Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have been crippled by supply chain challenges. When the pandemic first hit, companies had to scale back their operations causing supply lines to dry up. Now that business is starting to get back to normal, unprecedented demand has caused shortages, a spike in prices, and longer lead times. Fortunately for AML, we manufacture our mobile handheld computer and kiosks here in the USA and have been since 1983.
Manufacturing our own mobile computers gives us complete control over our supply chain.
Now to be fair, a lot of our components are imported, but that is simply because a great number of the components are only available from companies that are based in Asia or other parts of the world. With that said, we do source every single component and bring them into our Dallas, Texas facility. From there, some of the components get “kitted up” and sent to one of our local partner vendors who will assemble them onto printed circuit boards and return them. Back in our facility, we then take the circuit board assemblies, along with LCDs, plastic housing parts, and several other components, and assemble them into our mobile computers and kiosks. After passing functional tests, they move on to an overnight burn-in where they are exercised dynamically, simulating prolonged use. Once they pass burn-in they move on to the final quality control process, then to packaging, then out the door to a waiting customer.
Being our own handheld mobile computer manufacturer gives us complete control over our supply chain. We have better visibility and communications with component vendors and can pivot quickly if we need to. When a part shortage arises, we can move quickly to identify alternatives. We’re not at the mercy of the capabilities and competencies (or lack thereof) of third party ODMs. We control our own destiny.
Oh, and the average tenure of our Production personnel? 12+ years. They’re good at what they do.
Even in relatively small quantities we can sometimes tailor a device, either through firmware or mechanical design, and make it the perfect fit for our customer’s application.
It helps that we also design and engineer our own products as well. No outsourced engineering. Our team of AML engineers do the electronics design, industrial design, mechanical engineering, and software development. Again, complete control. We design it. We build it.
This inhouse engineering capability of being a handheld computer manufacturer also gives us the opportunity to provide a degree of tailoring or even customization to our products. Sometimes the ideal solution just isn’t out there so customers end up just trying to “make do” with what they can find. That’s where we come in. Even in relatively small quantities we can sometimes tailor a device, either through firmware or mechanical design, and make it the perfect fit for our customer’s application.
We also provide the break/fix repair services for our products. Again, it’s AML employees sitting in our AML facility. We have seasoned technicians that answer our phones and speak directly to our customers, helping to resolve any technical issues they might have. Just how seasoned are our technicians? With an average tenure of 17+ years, they know everything there is to know about our products.
So yes, our products truly are “Made in the USA”. And for icing on the cake, they are designed, engineered, and serviced here as well.
