Meet Amy Zelanko, one of ACDi’s project managers. Amy has worked in contract manufacturing for about 10 years, with 7 years in manufacturing engineering and the last 3 years in a project management role. She graduated from Pennsylvania College of Technology with a BS in Electronics Engineering Technology and currently supports 10 different clients including 4 accounts that involve a high level of ongoing activity at ACDi.
Amy’s areas of expertise include electronics and manufacturing engineering as well as direct hands-on production. While in college, Amy interned with an electronics contract manufacturer in an SMT technician role with daily direct involvement with the entire SMT PWB assembly process. After college, she transitioned into a manufacturing engineering role which she held for seven years. Understanding both the upfront engineering effort including the RFQ process, BOM generation, work instruction development and programming, as well as experience with the entire production process—from scheduling, through PCB level assembly, final assembly integration and test—helps her to appreciate the challenges and team effort involved with launching a program. It also enabled her to understand realistic production timelines and to coordinate, track, and communicate ongoing program status with clients.
Amy’s expertise has allowed her to become skilled at handling complex projects. One of her clients required 40 unique subassemblies as well as 20 top-level final integrated products. This client was originally manufacturing internally, but decided to outsource system and sub-level assembly for one of their major programs. ACDi had to work very closely with the client to transfer critical data, product files, BOMs, test data, production-build instructions and knowledge, as well as transfer a significant amount of customer-owned inventory for consumption and until alternate sources could be established and material received. Given the scope of the client’s program, ongoing communication was essential. She was instrumental in the coordination of operations and management for both companies to manage materials, purchasing, material authorization—as well as addressing minimum ordering quantities, long-lead time/obsolescence issues and shipment schedules.
As an electronics engineer and project manager, Amy is an expert problem solver and loves a challenge. She was recently was faced with a challenge presented by a client that required production of a printed circuit board assembly without any documentation. The client wanted to supply the bare boards along with the material but was not able to provide a set of Gerber files or a BOM. The only documentation the client was able to provide was a schematic. Working with the engineering support team at ACDi, Amy was able to locate a supplier that could take the bare board and scan it to create a top and bottom layer of a Gerber file. The schematic file was then used by ACDi to create a BOM. Not only was the client’s delivery date met, but a documentation package was able to be created for any future build requirements.
If you are looking for a project manager like Amy to help you with your EMS projects, contact ACDi to learn more.