Avnet Electronics Marketing's Programming Centre Receives Key Automotive Quality Certification

Compliance with ISO/TS 16949 Standard for Automotive Industry Opens Up Major

Opportunities for Device Programming in Rapidly Growing Sector

SINGAPORE, Sept. 16 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Avnet Electronics Marketing, the largest operating group of Avnet Inc , has announced that the company's Programming Centre in Singapore, has been awarded ISO/TS 16949 certification by the Lloyds Register of Quality Assurance (LRQA), one of the world's most experienced organisations in helping customers use management systems to improve their businesses.

ISO/TS 16949 is a technical specification for automotive supplier quality system requirements. It was developed jointly by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF), an ad-hoc group of major North American and European motor manufacturers and their respective trade associations, and ISO/TS 176, the technical committee responsible for the ISO 9000 family of standards.

For Avnet Electronics Marketing, compliance to this standard opens up a major opportunity to increase its market share in device programming for the automotive sector, and will enable the company to build on its existing expertise which includes programming devices at the Centre.

"The ISO/TS 16949 quality standard has been hailed by many as the future for the automotive sector because it harmonises the quality system requirements of most of the world's largest automotive manufacturers. This is set to provide significant benefits to those companies supplying them," said Louis Lam, vice president of logistics, operations and IT at Avnet Electronics Marketing. "

Established in 1985 by the internationally renowned Lloyd's Register, LRQA pioneered the modern day principles of quality assurance, and is now acknowledged worldwide for reliability, integrity and innovation. As a leader in the automotive field, LRQA is one of a select few recognised by the IATF to provide this certification.

"The ISO/TS 16949 standard is a quality management system specifically for the automotive sector," said Mr. Lam. "Without possessing this standard, companies cannot perform value-added services like device programming for automotive products.

"We are extremely pleased to have received this important accreditation. It means that our people are certified to handle the rigorous requirements and procedures of the automotive industry, and with this sector growing so rapidly in the region, we are very optimistic that many more embedded IC producers will want us to program their devices too."

Avnet Electronics Marketing's programming service turns programmable components into customised devices for specific applications -- whether they are for small prototype quantities or volume production needs.

Avnet Electronic Marketing's global infrastructure provides customers with support from any part of the world. The company opened its Singapore Programming Centre (PC) in 2001 with a primary role to program ICs in devices for products in all industrial segments. The Singapore programming centre employs about 40 staff. In addition, the company operates PCs in Shanghai, Hong Kong, North America, Mexico and Europe.

About Avnet

Avnet, Inc., enables success from the centre of the technology industry, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 300 suppliers. The company markets, distributes and adds value to a wide variety of electronic components, enterprise computer products and embedded subsystems. Through its premier market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities that help its trading partners accelerate growth and realise cost efficiencies. Avnet Inc, a Fortune 500 company, is one of the world's largest technology marketing, distribution and services companies. Avnet and recently acquired company, Memec, generated combined revenue in excess of US$13 billion in the past year through sales in 68 countries. Avnet is continuously adding more than US$100m of capital investment into Asia every year to support the strong growth of its customers' and suppliers' business.

Avnet Electronics Marketing is the largest operating group of Avnet Inc, serving a wide range of customers including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers, and small-to-medium customers in 68 countries, distributing electronic components from leading manufacturers and providing associated design-chain and supply-chain services. The company's web site is located at http://www.em.avnet.com/ .