We are in the world of electronic products, and they are in all things: smartphones and computers, cars and health equipment. But the question arises; Who makes these complicated gadgets? Although the credit goes to the major brands such as Apple or Samsung, a significant portion of the actual manufacturing is done behind the scenes with the use of contract electronic manufacturing services.
Contract electronic manufacturing has been central to the current electronics manufacturing, allowing companies to develop innovative products at a cheaper cost and quicker rate. You may be a startup company with a groundbreaking idea or an established business organization that intends to scale production, it is possible that knowing how these services operate is the difference between success and failure in the current competitive business environment.
What Do You Understand By Contract Electronic Manufacturing Services?
They are businesses that deal in the manufacturing of electronic components and finished products on behalf of other businesses. Instead of keeping their manufacturing plants, they rent the services of the established manufacturers who possess the knowledge, equipment and capacity of producing electronics at mass.
Such services usually cover the lifecycle of the product, including its initial design and prototyping stage, and later full-sized production and after-sale services. The EMS providers are strategic partners, as they assist firms to sail through the harsh electronic manufacturing world without having to invest excessive capital in establishing their own manufacturing facilities.
The Reasons Why Contract Electronic Manufacturing Services Are Important
Economical-ness and Capital Conservation
The construction and operation of an electronics manufacturing facility is costly in terms of a large initial investment in special equipment, clean rooms, and highly trained staff. This capital requirement is a big hindrance to product deliveries to the market to most companies, mainly startups and medium sized businesses.
Contract manufacturing removes this obstacle by sharing the cost of manufacturing infrastructure with a number of clients. Business firms are able to tap into global production facilities without the huge capital investment and use the cash flow to develop their products, do advertising and business expansion programs.
The economies of scale realized by the EMS providers are also converted into reduced costs per unit to the clients. Contract manufacturers have the advantage of negotiating lower component costs, making use of equipment more efficiently, and distributing fixed costs over greater production volumes by manufacturing products under a variety of brands and for more than one company.
Availability of Specialized skills
Manufacturing of electronics is a specialized knowledge which only takes years to build. The cost of an in-house manufacturing learning curve can be costly and challenging to surmount, with the complexity of the associated regulatory environment (as well as the intricacy of the various soldering methods) being potential pitfalls on the path to full mastery.
EMS providers use a pool of senior engineers, technicians, and quality experts that have resolved comparable issues in a variety of projects and industries. This built-up experience assists clients in not committing the usual mistakes and being on the best practice at the earliest stage.
Extensibility and Versatility
The demand of electronics in the market may be extremely unpredictable, and fluctuations between seasons, changes in the lifecycle of the products, and sudden virus hits bring challenges to planning production. The ability of the contract manufacturers to increase or reduce production as needed depending on the actual demand eliminates the fixed costs of unused capacity.
This scalability is especially useful with new products that are being introduced to the market by a company and an initial demand can be unpredictable. A contract manufacturer would enable making the initial production runs small with the possibility of producing large quantities within a short time frame in case the product performs well in the market.
Faster Time-to-Market
Competitive electronics markets can be characterized by the speed at which success is achieved. Using their existing infrastructure, supplier relationships, and expertise in production, EMS providers are in a position to save a lot of time-to-market. Instead of having to take months or years to develop manufacturing capabilities, firms can directly proceed to product development to product.
The timelines are also accelerated by the parallel development method that is facilitated by the EMS partnerships. As the client is busy with the completion of the product features and launch preparation, the contract manufacturer can at the same time streamline the production processes, identify suppliers and tooling preparation.
Selecting the appropriate EMS Partner
Experience and Specialization in the industry
Various electronic products call for various manufacturing strategies & regulatory conformity. The quality systems required in medical devices are unlike those of consumer electronics and those of automotive use have special environmental and reliability needs. The choice of an EMS provider who has an experience in the industry is a guarantee that he/she is aware of these particular challenges and requirements.
Locate the providers who can showcase successful projects in your industry, certifications, and awareness of the appropriate regulations. They have current relationships with their component suppliers and commonly have knowledge of industry specific testing needs which can greatly simplify your production process.
Production Strength and Production Capacity
Determine the technical capabilities of the potential partners to make sure that they are capable of handling the specific needs of your product. Take into account such aspects as minimum and maximum order quantity, types of technologies of assembly, possibilities of testing, geographical location of plants.
The ability of the provider and its flexibility to plan capacity also plays a great role. Is it able to meet your estimated volume growth? How do they cope with the demand fluctuation? Learning how they handle capacity management would be useful in ensuring that they are able to sustain your business as it grows.
Quality Systems and Certifications
The quality control processes are not similar across EMS providers. Check their quality management process, testing process, and track record in supplying defect free products. Certificates such as ISO 9001, ISO 13485, or IPC-A-610 used by industry also are good indicators of their adherence to quality standards.
Do not simply check on the certifications on the paper, visit the facilities of potential partners in case they can see the quality processes themselves. How well the working areas are cleaned, how their stocks are arranged, and how much detail is paid to the operations are likely to show how well you can perform in your products.
Conclusion
The contract electronic manufacturing services have only progressed beyond just assembly operations to having strategic alliances that help enable innovation in myriad of industries. With increasingly more and more sophisticated electronics and increasingly competitive markets, the flexibility and skill of EMS partners gets all the more useful.
To the companies which are thinking about contract manufacturing, the judgment usually goes down to concentration: can you put in resources into manufacturing expertise or would it be more valuable to put in resources into product innovative, market development and customer relationships? The most prosperous companies realize that excellence in manufacturing needs specific attention and specific skills. Through collaboration with established EMS providers, they will be able to have access to the global level of production at the same time not losing concentration on their core business competencies. Whether you need to develop your first electronic product or simply streamline an already existing manufacturing strategy, contract electronic manufacturing services will provide a proven way of introducing new products in the market in an efficient and cost-effective way.
