BEGINNING WITH THIS ISSUE, SYMBOL-ISMS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN BOTH ENGLISH AND SPANISH! EN ESPAÑOL: AQUÍ

Employee of the Month by Liz Siete

Lucia Ruiz Noyola - Lucia has been a Spectra Symbol team member since February 11, 2020. Since her recent 3 years with us, she has been very helpful in all the production lines. Her attention to quality has helped tremendously in printing, SMT line, Inventory, the White Room and in Line 1 and 3. Her time spent on the SMT line and White Room has grown her experience in helping others understand the process and during training sessions. We appreciate your hard work, while also being a fun team member to work with. For those who have had the time to work along her side and get to know her, she brings her funny humor and can always joke around. Thank you for being you, we wouldn't want it any other way!

CEO's Message By David marriott

As the new CEO, I was asked recently, "what is the one thing that would help the company most?" After some thought, I came to the conclusion that it would be for every person in the company to know how all their actions affect Spectra's profits and then steadily change those actions to improve profits.

With that one mindset, we would become the best sensor technology company in existence. Our quality would improve, our customers would be happier, and we would all make better bonuses. I believe that we would be happier at work as we would see more wins and feel more sense of accomplishment. It would be the thing that would jump us ahead of our competitors and establish us as the best place to get sensors.

Considering that this is the most important thing we can do, the invitation is to look at all the actions you take each day and consider how you could change them slightly to make better profit. Then when you've made those changes, take another look and make some more.

I'm excited about where we are going as a company. I also know that we have the best people and that is why we will succeed!

Thank you all,

David Marriott

Retiring - Yvonne Padilla by Liz Siete

Yvonne has been a part of Spectra Symbol since May 20, 2002. 20 years of being one of the few people to work the spartanic machine like a boss! Some may refer to her as the Queen of the Spartanic Machine. You have left quite a large shoe to fill! We can all agree that this machine only likes you. It will be difficult to train another to your speed. My only wish is that you shared some secrets among us to carry on your legacy.

One of your many great qualities that we will also miss is your willingness to learn new skills. It has helped tremendously to cross train everyone! You're a great asset to the printing team. Not only by the spartanic machine, but your ability to tear down and clean screens really well. You're always checking on our quality, bringing awareness to your team so we can fix the root cause. Thank you for providing so much to our team with a great attitude!

We understand that it's time to relax, and what better way to spend it than with your amazing grandkids, family, and watching your favorite team. (Go Broncos!)

Thank you for sticking with us for so many years! Congratulations on a wonderful career, creating one of our biggest legacies, and best wishes for the next phase-it has been our pleasure to know you and to work with you.

birthdays

2 Mar Lerng Thannao

3 Mar Martha Ocegueda

6 Mar Alfonso Rei

15 Mar Ed Lore

17 Mar Keydi Bustillos

21 Mar Guadalupe Pena

23 Mar Jose Landeros

Hire date anniversaries

4 Years (11 Mar) Mariela Camba

4 Years (18 Mar) Eyni Lopez Garcia

3 Years (2 Mar) Benjamin Atkinson

3 Years (2 Mar) Tyrel Hardmen

2 Years (8 Mar) Halleck Jensen

2 Years (9 Mar) Martha Ocegueda

2 Years (16 Mar) Veronica Ramirez

2 Years (22 Mar) Vanessa Meas

1 Year (28 Mar) Isabel Avalos

1 Year (30 Mar) Cole Taylor

Upcoming Events

3 Mar National Employee Appreciation Day

4 Mar National Snack Day

9 Mar International Women's Day

12 Mar Daylight Savings - Spring Ahead 1 Hour

14 Mar National Pi Day (not a typo)

17 Mar St. Patrick's Day

19 Mar National Let's Laugh Day

22 Mar National Water Day

Important Company Events:

16 Mar Birthday Potluck

21-23 Mar Lunch & Learns (check with your department head for your specific date and time)

a-a-a-and we're live! by Joshua Park

February 15th we launched the new Spectra Symbol website which is already showing excellent potential to newly rank on Google.

However, right at the beginning of the month we also soft-launched the new Spectra Symbol Online Retail store (or web-store). It is already ranking in Google searches independently, though it is now connected to our main relaunched site so our whole situation is benefitted for online traffic!

Once we get inventory loaded into the web-store we can start selling directly to individual consumers for an incredible profit on smaller orders and test kits, etc.

