Being able to trace your vehicles and machines is becoming increasingly important. On the one hand, you may want to optimise your planning and management information. On the other hand, you may be investing in advanced theft protection. TracTracer Voertuigvolgsystemen BV develops these solutions in-house and offers a complete service concept with an active control room. EPAC produces the PCBs that TracTracer uses for its solutions.
In-house production takes up more and more time
"We couldn't find what we wanted on the market," explains Robert Jan Helder of TracTracer. "We, therefore, started to develop the hardware and software ourselves. In the beginning, we even assembled boards by hand, but we soon bought a robot for that, and it has been running for six years now."
However, producing the printed circuit boards themselves took an increasing share of the work. "At one point, we were working 3 to 3.5 days a week on production," Helder notes. "That's too much for our company. We, therefore, decided to find an external partner to take care of production for us.
Why outsource production to EPAC?
EPAC is a local producer and therefore easy to approach
EPAC can supply the capacity that we need
We supply the bill of materials and the drawing and EPAC takes care of everything.
EPAC unburdens us entirely in the area of production
Ready-made printed circuit boards in specific housing
The printed circuit boards produced by EPAC are placed in the housing at TracTracer itself. "We have three types of products that the same boards go into," outlines Helder. "Only when we place an order do we know what kind of enclosure is required. We then place EPAC's ready-made boards in one of our three enclosures, and they can be delivered to the customer very quickly. The circuit board must remain exactly the same. Of course, we work with telematics and are very dependent on high-frequency signals. These PCBs are designed to deal with that perfectly."
Outsourcing production is a lot cheaper in the long run
"Outsourcing production to EPAC has freed up a lot of extra development time for us," clarifies Helder. "We now have the space to put more time into the web application and thinking of new products. This gives us some peace of mind in development. It may be a little more expensive per plate than producing it ourselves, but in the end, it is a lot cheaper for us because our people now spend their time doing what they do best.
Orders can be processed thanks to EPAC's production capacity quickly
Thanks to EPAC's production capacity, TracTracer is always able to process orders for its clients rapidly and adequately. The company has been busy working on new prototypes in the time that has been freed up and expects to bring the resulting series production to EPAC.
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