09-06-2020 Devon Wright
As we look at the current global landscape, we see quite a bit of conversation about the status quo when it comes to manufacturing and product supply chains. There are many legitimate concerns about where products are made and where the supply chain leads. In general, it’s not something we have paid attention to as we just go to Target or Costco and buy what we need from a consumer standpoint. However, as we also have seen, these things can fall apart quickly when those global supply chains are disrupted. When it comes to critical business infrastructure, however, we must take a closer look at the impact. When building out a project for the government, or a large enterprise that they need to ensure things like business continuity… it’s critical that we understand where products come from and the steps that are involved in getting them to us.
Jupiter Systems is a US-based company that does ALL software and hardware development and manufacturing in the US. All design documents, all source code is created and securely stored in the US. This is a critical factor for government tenders as there are often stipulations to this effect. In addition, they are fully TAA compliant meaning that you can have full confidence that it was 100% made in the US. All of these are things that Jupiter has been doing throughout their entire history. Even during the current COVID-19 crisis and the shutdown of supply chains and shelter-in-place orders, with our local presence, and local supply chain, Jupiter has not skipped a beat in delivering critical products or support essential businesses.
One of the things that are less known about Jupiter but need to be well understood is the extraordinary steps we go to in order to ensure product reliability for all systems. Our production floor is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Additionally, Jupiter goes to extremes by testing every system that leaves the building. While some of the things they do are also done by others in the industry; things like a burn-in chamber to temperature test products at both high and low temperatures, final testing of completed products and in-depth tracking systems for every part, the fact that Jupiter does this to every single product is not as common. What is even less common is that we test every outgoing product in the configuration for which it was ordered. This means that if a system has 96 outputs, it will be tested while hooked up to 96 monitors! This step cannot be overemphasized enough! This is a costly QA step that in most cases shows no issues. But when I am building a system at a client site, the fact that the system has already been fully tested greatly reduces the risk of DOA components, full system throughput, or some other issue. Knowing that every I/O was tested provides greater confidence in that system.
You trust your manufacturer partners to deliver a solid product and stand behind it. To confidently deliver systems to your clients, you need to take a look under the hood to see how much work manufacturers put into it. We can get products from anywhere, but in times of crisis, don’t you want to be confident that they will be able to support you and not run into the issues a company with a global supply chain might face? This is how Jupiter has done business for the last 35+ years… and how we will continue to do business in the future!