UK: BEST FACTORIES AWARDS 1994 - BEST FACTORY IN LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST SPONSORED BY MSPL; SPEEDBOARD.

Speedboard is in the business of supplying prototype printed circuit boards to electronics companies. Few factories have to meet such a demanding timetable. 'The first we know of an order might be a motorcycle courier arriving with the drawings,' says technical and manufacturing director Glyn Thurston. The finished circuit boards produced from those drawings could have to be on their way back to the customer 48 hours later.

The company was founded by Thurston and co-director John Verity in 1984, following the closure of the business that employed them. 'Not having a job to go to on Monday morning rather focused the mind,' remarks Verity. Speedboard itself is nothing if not focused. Thurston concentrates wholly on producing circuit boards - from simple single-sided ones to complex 24-layer 'sandwiches' whose copper tracks are built up through repeated photo-etching. Verity is the strategist and finance man who ensures that the money is there to supply Thurston's considerable equipment needs.

Capital expenditure is budgeted at 25% of turnover. The founders vacated their original 2,500 sq.ft premises in 1989, when they moved into the present 10,000 sq.ft industrial unit in Windsor. Last year this was extended by a further 6,500 sq.ft, yet it is scarcely big enough to accommodate all the fruits of past investment. A lot of machinery is duplicated, because 'in this business you can't suffer a breakdown'. Key pieces of handling equipment were designed in-house. So was the software which guides the manufacture of boards from the estimating stage right through to machine-by-machine routing around the factory.