Why Our Customers Choose Melrose – and Keep Coming Back

2011-05-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Our customers select us – and bring us their business again and again – because of the superior quality of our products, our outstanding technical know how, our ability to be nimble and super-responsive, and of course, our competitive costs.

Quality

Melrose manufactures parts to the highest standards of excellence. We drive our ever increasing quality by living the philosophy embodied in our ISO9001:2008 registration.

Melrose has earned the trust of some of the world’s largest corporations by raising our quality above the industry norm.

For example: Intel’s System Division manufactured PCMCIA cards for computer OEMs. Toshiba threatened to cancel its contract with Intel due to poorly printed parts from another prestigious company. Melrose constructed a class 10,000 clean room, produced quality parts, and took over the business. Melrose later became sole source supplier to US Robotics (Megahertz) and Smart Modular Technologies, among and other card manufacturers, based on our reputation for quality.

For example: The world leader in recording studio consoles was unhappy with printing particulate in the overlays they were buying from a major graphic overlay manufacturer. The suspect supplier was unresponsive to the customer’s request. They referred the customer to industry standard inspection standards instead of listening to the customer. Melrose rewrote the inspection standards, raised quality levels and became the overlay supplier.

For example: In the early days of the “Intel Inside” program, Intel’s Microprocessor Division could not get the correct shade of Intel blue printed on their Intel Inside logo labels using flexographic printing. Melrose designed a roll-to-roll screen printing process that produced the Intel Inside logos with the desired color.

Technical Know How

Melrose has been in business for over 70 years, and employs more than 100 engineers in our three factories. We rely on our accumulated experience and collective training to solve the most demanding problems. Melrose loves to be challenged!

For example: A test equipment manufacturer was using a Melrose overlay on top of an injection-molded housing. Beneath the housing was the PCB with LCD displays protruding through the housing. The LCDs were resetting when the overlay experienced a static discharge. Melrose engineered an ESD shield as a conductive print on the backside of the overlay, grounding the shield through a Z-axis conductive adhesive.

For example: Melrose figures out a way to solve engineering problems that other companies say “no bid” to. We love a challenge. For three customers, we produced very large membrane switches that other manufacturers couldn’t handle.

○ For L3 Communications we produced a 55”x60” switch with EL (electroluminescent) backlighting

○ We produced a 48”x54” switch with 60 fiber optic backlights for a company developing a hand-eye coordination trainer

○ We produced a dairy control panel that measured 24”x 48”.

Responsiveness

Melrose works very hard to meet urgent customer requirements. We can quickly produce prototypes and we can usually meet whatever expedited delivery timeline is required. Our three factories work seamlessly together.

For example: One of Melrose’s Asia factories was producing a heat shield overlay with hundreds of air vent holes requiring a great deal of manual stripping. Shortly after the first production run began, the customer realized that the temperature was causing the overlay to delaminate. Within three days, Melrose’s Hayward factory engineered six adhesive alternatives and laser cut samples for evaluation. The adhesive was changed and the part is back in production in Asia.

For example: Melrose acquired the decorative aluminum nameplate business of a gaming OEM by providing the scheduling flexibility the OEM’s business required. Melrose can almost always find a way to get parts to a customer in a hurry. We believe that fulfilling extraordinary customer requests is a cornerstone of our success.

Working “Lean”

Melrose’s Hayward, California factory flourishes in today’s global market because it operates with a “lean” philosophy. We believe that the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of customer value is a target for elimination.

For example: Melrose supplies graphic overlays and membrane switches to Emerson Electric’s Mexican factories. Melrose earned this business by configuring Emerson Electric’s supply chain with Melrose to include “postponement” (i.e, delaying assembly of finished parts until the customer’s Kan-ban bin required filling). Postponement and Kan-ban reduced Emerson’s inventory investment, obsolescence risk, and lead times.

Melrose can usually meet our customer’s cost objectives through the appropriate configuration of capabilities in our Hayward, California factory or one of our two world class factories in Asia.

Call us at 800-862-7741 or e-mail us at info@melrose-nl.com today and let’s talk about your manufacturing needs.

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Why Our Customers Choose Melrose – and Keep Coming Back