ATLANTA - UP Media Group Inc. today announced the winners of its 2005 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers and Electronics Assembly Equipment, Materials and Software suppliers. Circuits Assembly magazine recognized the companies that received the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers, during a ceremony at the Apex trade show in Anaheim, CA.

In the EMS category, the overall winners were Plexus Corp. (for companies with revenues over $500 million); Reptron Manufacturing Services and Creation Technologies (revenues between $100 and $500 million); and Key Electronics (revenues less than $100 million).

Also receiving awards were EMS companies with the highest scores in each of five individual service categories. (The overall winners were excluded from winning individual categories.) In the small-company category, Texas Prototypes won for dependability/timely delivery, responsiveness and value. It also tied for the manufacturing quality award with APSCO. APSCO also tied with MassTech EMS in the technology category.  In the medium-company category, Sparton Electronics had the highest scores in all five categories. 

Electronics assembly equipment award winners were: Asymtek for dispensing; Assembléon for pick-and-place; DEK for screen printing; VJ Electronix for rework/repair; and Feinfocus for test and inspection. EFD Inc. won the electronics assembly materials suppliers award in the solder paste category. Aegis Industrial Software Corp. received top honors in the manufacturing/supply chain management software category. 
 
The customers of the SEA participants rated each company on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories.

A donation of $5,000 was made on the participants' behalf to the Surface Mount Technology Association's Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. Part of each participant's entry fee was included in the donation.

This is the 13^th year Circuits Assembly has sponsored the awards program.

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, UP Media Group is a privately held company that specializes in magazine publishing and conference/tradeshow production. UPMG currently publishes two high-tech magazines, Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture (www.pcdandm.com) and Circuits Assembly (www.circuitsassembly.com), and one high-tech email newsletter, PCB UPdate (www.pcbupdate.com). UPMG produces PCB Design Conference West (www.pcbwest.com) in the Silicon Valley area each spring and PCB Design Conference East (www.pcbeast.com) in the Boston area each autumn. UPMG also is a sponsor of the "Deadline to Lead-Free" seminar series, which is being held in cities throughout the U.S. during 2005 (www.pcbshows.com/leadfree).