This Article was published  in the December 2001 issue of Manufacturing Market Insider.

Although the downturn has crushed many a growth plan, one company -- Able Electronics (Hayward, CA) -- expects to approach its original projection for its fiscal year ending March 2002. And that projection called for growth of 50%+.

"I'm still holding firm that we will be close to the 50% revenue growth on our year-to-year performance," declares Peter Dennis, Able's president and COO. "And we see sequential quarter-to-quarter growth."

But Dennis points out that Able has been affected by the downturn. Not that the company has lost any customers, but there have been slowdowns. On the plus side, though, Able has succeeded in adding some four new customers over the last four or five months. Counting new business that Able expects to land will "pretty much put us where we need to be," says Dennis.

In addition, Able recently announced two program wins from existing customers. The company has been selected by TrueTime (Santa Rosa, CA) to manufacture timing and frequency products used in mission critical applications such as network synchronization. In the second case, Able was chosen to manufacture boards for a protein sequencer and a genetic analyzer from Applied Biosystems (Foster City, CA), a division of Applera Corp.

Dennis reports Able has been winning new customers at a rate of over 80%. The company attributes this success in large part to its model. That model involves offering an end-to-end solution through cable assembly, sheet-metal attachment, final assembly, functional testing, packout and order fulfillment. The idea is to provide front- to back-end services for smaller OEMs.

What's more, Able has increased the level of vertical integration that it can provide. Not only does the provider handle cable assembly in house, it recently started up a sheet metal cell with Amada equipment for low- to medium-volume work.

Able distinguishes itself from a tier-four or -five contractor that is merely interested in bidding on board assembly jobs. For Able, the goal is to add value for the customer base. "It's not about getting an order. It's about becoming a partner," says Dennis.

Another factor in Able's win rate is its proprietary, realtime customer tracking and reporting system called AbleTrax. This system allows customer to instantly check manufacturing status and delivery schedules 24/7. They can also access other data such as shipments, orders, liability, yields, backlogs and POs.

Founded in 1988, Able was acquired by GET Manufacturing in 1997 and relaunched in 1999 after GET was acquired by Jabil Circuit. Then in early 2000, Able started a greenfield operation in Tijuana, Mexico, followed by a move to a new 135,000-ft facility in Hayward, CA, in the fall of last year. The company also has an alliance for manufacturing in China.

Privately held Able is nearing the $50-million level in annual sales. It serves OEMs in telecom, test and measurement, medical instruments, computer peripherals, industrial controls, and genetic research.