Design assistance, assembly, bonding, coating, cleaning, marking, kitting, packaging, inventory, and delivery programs that move work off the customer line.
IRD reviews tolerances, finishes, packaging, inventory control, point-of-use conditions, and production volume before the process is released — not after the component has already been made. For a new design that review is free of charge.
Value is measured at the customer line: fewer vendors, fewer touches, less incoming work, and a process that arrives in the required package.
Every step moved to IRD is one fewer supplier interface, one fewer incoming inspection, and one fewer place for a specification to drift.
Material, geometry, tolerance, finish, coating, assembly, packaging, inventory control, point-of-use conditions, and volume reviewed before tooling and process decisions lock in.
No cost on a new design
Simple and complex optical assemblies, adhesive and optical contact bonding, and custom thin-film coating completed alongside the components that define their performance.
Parts cleaned, identified, grouped, and packaged around point-of-use requirements, so what arrives at your line is ready to use rather than ready to process.
KanBan, just-in-time, and vendor-managed inventory replenishment with custom packaging, aligned to demand so the line receives the right quantity in the right condition.
A multinational electronic components manufacturer needed what looked like a simple product for a high-production automotive component. It turned out to require a material with a very specific thermal expansion rate and strong chemical resistance to aggressive solvents. IRD incorporated a proprietary process that met the stringent specifications while accommodating multi-million-per-year volumes, then developed and implemented a custom automated optical inspection system so per-piece quality could be verified at that rate. The program currently ships five million parts a year with plans to ramp to eight million. The customer has not been able to source a comparable part at an equal or lower cost anywhere else on the planet, and IRD remains sole-source provider for the family of components.
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Outsourcing a step only pays if the step arrives correct. These are the controls that make added scope reduce your risk instead of adding to it.
IRD's system is built on small dedicated teams, each responsible for the entire lifecycle of a component — ordering the raw material, manufacturing, final inspection, and shipping. IRD names this as its defence against spec creep: the drift between what the drawing says and what the part actually becomes over time.
A dedicated New Product Cell develops and improves new and existing processes, which is what lets prototypes turn around quickly and lets a customer identify a solution and begin production without waiting for a production cell to free up.
The stated philosophy is to build quality into each operation instead of sorting for it at the end, supported by ongoing investment in custom automation to reduce manufacturing cost, more effective polishing to increase yield, and higher-precision inspection.
Honeywell has issued IRD a Certificate for Exceptional Quality Performance for zero PPM defects over twelve monthsKanBan, just-in-time, and vendor-managed inventory delivery, with custom packaging and point-of-use kitting, move inventory cost and handling off the customer's balance sheet and out of its incoming process.
Services are scoped around the finished deliverable. Define what IRD should own and what acceptance evidence must travel with it.
| Attribute | Typical | Best case | Application note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design review | Print + requirements | Application context included | Material, tolerance, coating, assembly, packaging |
| Production support | Low volume | Multi-million per year | Cell and inventory plan scale with demand |
| Assembly | Simple | Complex | Optical and mechanical subassemblies |
| Inspection | Sampling plan | Per-piece automated | Custom AOI where the rate demands it |
| Delivery | Bulk packaged | KanBan / JIT / VMI | Cleaning, marking, kitting, and replenishment |
This table describes the scope IRD can take on, not a fixed service catalog. What is worth outsourcing depends on your volume, your incoming process, and where the defects actually originate — which is the first thing the design review looks at. Every program is scoped and quoted individually.
By owning more of the route, IRD reduces supplier handoffs, incoming operations, packaging changes, and the variation created when each step is optimised in isolation. It has become a single-source supplier to industry leaders including Honeywell by reducing cycle time, reducing variation, and eliminating defects and waste.
The IRD AdvantageUse these lists to frame the first review. The drawing, environment, performance requirement, inspection method, and volume determine the final route.
A web page is hard to attach to a review packet. These are IRD's own published technical documents on the questions this page raises.
IRD's applications team on the information that makes a quote accurate the first time, and the omissions that cause a requote.
RecordingTechnical articleHow a component drifts from its drawing over time, and why IRD's cell-based system — one small team owning raw material through shipping — is the structural answer rather than a procedural one.
ArticleTechnical articleWhat cell-based production actually changes day to day, including the dedicated New Product Cell that exists so prototypes and process improvements do not queue behind production work.
ArticleThe finished component often crosses product categories. These pages cover the nearest materials, processes, and program contexts.
Tell IRD what should leave your line: the component, the operations you currently perform on arrival, the packaging and kitting your point of use needs, the replenishment model, annual volume and schedule, and the acceptance evidence that has to travel with the parts. For a new design, the technical team runs a no-cost Design for Manufacturability review before quoting, then estimates prototype and production volumes separately.
Or call 320.693.7217. If most of your cost sits in incoming inspection rather than in the part, say so — that is usually where the first conversation should start.