An expert in harsh environment electronics for more than seven decades,” is perhaps the best way to describe Riverside Mfg. Founded in 1947, the company specializes in manufacturing high quality and reliable custom electronic solutions and products to a broad range of customers. Riverside’s prominent position in the industry is the result of its exceptional in-house capabilities that comprise product development, PCB assembly, electronics assembly, industrial labels, instrumentation, and metal fabrication.

Riverside Mfg. is a Fort Wayne, IN-based leading electrical and electronic design and manufacturing shop with additional facilities in Sydney, OH; Chesterfield, MI; and North Stonington, CT (the latter under the trade name Faria Beede Instruments). “By aggregating these facilities, we have compiled a multitude of unrivalled manufacturing capabilities specifically targeted towards enhancing harsh environment electronic assembly,” says Scott Maddox, the President of Riverside Mfg. Unlike others, they perform the key aspects of electronics manufacturing—PCB assembly, injection and over mold, metal stamping and forming, wire harness assembly, printing and labeling, and final assembly/ test—in house to ensure the integrity of products.

What gives Riverside Mfg an edge over the competition is its ability to offer both manufacturing and full-service product design under one roof. “Targeted vertical integration of manufacturing capabilities, coupled with a broad and deep product design capability provides for an extremely versatile one-stop shop for our customers,” mentions Maddox. “Our design capabilities comprise the mechanical and electrical engineering to support digital, analog, and RF system designs over a wide range of products from time-of-flight sensors to android-based display systems, including the software to power them.” In addition, the company offers a line of robust telematics products that are specifically designed to track and control marine assets via cell phone, Wi-Fi, and satellite links.

In a nutshell, Riverside Mfg designs, manufactures, supplies, and services products that consistently exceed its customers’ requirements.

With such a powerful line of capabilities, Riverside Mfg serves a multitude of industry verticals that encompass military, food service, recreational marine and workboats, agriculture, emergency vehicles, home security, utility, delivery vehicles, mining and construction. Most organizations today are realizing the disruptions in supply chain that lead to increased lead times and costs as well as part unavailability. To this end, the company works with clients to help them obtain executable extended forecasts, identify alternate solutions/parts (through a multi-disciplined engineering team), and in some cases, share the inventory investment with them. “Flexibility is going to win the day at the moment and we excel in this aspect,” adds Maddox.

Riverside Mfg recently collaborated with a firm that approached it to redesign and rebuild one of their existing control boxes designed with outdated and hard to find componentry. Being manufactured offshore, they lost much of the documentation regarding the construct of these devices and were beholden to their current supplier. Riverside Mfg’s team started working with the client to determine the requirements of their system. Using their Stage-Gate product development process Riverside was able to create a fresh design for the customer that modernized their hardware. The resultant product not only had fresh components, but also was substantially less expensive and more reliable. This was a win-win as the client now can control their product, save money, and shorten the supply chain by working with a trusted supplier in the United States.

Such success stories stem from dedication to continually improving its products, processes, and quality management systems. Moving ahead, the company is constantly looking for ways to augment their tool set to enhance their reputation as a premiere electronic systems provider. “With innovation embedded in our DNA, we are planning to bring in the power of AI additive process control in our new PCBA manufacturing operation to significantly increase our capabilities, and improve quality.” concludes Maddox.