ATLANTA – Beginning Oct. 17, Circuits Assembly seeks participants for its annual Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for EMS providers and electronics assembly equipment, material and software suppliers. 
 
The SEAs honor companies in electronics manufacturing for excelling in the critical area of customer service, allowing participants to benchmark customer service against their peers.
 
“Across the entire industry, the SEAs are the only quantifiable, research-backed program where one’s capabilities are judged by their own customers,” says Circuits Assembly editor in-chief Mike Buetow.
 
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; $100 million to $500 million, and $500 million or more) 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), and manufacturing or supply chain management software.
 
Circuits Assembly will honor winners during the Apex trade show on March 31, 2008. Proceeds from the program help fund the SMTA's Charles Hutchins Educational Grant.
 
For more information, visit www.circuitsassembly.com/sea. The deadline to enter is Nov. 20.