Uncategorized

Every three years, STC hosts an external audit to recertify our Quality Management System to ISO 9001 standards. The external audit for 2021 was recently completed, and STC once again successfully met the requirements for recertification.

One notable aspect of adherence to ISO standards is the commitment to continuously improve company performance. This continual improvement has been part of the STC quality process since becoming ISO certified in 1999. Improvement can be measured in any number of quality-system metrics, and one of the metrics STC tracks is the customer-return rate.

During the first few years of ISO certification, customer-return rates were quite a bit higher than they are now. In 2002, we recorded 25 RMAs (returned material authorization). However, that number dropped to 3 in 2020, and the RMA number for 2021 stands at 2.

What are the reasons for the dramatic drop in customer returns? According to Angie Calkin, who serves as STC Vice President of Operations, a large part of the reason is due to the year-by-year improvements required by ISO.

“ISO has formalized our processes and, as years go by, people get acclimated to the process and end up catching mistakes long before they go out the door. Our largest RMA numbers occurred prior to ISO certification, and there’s been a steady decrease over the years.”

Calkin has also found that many of quality issues they catch now are not electrical problems, but rather mechanical or visual miscues that can shorten the working life of a part or component.

“Because we perform 100-percent testing, it’s very rare that we have an actual electrical issue,” Calkin says. “It’s typically a dimensional issue or perhaps shipping damage.”

At that point, dimensions, packaging, and freight carriers become an area of focus for the internal ISO audits, which take place every year. Calkin also gives full credit to the STC production staff.

“We spend the time needed to train our production team, and they catch even minor issues that just have the potential to lead to returned material. Our Shipping Manager helps a lot too, by looking at the documentation before shipping and recognizing potential issues.”

Calkin continues, “You can cover up poor workmanship that will affect the life of a part, but the people on our production team are able to build the parts correctly right from the start.”

The US Small Business Administration has approved STC, Inc as a certified HUBZone small business concern. As such, STC is now eligible for HUBZone benefits, which provide enhanced federal contracting opportunities for qualified small businesses located within HUBZones (historically underutilized business zones).

The approval of STC follows recent changes to the HUBZone program, which has seen some expansion into rural areas that were not previously served by the program.

According to STC President Brad Cross, the HUBZone certification offers real benefits for STC, which provides electronics manufacturing services for a wide variety of applications, including aerospace, defense, and environmental industries.

“The HUBZone program allows for more direct government contracting opportunities, and it also allows us to hire people from within our community. So qualified individuals have an opportunity to work in technology without leaving the area,” says Cross.

“Also, with broadband connectivity, rural areas aren’t subject to the same disadvantages they had to overcome in the past,” Cross continues. “We’ve found that we can participate in integrated technology development where speed and responsiveness are really an advantage for us.”

With the HUBZone certification, Cross also sees increased opportunities to continue building partnerships with industry-leading companies as STC promotes both economic and technological development.

“We’re proud of the many partnerships we’ve created with our customers, and we look forward to forming new partnerships as we pursue the opportunities set aside for HUBZone communities,” Cross said.

STC, Inc., a manufacturer of transformers & PCB assemblies for a variety of industries, including Aerospace, Military, Broadcasting, and Traffic Management is seeking candidates for an Electronic Technician.

For a full list of job requirements and qualifications, as well as information about how to apply, please see the Careers at STC page.

At first contact, many potential customers may be unaware that we not only manufacture custom transformers and inductors but that we also provide electronic manufacturing services (EMS) for a wide range of industries and applications.

For many customers, STC provides both transformer manufacturing and printed-circuit assembly. These combined services allow STC customers to save time and money. Here’s how:

• Reduced Shipping Damage: With our PCB assemblies, weighty and awkward transformers with fragile connection pins are delivered already mounted to circuit-board assemblies, which reduces the potential for damage during shipment.
• Reduced Shipping & Handling Costs: A single supplier for transformers and PCB assemblies dramatically reduces the number of containers, which results in lower overall shipping costs.
• Inventory Imbalance: STC customers avoid having too many of a particular part (for example transformers) because the transformers arrive as part of the circuit-board assembly. This alone helps reduce unnecessary inventory.
• Quality Control: Because we provide both coil manufacturing and PCB assembly, STC customers are able to simplify their own manufacturing process. STC is also ISO:9001 certified with 100-percent testing available.

We at STC work hard to deliver quality products while meeting delivery deadlines. How can we help your business? Please feel free to let us know.

“When I think about the biggest moments of my career at STC,” says Angie Calkin, “I would probably say the Nighthawk production line, our becoming ISO 9001 certified, and then my promotion to Vice President of Operations.”

Calkin has seen many changes during her 30 years at STC, but these moments mark three significant shifts in her mind.

The Nighthawk production line fulfilled orders for transformers used in the Nighthawk brand of carbon monoxide detectors. At that point in the 1990s, the Nighthawk orders were the largest ever placed with STC.

“At that time, I was involved with Testing, Quality, and Electronics Production. Then I became Project Manager for the Nighthawk line—which shipped between 2,000 and 4,000 transformers per day. That is a lot compared to what we had been producing. We had three shifts running to meet the orders. We purchased new winding equipment. We hired new employees, so we were interviewing, hiring, and training. It was both very exciting and stressful.”

At the time, Calkin felt she lacked the experience for the wide range of abilities the job required, but she learned quickly.

“You can imagine the complexity to ship that many parts each day, from having the material in place, to handling employee issues, to dealing with machine breakdowns, and then the logistics for shipping, Calkin says with a laugh. “I can’t tell you how many times [husband] Jim and I made the 40-mile trip to the shipping center to drop off additional parts to be shipped.”

Angie started at STC as a production worker alternating between Electronics assembly and Magnetics (transformers). In 1989, STC moved across town to its current location. The move took a couple of months to complete, and Angie was the first one to relocate to the much larger facility. As a result, she worked alone for a month or two until the move was complete.

“Quality testing was an ongoing part of my responsibilities, but it got to the point there were projects we knew we couldn’t bid because we weren’t ISO certified,” Angie says. “We worked hard to become ISO 9001 certified. In addition to many other tasks, we wrote Procedure and Quality manuals, which we update as needed to maintain our ISO certification.”

After 18 years at STC, Angie was promoted to Vice President of Operations, and there was no question about the first priority to be addressed in her new position.

“I know when I took over, we were way behind on our production schedule, and it was a real challenge to catch up on,” says Angie. “It was at that point that I started communicating more frequently with customers—and you learn a lot of important things doing that. I started interacting with so many facets of our customer’s businesses, so you learn much more about what they require and why they require it.

Angie is pleased with the current state of STC.

“I think the company’s done well. I credit [STC President] Brad Cross for that, his leadership. The work we do now is a lot more high reliability, and it’s taken time to build up to that.”

When asked about Angie’s contributions to STC, Cross is quick to point out the benefits gained from her hard work and eye for detail.

“Angie’s high standards for order execution and quality impacts our entire organization.”

Thanks for your hard work and leadership during your time at STC Angie—and best wishes for the next 30 years!