Specialized Manufacturing

Most of the questions we send back on an RFQ come down to the same handful of things.

A material callout that just says "aluminum," with no alloy or temper. The same feature dimensioned two different ways. A harness drawing with no pin-out. A BOM that's missing the heat shrink, the labels, or the hardware.

None of these are big mistakes, and they're easy to miss when you're close to a design. But each one means we have to check with you before we can price the job.

So our machining and cable teams put together a quick checklist of what we look for on every RFQ. Swipe through, and save it for your next drawing package.

What detail do you see left off drawings most often?

A clean harness isn’t the same thing as a verified one.

In aerospace and defense work, the defects that matter are the ones you’ll never catch by eye: a wire on the wrong pin, a nicked conductor, strain relief that’s almost right. You find those with continuity, hipot, labeling checks, and inspectors who know the workmanship standard cold.

So we don’t save testing for the end. It runs alongside the build, and a harness isn’t done until it passes.

For those of you building flight or defense harnesses: what’s the one test requirement you won’t compromise on?

One of the easiest ways to lose four weeks on a program: send the enclosure to one shop and the harness to another.

It's a common sourcing pattern. Sheet metal comes from Vendor A, the harness from Vendor B, and final integration happens at the OEM or a third shop.

On paper, it looks flexible. In practice, it creates four failure points:

• Fit issues don't surface until integration
• Each vendor points to the other's tolerance stack
• Expedites multiply because no one owns the full assembly
• Quality records live in two systems when the customer wants one packet

For aerospace and defense box builds, the schedule risk usually outweighs the piece-price savings.

That's why we keep metal fabrication, cable harnesses, and electro-mechanical assembly under one roof. We control the build from start to finish, so fit issues get caught early, one team owns the schedule, and our customers get a single, complete quality packet.

It also means added security. Fewer handoffs mean fewer companies handling your drawings, data, and hardware.

To be fair, one roof won't fix a bad design. But it does remove the handoff most programs underestimate.

For those managing electro-mechanical assemblies: do you still split fab and harness, or have you moved to a single source?

Too many RFQs treat AS9100 like a checkbox.

The better question for a buyer: what does the certificate actually change on the shop floor?

Here's what it should change:

• Configuration control: the revision on the floor matches the PO.

• Requirements flow-down: specs and key characteristics reach every sub-tier supplier, not just the front office.

• First article inspection: a new part, new revision, or process change triggers a real FAI, not a copy of the last one.

• Traceability: material, process, and inspection history can be traced for any part, on demand.

• Nonconformance discipline: escapes get investigated, not worked around.

• Special process control: soldering, welding, heat treat, and NDT run on documented procedures, not tribal knowledge.

• Change notification: process or supplier changes never show up as surprises.

If a supplier can't walk you through all seven in practice, the certificate is doing more work than the quality system.

Buyers and SQEs: what's the first thing you look at when you audit a new AS9100 shop?

Last week we celebrated 30 years.

That’s three decades of early mornings, long days, handling whatever the day brings, and people who keep showing up for each other. This photo is the whole reason SMI is what it is. Not a building. Not a milestone. These people.

We’re grateful every day for the work our employees do — the parts customers see, and the quieter work that never makes a caption. Our people built this place. They still do.

And they didn’t do it alone. Our customers have been part of this story from the beginning — trusting us, coming back, and growing with us. Thirty years of business is really thirty years of relationships. We don’t take that lightly.

We’re just getting going. We’re growing, and in January we move into a new building. Same crew. Bigger chapter.

Thank you to everyone in this picture, and to every customer who helped get us here.

Here’s to the next 30.