Field Reports

About fifteen years ago we received a request from one of our customers, a prominent aerospace and defense manufacturer, for a flexible cable connecting their pilots’ helmets to the Aircraft controls. The cable would need to support all the required functions, without inhibiting the pilot’s freedom of movement, and would remain effective and flexible over an extended period of over 10 years of usage.
We contacted suppliers and surveyed the alternatives available in the market together with our customer, created mock-ups, tested for effectiveness and resilience and finally selected a suitable solution from a supplier in the US.
A while later we received a new request from our customer, who, in order to abide by regulatory requirements, needed to increase local content in his project and to eliminate the dependence on US export license conditions. With the cooperation of the supplier, we managed to source suitable sub-components and thus become the design house for the helmet interconnect solutions. This improved time-to-market significantly as it increased the speed of design and delivery of the pilot helmets and it also enabled the addition of new elements to the design for our customer. In addition, we began to develop a range of solutions based around this application, gathering know-how, tools and additional materials and even finding some new applications for the cable.
This anecdote illustrates a common pattern in our business, where our customers’ engineers have come across a problem that is not yet sufficiently defined and processed in order to be handed over to their procurement department. Our business begins at the point where a customer becomes aware of a problem, and does not know how to solve it. It is still an engineering problem, not yet a procurement or a manufacturing task.
Ray-Q has developed high trust relationships with customers and suppliers due to our ability to provide them with added technical value through problem solving and optimization of the proper interconnect solutions.

Ray-Q is the in-house harness fabricator for all major Israeli large UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) manufacturers. A Ray-Q customer, a prominent aerospace manufacturer was contracted to supply Unmanned Aerial Systems including drones and ground-based control stations to a European country within a very tight delivery schedule of 5 months. The project required the detailed design and manufacture of highly complex UAV harnesses.
The complexity of the task and the extremely tight deadline demanded a unique relationship between Ray-Q and the manufacturer. There was no time for negotiating contracts or for placing orders. All stages, from design, through procurement and manufacturing, had to be carried out in parallel. This was a classic example of “The Speed of Trust” (see Steven M.R. Covey).
We set up ad hoc teams, in constant contact with our customer, comprised mainly of our staff who already had well developed relationships with the customer. Our teams focused on anticipating problems ahead of time, while in parallel our procurement department worked day and night, interfacing with suppliers of long lead time items making sure the components would not become show-stoppers.
We cut out the bureaucracy in our business relationship on this project, eliminating the need for bidding, placing orders, contracts, and lengthy negotiations. Instead, we were able to say: “We respect each other’s capabilities and expertise and we will work together to succeed. We trust each other, that we will deliver the goods, on time, on quality, in accordance with the specs, and that you will pay us a fair price, and on time. Both of us recognise the challenges. We will solve any problems that may arise, together. “
The systems were indeed delivered on time, on quality, according to the specs and on budget. Today we have similar projects on the table.

One is not accustomed to saying that “listening” is an essential skill for engineers. Usually listening skills are attributed to therapists. Our engineers are problem solvers and as such, listening skills are at the top of their list.
Ray-Q engineers are chosen for their desire and ability to learn. Engineers may be trained academically or through hands-on practical experience. Many of our team members have gathered valuable experience in technological units in the Israeli army.
A Ray-Q field application engineer was attending a meeting in a customer’s lab and one of the participants happened to mention, in passing that they were having difficulty finding a suitable joystick for controlling an autonomic vehicle.
At that time Ray-Q had no joysticks in its portfolio of solutions.
Our “listening engineer”, came back to the office and began to research the need, the range, the various specifications and the availability of joysticks.
He found a supplier who was not represented in Israel and who manufactures a Joystick with the suitable properties. We adapted the Joystick to suit the customer’s needs, changing button functions, adding a backlighting function and supplied it to the customer.
We listen to our customers and gain a deep and systemic understanding of their problems and their needs. This guides our quest to find the right solutions.