Company Chases Aerospace Work

With telecommunications customers turning to foreign suppliers for printed circuit board assemblies, We Imagine Inc. in Chatsworth is going after a new market in the aerospace industry. The company is investing about $10,000 to have its manufacturing process certified to meet industry-recognized standards to supply components for military hardware. Adapting its customer mix has helped We Imagine to survive and stay independent in an industry that has undergone consolidation in the U.S. Company founder Barry Henley can easily name other printed circuit board assembly companies based in the San Fernando Valley that have gone out of business or were acquisition targets. We Imagine has had staying power by being receptive to customers’ needs and providing a bit of handholding when needed, he said. “The quality of the product we produce has been of interest to our customers,” Henley added. The company hired a consultant to assist with obtaining the AS9100 certification. We Imagine will undergo an initial audit in early December and anticipates receiving the certification in January, said Diana Reiter, chief operations officer and Henley’s daughter. AS9100 was developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers and the European Association of Aerospace Industries and is a requirement of major aerospace manufacturers and suppliers to do business with them. The standard requires companies to lay out their manufacturing processes and to document how that process is followed. We Imagine got interested in receiving AS9100 certification after attending a symposium earlier this year sponsored by the Boeing Co. “We got positive feedback,” Reiter said. “We are of the type of company they want for a subcontractor.” Rick Saldivar, the independent consultant working with We Imagine, has worked with other area companies to receive certification on a variety of standards. Small machine shops and large component manufacturers alike have received AS9100 certification, he said. When the prime aerospace manufacturers are using hundreds of suppliers, it makes sense to set up a structured system that new suppliers can then plug right into, Saldivar said. “The companies are all aligned together so they have similar expectations in doing business,” Saldivar said. The company also is bringing on a salesperson with experience in reeling in military contracts to help it as it enters the aerospace market. It is the first time in We Imagine’s history there has been a salesperson on staff. Until now, new customers came through references and word of mouth, Reiter said. In addition to the AS9100 certification, the company is also going for another certification, JSTD001, which is specific to soldering and inspection of PCB assemblies. We Image: History of growth Founder: Barry Henley shows off a printed circuit board made at We Imagine Inc. Henley started We Imagine in the garage of his family home in the Valley in 1974 and incorporated in 1980. He had worked in the entertainment industry and was among a group of engineers who received a technical Oscar for development of an audio system used to sync up special effects with film. From the garage to other manufacturing sites of increasingly larger size in the Canoga Park area, We Imagine put together PCBs assemblies first for the computer and technology industries. It later did work for telecom companies. “We used neighborhood housewives during the daytime as assemblers,” Henley said of the company’s early days. Today, We Imagine occupies a 65,000-square-foot building in Chatsworth that Henley and Reiter expect will serve the company in years ahead. About 20,000 square feet is manufacturing space that includes two high-speed lines for PCB assembly. “We configured it so we could add to it as we went along,” Henley said. The fact that We Imagine can add manufacturing capacity makes it stand out from other contractors, in light of the consolidation in the telecom industry. One-time customers in the Valley, including Tekelec in Calabasas and Micropolis Corp. in Chatsworth moved out of state and went out of business, respectively. As more work went overseas, competition moved out of the area, as well. Stellar Microelectronics in Valencia is among the few competitors remaining in the area, Henley said. We Imagine currently makes a mixture of products for Ixia, a Calabasas manufacturer of test and simulation products for the telecom industry, and Canoga Perkins, a provider of fiber optics products based in Chatsworth. “(Ixia) are right on the cutting edge with their designs so that is a challenge,” Henley said. (Attempts to reach a representative at Ixia were not successful.) We Imagine is one of two outside manufacturers that Canoga Perkins uses to produce high-volume product. Jim Heney, Canoga Perkins’s director of marketing, said customers choose to contract with the company because it is based in the U.S. and can deliver a high-quality product. “It is important to some of our customers where the equipment is manufactured,” he said.