The first two months we have launched things that will bring huge long term returns by expanding our brand awareness and overall audience size! Lets sell more sensors!

https://www.spectrasymbol.com

https://store.spectrasymbol.com

Product insights by Ed Lore

Ekso Bionics - p/n's 9146 & 9147

Robotic exoskeletons sound like science fiction, but Ekso Bionics is making it happen. Some of their top products are the EksoNR lower body exoskeleton for physical therapy, and a lightweight upper body exoskeleton for construction and labor.

Ekso uses Spectra Symbol’s HotPots to read movement in the EksoNR therapy device. Our sensors provide movement data to the patient and medical professionals to improve posture and health. The data is also used to assist and improve posture in patients who suffer from nerve damage. This allows patients to walk steadily without a wheelchair while they recover.

Checkout their channel on YOUTUBE

new Product Development by justin whiting

The Pot Digitizer Development Kit

How do Engineers get to know a product? Typically, by getting their hands on it and trying it out. Up to now, when Engineers wanted to test out or validate Spectra Symbol's line of sensors they had to purchase one, figure out how to hook it up, determine how they wanted to read and interpreted the signals, and then create the final application around what they had learned and put together.

I've seen all kinds of solutions to do this ranging from shoehorning the sensor into an existing design, to custom test benches with all kinds of measuring equipment, to inexpensive DIY solutions that include small microcontrollers and breadboards (see figure 1). These are all valid solutions but all of them take time to do. When developing a product with new sensors time is critical and anything Spectra Symbol can do to lessen the time and effort it takes to get designed into an end product means we can get orders into the system quicker and spend less time providing Engineering support in the front end.

Figure 1 - Arduino: an inexpensive DIY option for testing and validating a Spectra Symbol potentiometer

Enter the Pot Digitizer Development Kit (see figure 2). In March, Spectra Symbol's Engineering team will be providing the initial realease for an easy-to-connect, easy-to-test, and easy-to-integrate development kit designed to be compatible with all of Spectra Symbol's potentiometer offerings: SoftPot, HotPot, ThinPot, and MagnetoPot.

Figure 2 - 3D rendering of the Spectra Symbol Pot Digitizer Hardware, complete with a SoftPot

Once released, this development kit will be available in Spectra Symbol's online store for customers to purchase with their selection of potentiometers. With this kit, customers will be able to connect a Spectra Symbol potentiometer to a computer, via a supplied USB type C cable, and using provided software tools and/or code, easily view the output of the development kit and easily translate that into their desired format (i.e. position, an event trigger, etc.). What's great about this kit is that the customer will not have to do any programming or provide any extra hardware in order to test and validate it and they will, most likely, be able to use the provided plug-ins and code snippets in their final solution, reducing the time to market with one, or more, of our products in it. That can lead to more sales each year and more opportunities for sales.

Keep an out for development kit around mid-March!

The Great GAme of Business (G.G.O.B)

Training Bite: Higher Law #9 - "If Nobody Pays Attention, People Stop Caring"

People have to see the effects of what they do, or they won’t care. It doesn’t matter if the effects are good or bad. If people go to work every day and nobody acknowledges whether they are doing a good, bad or indifferent job, they assume no one cares. Soon they stop caring too.

Cost of Poor Quality by Justin Whiting & ChatGPT

Inspection

Inspection is often considered a cost of poor quality because it is an activity that is typically performed after a product or service has been produced or delivered, with the goal of detecting defects or non-conformances. If defects or non-conformances are detected during inspection, it means that the product or service was not produced correctly the first time, and as a result, resources (e.g. time, materials, labor) must be expended to identify and correct the problem.

In addition, inspection can also be a costly activity in itself, requiring resources such as labor, equipment, and materials, which can increase the overall cost of production or delivery.

To eliminate the cost of inspection, it is necessary to focus on preventing defects and non-conformances from occurring in the first place. This can be accomplished by implementing a robust quality management system that includes processes for identifying and addressing potential problems before they occur. For example, this might involve:

Training employees: Ensuring that all employees are trained on the proper techniques and processes for producing or delivering a high-quality product or service.
Process improvement: Continuously reviewing and improving processes to identify and eliminate potential sources of defects or non-conformances.
Root cause analysis: Conducting a thorough investigation to determine the root cause of any defects or non-conformances, and implementing corrective actions to prevent similar issues from recurring in the future.
Supplier management: Ensuring that suppliers are also held to high quality standards, and that their products or services are thoroughly vetted before being incorporated into the final product or service.

By focusing on prevention rather than detection, it is possible to significantly reduce the need for inspection, which in turn can reduce the overall cost of poor quality.

Employee Referral Bonuses

Kade Roberson - $400 (Cole hits his 1-year mark this month!)

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