Electronics manufacturing service providers

Assembly Requirements. The assembly engineers, whether contract Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider, independent original design manufacturer (ODM), or captive OEM, have requirements that are very different from those of the PCB fabrication... 

An electronics manufacturer had 400 transportation providers within its United States distribution network. Only 42 carriers delivered 98% of the volume. Of this select group. United Parcel Service was the primary carrier handling outbound ground movements, inbound shipments, ruid less-than-truckload freight to their customers or from suppliers. Due to either the physiceil product or package constraints, there were few exceptions that prevented them from having a minimum number of carriers within their distribution network. That network consisted of two plants (Syracuse, NY, euid Srilt Lake City, UT) and four distribution centers (Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, and San lose, CA). 

Flextronics International has excelled as a contract manufacturer for electronics that included cell phones. As it worked on contracted volumes, it was sheltered from market uncertainties and had ample opportunity to stand out in its internal capabilities. In early 2000s, it decided to compete as an ODM (original design and manufacture), that required it to assess customers preferences, design appropriate features in the cell phone so as to satisfy the customer, manufacture it, and sell it to a service provider through an OEM (Huckman and Pisano 2006). In doing so, it had to develop the customer facing capabilities of market-analysis and development of product architecture. In addition, it was now exposed to the market side risk in price and sales volume. The transition was successful, as the company took care to build the additional capabilities. 

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