ATLANTA – Beginning Sept. 14, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY seeks participants for its annual Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for EMS providers and electronics assembly equipment, material and software suppliers.

Now in its 19th year, the SEAs honor companies in electronics manufacturing for excelling in the critical area of customer service, permitting participants to benchmark customer service against their peers. It is the only industry awards program that uses direct customer feedback to determine best-in-class.
 
“Winning the SEA means your customers think you’re the best among your peers,” says CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY editor in-chief Mike Buetow. “There simply is no recognition better received by customers than the SEAs.”
 
Customers are surveyed to determine a participating company's level of customer satisfaction in various categories, including dependability/timely delivery; ease of use; manufacturing quality; responsiveness to requests and changes; technology, and value for the price. All customer responses and ratings are tabulated by a third party and provided in a confidential report to the participating company.
 
The SEAs recognize four categories of EMS providers based on revenues (under $20 million; $20 million to $100 million; $101 million to $500 million, and over $500 million), and the following categories of suppliers: automation and handling equipment; cleaning processing or materials; device programming equipment; dispensing; pick-and-place; repair and rework; screen printing; test and inspection; materials (solder paste); soldering equipment; automation/manufacturing software (not ERP/MRP), and supply-chain/ERP/MRP software.
 
CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY will honor winners during the Apex trade show on April 12, 2011. Proceeds from the program help fund the SMTA's Charles Hutchins Educational Grant.
 
For more information, visit http://www.circuitsassembly.com/cms/sea-award. The deadline to enter is Nov. 12, 2010.