What a Good Project Manager Can Do for Your Electronic Assembly

In all complicated projects, the best-laid plans and good intentions are only good until the first real project hiccup. Realistically, even a project that you’ve had produced before can still run into problems. Parts go out of production. Part numbers get accidentally transposed. Assemblers make mistakes.

Unfortunately, it’s part of doing electronic assembly and if you’ve been doing this work for any period of time, you’ve probably just come to expect some of it.

But what if there was a tried and true way to minimize, if not eliminate those hang-ups and headaches that you’ve come to associate with your electronic assembly projects?

Better yet, what if there was someone who could know your assembly as well as you do and who could mitigate and manage problems as they arose?

This is precisely what an electronic assembly project manager does.

And this is precisely how they benefit you and your electronic assembly.

3 Ways a Project Manager Adds Value to Your Electronic Assembly

1. Enhanced Communication. This is foundational for any good working relationship, as we all know. But when it comes to the technical and nuanced work of electronic assembly, it’s even more important that your team knows more than just what needs to be done. They absolutely must be able to communicate about it as well.

A project manager is in a unique position because they know the technicalities of a project more deeply than any other person on the team. Even more importantly, they know how important it is to keep you in the loop on your project. A good project manager will be able to connect you to the details of your project in ways that make sense to you and assist you in making decisions along the way.

This is no small task but a good project manager will communicate well, often, and in a manner that makes the process better for both you and your project.

2. Knows Your Stuff. A good project manager knows every in and every out of your build. Because they know every component, material, part and process, they can suggest fixes for little issues before they become big problems.

For example, recently a manufacturer gave us a tool to use in their assembly. We began the project using the tool and noticed that the tool was actually creating new problems on the assembly. It was creating nicks and punctures on the assembly.

The project manager noticed this was happening and crafted a solution. With the project manager so closely tuned in to the project and its needs, this was solved quickly with only a few assemblies completed with flaws.

Without that attention to detail and understanding of the assembly’s needs, the whole order may have been built with nicks and punctures, either putting it way behind schedule or rendering it nearly useless.

3. A Good Poject Manager Helps You Create and Keep Realistic Timeliness. This ties directly to the project manager’s communication and intimate understanding of your project and draws on their experience with builds like yours.

A realistic timeline can be quite elusive. If we could factor in all the unforeseen delays, maybe this wouldn’t seem so challenging. Until we can find a magician or time traveler to join our team, timelines continue to factor in at least a little guesswork.

But, with an experienced and dedicated project manager, at least some of this guesswork can be minimized. A good project manager can accurately predict how long it takes to assemble your builds. They understand how the materials work in your project and have an accurate and experience-based picture of how much of each material your build will require.

With this better understanding of your build and the external factors that come into play, your project manager can help you create realistic expectations of your timeline from the beginning and as the project unfolds.

Recently, a customer contacted us with a request to add units to his project. Immediately, the project manager knew it could not be done under the client’s timeline. The project manager knew what materials were on hand, what the customer’s additional units would require and how long it would take to get more materials in-house. Quickly calculating all of this, the project manager and the customer created a realistic timeline that included fulfilling the units in stages, based on available units. This customer knew right away what his realistic options were and could make a solid decision with the depth of information the project manager could supply.

Levison Enterprises Project Managers

At Levison Enterprises, we see our project managers as the key to your electronic assembly’s success. We want you to always have the best possible information, drawing from our knowledge and experience and yours. With enhanced communication, detailed understanding of your project and realistic and efficient timelines, we know that our customers have superior assembly experiences.

If you would like to know more about how a Levison Enterprises project manager can help enhance your next electronic assembly, contact us for a consultation.