performance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When Joe looked at Koh Young, he saw the value of the \u201cenormous amount of information\u201d it can provide. \u201cIt was obvious that the equipment would allow us to provide a very good product to our internal customers and, in turn, to our external customers \u2013 while also alerting us in real time to where we can improve the process for any reason,\u201d said Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was right. \u201cThe performance of the production lines is stellar, and I tell prospective customers and existing customers that,\u201d said Joe. \u201cThe lines are performing at a level that a lot of OEMs would be envious of. We\u2019re real-time dispositioning so we know immediately whether the line is performing at a satisfactory level or not. If it\u2019s not, we make adjustments. We\u2019re measuring performance via DPMO, or defects per million opportunities, and our termination DPMO is approaching Six Sigma. Our placement DPMO is not that far behind. So, when you consider that we don\u2019t have any design authority and a lot of times we\u2019re working to process out design issues, those numbers are just absolutely incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuous Improvement and Faster New Product\u00a0Introduction (NPI)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As Intervala Process Engineer Chris St. Mars explained, \u201cKoh Young has really changed the game for us as far as ease of launching new products for our customers and continually improving the existing product. The tools are powerful. We use K-Smart every day to monitor in real time and historically. We go through defects and form corrective action plans based off the information that the Koh Young equipment provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe time to launch boards into production is reduced with this equipment. It allows me to make quick edits on the fly without bringing the whole production line to a halt. I\u2019m able to improve the inspection criteria while we\u2019re live running the boards down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Process Engineer Jonathan Hoffman likes that the software is easy to use and that engineers don\u2019t have to spend a lot of time getting it set up. <\/strong>\u201cThe main thing is getting the program out to the floor so we can run production,\u201d added Jonathan. \u201cThe programming of the AOI machine is super quick and easy. When Koh Young came to set this machine up, the field service engineer said we could generate a program in less than five minutes, and he was right. I can make a program in two or three minutes. It\u2019s simple to program and very repeatable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intervala serializes all boards so if there is an issue with something all the data for every board is there and the team can look back and see what the machine picked up on. The machine is going to find the issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe print process is one of the most important processes in surface mount, so we want to catch the defects or any issues right here at this machine before it goes downstream,\u201d explained Jonathan. \u201cWithout this very critical piece of equipment, we would have to do inspection visually and that\u2019s just not reliable. You need a machine that you can rely on to find those types of issues. It raises our quality level probably 20-fold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Real-time Factual Feedback and Ease of Use<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe greatest impact from the Koh Young equipment is the daily and weekly feedback our operators receive in real time,\u201d added Joe. \u201cIt\u2019s allowed those operators to understand that if they set up the printer in a certain way, they\u2019re going to potentially have some print defects. The feedback is real-time, same with our pick-and-place operators, so they\u2019re able to make adjustments on the gear and improve those processes in real-time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe easier the gear is to use and interpret, the lower the skill level required,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, in a challenging time like this, where it\u2019s very difficult to hire people and it\u2019s even more difficult to bring people up to speed to a subject matter expert level, having gear that is easy to interpret and easy to use is vitally important to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>Real Friends Show Up When You Need Them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Koh Young has always been renowned for service. \u201cFor example, depending on the nature of an issue, the Koh Young team can just port into the machine and troubleshoot from wherever they are,\u201d said Joe. \u201cAnd if the issue is something more significant, they\u2019ll come on site. I know this for a fact because, a few years back, we had a catastrophic event right on the Christmas holiday that required us to get out of our old location and into a new location in very short order. I called up Brent and I said here\u2019s the situation, \u2018I\u2019m in dire need of support\u2019, and within a week I had technical people on site making sure that we were basically restarting the gear. Brent responded exactly as I would expect him to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe concluded saying, \u201cWe feel like Koh Young is a partner. They\u2019re just not an equipment supplier to us and we\u2019re going to lean on them as much as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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