The role of the UK’s electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers is changing in response to globalisation explains Andrew Cox, managing director TT electronic manufacturing services Limited (TTems).
The move to offshore manufacturing to lower assembly costs is with us for the foreseeable future. However this does not spell the end of UK manufacturing and EMS providers based in the UK must be able to offer their customers the best solution to meet their requirements. Many UK manufacturers are seeing their businesses flourish, having recognised this requirement and developing a business strategy to fit. By modelling their businesses and becoming specialist manufacturers, be that within a particular market, field or technical area, it has enabled them to offer cost effective solutions to meet their customers’ needs.
For a EMS provider to compete they need to look at overall efficiency though the complete manufacturing process from design to procurement to logistics. There are many benefits to manufacturing in the UK for their customers. At TTems we have developed lean manufacturing and six sigma principles that relate to the business as a whole, adopted with the objective of eliminating waste and variation throughout all operations – from design to manufacturing, and supply chain management to customer service. TTems provides ongoing training for its operators, engineers and management to ensure that there is an awareness of lean and six sigma practices throughout the organisation, not just within a few isolated projects.
Installing principles such as these means that for many customers keeping
production in the UK makes good economic sense. However, in some circumstances
production size or project simplicity makes moving production offshore inevitable.
At TTems we have approached this challenge by working in partnership with
customers to identify where it makes good commercial sense to continue to
provide services from our recently expanded facilities in the UK and when
they would be better served offshore. In each case we will assess volumes
of products, and take into consideration the geographical implications of
procuring components and materials and shipping the end products.
For low to medium volumes it continues to make commercial sense to manufacture
in the UK, whereas for high-volume products customers require the economies
of offshore manufacturing. TTems is perhaps unlike many other UK based EMS
providers in that it runs its own offshore operations with a UK based customer
programme management team. We develop the processes in the UK, including production
engineering, test and quality engineering, purchasing, materials and logistics
control. These are then ready for controlled migration by the established
UK team to our production facilities in Malaysia and China.
This approach gives our customers the advantage of single sourcing their
manufacturing at the right price and the assurance of the quality they would
expect of a UK EMS provider with the economies of offshore manufacture.
Globalisation has created many challenges for the UK EMS market. We need to
be flexible and responsive in order to meet the demands and deliver benefits
to customers. Offering a well managed programme and enabling single-sourced
manufacturing is a positive solution, where both the manufacturer and customer
can respond to globalisation and collectively share the benefits.
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